PATENT POLICY 227 



in close contact with officers in the War and Navy Departments who were 

 famihar with the results to be accomplished through the research and the 

 applicability of inventions and discoveries to existing or prospective equip- 

 ment. 



The standard procedure was for the Division Chiefs to call upon the 

 contractors to file invention reports with them as soon as practicable after 

 each invention was completed. The Division Chiefs then transmitted copies 

 of the invention reports to the Advisor on Patent Matters, identifying the 

 contract under which the invention was developed and the project to 

 which it related. These reports were in turn transmitted to the War De- 

 partment through the Office of the Judge Advocate General or to the Navy 

 Department through the Office of Research and Inventions according to 

 which Service had the predominating interest. In accordance with arrange- 

 ments entered into with the War and Navy Departments in September 

 and October 194 1, the preparation and filing of applications for patent 

 arising under OSRD contracts were handled by the patent divisions of 

 those departments rather than by OSRD. 



It was recognized that many questions involving a knowledge of patent 

 law were bound to arise within the divisions, particularly with reference 

 to the sufficiency of original records and the presentation of technical in- 

 formation in proper form. It was, therefore, decided that patent attorneys 

 should be assigned to the Division Chiefs for consultation on patent mat- 

 ters. These patent advisors to the Division Chiefs were stationed, as per- 

 sonnel became available, at Cambridge, New York, Chicago, and Washing- 

 ton. Because of the diversity of research supervised in the vicinity of Wash- 

 ington, separate advisors were located there for chemistry, electronics, 

 mechanical and medical activities. It was impossible to obtain a sufficient 

 number of civilian patent attorneys to fill all of these positions and, at the 

 request of the OSRD, a number of Army and Navy officers were made 

 available. 



Uniformity and adequacy in handling the details of compliance with 

 the patent clause were sought through a series of administrative circulars 

 devoted exclusively to patent matters. Efforts were made to insure that 

 contractors would keep their records in such form and detail as to simplify 

 the reporting of inventions and the preparation of patent applications. 



As an extracurricular activity OSRD assisted the Patent Office, at its re- 

 quest, by examining filed applications for patent with a view to recom- 

 mending which of them should be kept secret for reasons of national se- 

 curity. The persons reviewing filed applications were different from those 

 responsible for selecting the claims to be made for inventions under OSRD 

 contracts, a precaution dictated by the desirability of avoiding any possi- 

 bility that an OSRD application might be influenced by information derived 

 from a review of applications of others. 



