PATENTS DANGER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 88, 15 April 1942, Page 7

PATENTS DANGER

VITAL WAR PROBLEM Enemy's Efforts Restrict U.S. Production United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. 2 p.m. WASHINGTON, April 14. Mr. Francis Shea, Assistant-Attor-ne.v-Ocneral, testifying before tlr: Senate Patents Committee to-day in support of a bill which would permit Government seizure of patents vital to the war effort, said: "There appears to be substantial evidence that patents issued by the United States nave, in some instances, been used by our enemies as a means of restricting production vital to our security." "A recent report by the Office of Facts and Figures concerning the defence programme adverts to the manner in which our enemy, by the use of patents and cartel arrangements, has worked for many years to weaken our military potential. Serious injury to our industrial and military strength can be, and in ■ many instances appears to have been, caused by the restrictive use of patents in short sighted business arrangements intended to secure higher profits from a curtailment in supply or monopoly, quite unconscious of the damage to the nation."

"The present patent laws and the use of patents in time of war appear to have curtailed our industrial rapacity in the present war, and might prove dangerous unless they are corrected."