46 



National Resources Com/mittee 



laboratories claims prior rights to certain ideas pat- 

 ented by Navy personnel detailed to the laboratory. 



Public Service Patents 



Tlic Department of Agriculture follows a very dif- 

 ferent policy. The various researcli bureaus of the 

 Department have been responsible for a number of in- 

 ventions; but these are invariably protected by public 

 service patents for the free use of the public, or by 

 patents assigned to the Secretary for manufacture 

 imder license but without charge. The employee re- 

 sponsible for the invention retains no rights in it and 

 secures no compensation from it. A typical procedure 

 is that of the Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, which 

 regards its function as accomplished when a new 

 process has been developed to a point where commercial 

 use is practicable. The process is then made freely 

 available to industry and the Bui-eau ceases to be in- 

 terested in it. 



The principle is, of course, subject to variations, 

 such as that employed by the Bureau of Public Roads 

 in the case of a recently devised automatic traffic 

 counter. The principle of the device was worked out 

 in the Bureau, but the mechanism was left to the manu- 

 facturer, a contract for supplying the Bureau with 

 counters using the principle being awarded to the low- 

 est bidder on this basis. In such cases the device is 

 not patented and is not patentable. 



Other agencies of the Government follow one or the 

 other of these two major forms of patent policy. The 

 Geological Survey and the Btireau of Reclamation, for 

 example, follow the same practice as the War and Navy 

 Departments, while the Bureau of Standards and the 

 Bureau of Fisheries have made use of both the public 

 service patent and the patent assigned to the inventor, 

 with shop rights reserved to the Government. Instru- 

 ments devised by the Coast and Geodetic Survey have 

 not been patented. 



Neither Policy Adequate 



The disadvantages of the policy which peimits re- 

 tention of commercial rights by the employee have 

 already been pointed out by the Signal Corps. A per- 

 tinent discussion of the public service patent comes 

 from the Bureau of Mines, which has made use of both 

 methods : 



Dedication of a patent is not necessarily to the public's best 

 interests. To serve the public the invention must be put in 

 use. A patent at the time it is issued by the Patent Office 

 may be far removed from the status of a commercial success. 

 The first consideration is to establish its validity. Second, the 

 process or device may be described only in general terms in the 

 patent and the practical limits still have to be determined. 



Third, since the process or device probably is a new departure 

 from previous usage, expenditure of a considerable amount of 

 money usually is required to educate potential users to the 

 advantages of the new process or device. 



Close association of the Inventor in nurtiiring the invention 

 to full maturity usually is salutary because of his lieen interest 

 in seeing his idea develop Into commercial importance, but 

 the most direct interest is a financial one. However, unless 

 an entrepreneur has some protection such as an exclusive 

 license to the patent, he will not be inclined to spend the money 

 for such development of the patent and its potential market 

 for the benefit of others. 



Therefore, unless a patent is issued in such a way as to 

 provide for exclusive licenses, it is likely to languish. Dedica- 

 tion to the public apparently docs not provide for such licensing. 



Assuming that the function of a Federal patent pol- 

 icy is to further tlie same ends which governmental 

 research itself seeks, it would seem necessary that the 

 policy in question should provide for the widest pos- 

 sible application of the processes or inventions pat- 

 ented, except where these are concerned with national 

 defense. Whether either of the general policies now in 

 use satisfactorily fulfills this function is doubtful. The 

 whole question of patent policy both for Government 

 and for the universities is difficult and complex. A 

 thorough study of the whole problem should be made. 



Conclusion 



The research activities of the Federal Government 

 in natural science and technology are based in part on 

 the necessity for supporting administrative and regu- 

 latory functions with scientific findings, and in part 

 on tiie superior facilities available to Govei'nment for 

 conducting research in various fields of national in- 

 terest. The prestige and authority of Government may 

 also be used to coordinate research in fields in which 

 many agencies are active. 



There are certain limitations upon governmental re- 

 search which are inherent and unavoidable, arising 

 from the nature of Government itself. There are 

 others, however, which may be attributed simply to 

 failure to appreciate the problems involved, and these 

 may be removed. They may be grouped as problems 

 of organizing and administering research ; problems of 

 recruiting, classifying, and training scientific person- 

 nel; and i^roblems of appropriating, budgeting, and 

 allocating ftmds for research. 



In spite of these limitations, the standard of per- 

 formance in governmental scientific work is generally 

 high, and the output compares favorably with that of 

 other agencies engaged in similar work. It may be 

 made more effective by considering the scientific pi'o- 

 gram of the Government as a whole, and by modifying 

 procedures with respect to personnel and budgeting. 



