Accurate information available on a timely 
basis is essential to all users whether industry, 
Government, or university oriented. Despite 
marked progress by all concerned in the past few 
years, problems of adequate dissemination have 
grown faster than generally recognized. 
Another report summarizing a detailed study of 
technology transfer conducted for the National 
Commission on Technology, Automation and 
Economic Progress stated:4 
Devising means of channeling new technologies in 
promising directions—and bringing about the utili- 
zation of new technology for significant purposes 
other than the immediate use for which it was 
developed—has become an activity ranking among 
the most intellectually challenging of our time... . 
The transfer and utilization of new technology 
offer immense opportunity to the Nation. There is 
widespread agreement among those who have 
studied the issue that the knowledge resulting 
from the public investment in R. & D. constitutes 
a major, rapidly increasing, and insufficiently 
exploited national resource. Its effective use can 
increase the rate of economic growth, create new 
employment opportunities, help offset imbalances 
between regions and industries, aid the interna- 
tional competitive position of U.S. industry, en- 
hance our national prestige, improve the quality of 
life, and assist significantly in filling unmet human 
and community needs. It is recommended that 
more effective use of this technology resource 
become a national goal established at the highest 
levels. 
The panel endorses the findings and recommen- 
dation quoted above. 
Recommendation: 
Budgets of marine-related Federal agencies should 
be augmented in order to ensure proper documen- 
tation as well as satisfactory dissemination of data 
and technology. 
While it is important that new technology be 
documented and disseminated, publication of the 
information is not always sufficient to effectively 
4Richard Lesher and George Howick, “Assessing 
Technology Transfer,” National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration, 1966, p. 5. 
transfer the new knowledge to potential users. 
Person-to-person contact is an extremely effective 
method of transfer, although slow and expensive. 
Considerable know-how gained in technology 
development lies in a grey area between scientific 
information and patentable inventions.* If this 
exists in industry because of Government con- 
tracts, transference already has been accomplished 
to at least one user, and the marketplace will 
provide further transfer more effectively than if 
the information were held within the Government. 
As an example, the Atomic Energy Commission 
provided financial assistance to develop new tech- 
nology directly related to civilian use of nuclear 
energy. But knowledge of nuclear energy acquired 
by private firms as contractual performers of 
Government projects made possible the rapid 
transfer of this technology to civilian applications. 
Recommendation: 
Person-to-person contacts should be encouraged 
between groups working in related technological 
fields. Such contacts could be achieved through 
contract programs, special information exchange 
programs, and reciprocal arrangements between 
industry, government, and the academic commu- 
nity whereby their scientists and engineers would 
be exchanged. 
Patents constitute another important form of 
technology transfer. The panel notes that the 
patent policies of all agencies of the Federal 
Government have been under review, that the 
Presidential memorandum of Oct. 10, 1963, was 
intended as a general Government policy state- 
ment, and a major review of such policy was to be 
published in late 1968.° The panel further recog- 
nizes the subject’s complexity and notes that 
many procedures of the various agencies constitute 
serious inhibitions to the effective participation of 
private enterprise in advancing new technology. 
An intense controversy exists over the policy of 
some agencies of the Government regarding rights 
in patents evolving from work supported partially 
Senate Select Committee on Small Business, April 6, 
1967, op. cit., p. 1. 
© Harbridge House, Inc., “Government Patent Policy 
Study, Final Report,” Volumes I-III, Federal Council for 
Science and Technology, Committee on Government 
Patent Policy, Government Printing Office, Washington, 
D.C., 1968. 
