NITED STATES OF AMERICA The following research study was prepared by Dr. Vannevar Bush at the request of the Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights as part of the study of the United States patent system it is conducting pursuant to Senate Resolutions 92 and 167 of the 84th Congress. Dr. Bush's study is one of a number of special studies undertaken for the subcommittee under its mandate "to conduct complete examination and review of the statutes relating to patents *** The authors of these studies have been selected on the basis of their understanding, experience, and vision in dealing with the patent system. a ** * Dr. Bush's long association with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D. C., his achievements and experience in the fields of science, business, and government, and his active participation in prior studies of the patent system make him uniquely qualified to aid the subcommittee in its present study. He was Chairman of the Science Advisory Board established by the President in 1933 to study the patent system and served as a member of the Patent Survey Committee appointed in 1945 to conduct a similar study. From 1941 to 1946, he was Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. More recently, he has been chairman of the Department of Commerce Advisory Committee on the Application of Machines to Patent Office Operations. Dr. Bush is the author of many articles, monographs, and treatises, including Science, the Endless Frontier (1945), a report to the President on a program for postwar scientific research, and Modern Arms and Free Men (1949). He is a leading authority on such currently crucial public issues as automation, secrecy in research, and electronic computers. The business world's respect for his accomplishments and ability is evidenced by his membership on the board of directors of Metals & Controls Corp., Merck & Co., and American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Since this is the first of the special studies to be published, it is important to state clearly its relation to the policies and views of the subcommittee. The views expressed in Dr. Bush's study are entirely his own. The subcommittee accepts, and welcomes, the report for consideration and study, but its publication in no way signifies or implies acceptance or approval by the subcommittee or any of its members of the facts, opinions, or recommendations contained in it. Such publication does, however, testify to the subcommittee's belief that the report represents a valuable contribution to the literature concerning the patent system and its operation, and that the public interest will be served by its publication, distribution, and consideration. (Signed) JOSEPH C. O'MAHONEY, Chairman, Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate. DECEMBER 20, 1956. III CONTENTS Page 2. Assist the courts in handling patent suits 3. The misuse of patents, so as to perpetuate patent monopolies through combinations, cross-licensing and improvement patents, 4. Obviate the possibility of the suppression of inventions. SOME PROPOSALS FOR IMPROVING THE PATENT SYSTEM A. PURPOSES AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PATENT SYSTEM Those who built the governmental structure under which we live were exceedingly wise, and they were particularly so when they created a strong patent system based on the Constitution.1 It has three great objectives: First, it aims to stimulate both invention and the assiduous search for new applications of knowledge, which is the basis of invention. It does this by placing the inventor in a position to secure a reward.2 Second, it seeks to create conditions whereby the venture of funds to finance the hazardous introduction into public use of new devices or processes will be warranted. This is done by protecting the industrial pioneer for a limited time against the uncontrolled competition of those who have not taken the initial financial risk.3 Third, it aims to prevent the creation of an industry permeated by the intense secrecy with regard to its processes which characterized the medieval guilds and which can only retard the realization by the public of the benefits of scientific progress. This it does by extending a temporary monopoly to those who, in keeping with the American ideal of openness and frankness, will make a full disclosure of their new ideas so that they may be utilized to the full by those skilled in a particular art. Our early statesmen were fully on their guard against special privilege or the abuse of monopoly to the detriment of the interests of the public, and they had real reason to be as they viewed the industrial history of the countries from which they or their forebears had come to this land. Yet they appreciated also the necessity for safeguards that would secure to citizens the enjoyment of their personal property in their land and possessions, and extended to them the support of the basic law in excluding others from them. They did not hesitate, moreover, to extend similar ownership to ideas, to authors by copy 1 Art. I, sec. 8, of the Constitution of the United States provides that the Congress shall have power "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." See Allen v. Hunter, Fed. Cas. No. 225 (C. C. Ohio, 1855). This objective is well illustrated by the testimony of Charles F. Kettering, vice president, General Motors Corp., in U. S. Temporary National Economic Committee, Investigation of Concentration of Economic Power, hearings, pt. 2, December 5-16, 1938, pp. 341-345 (referred to hereafter as TNEC). See Attorney General ex rel. Hecker v. Rumford Chem. Works, 32 Fed. 608 (C. C. R. I., 1876). 1 |