ENEMY-HELD PATENTS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 171, 16 April 1942, Page 5

ENEMY-HELD PATENTS

Use In Restriction Of U.S.

Production

WASHINGTON, April 14.

Mr. Francis Shea, Assistant Attorney-General, testifying before the Senate Patents Committee today in support of a Bill which would permit the Government to seize patents vital to the war effort, said: “There appears to be substantial evidence that patents issued by the United States have 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 caused —and in many instances appears to have been caused—by the restrictive use of patents in shortsighted business arrangements intended to secure higher profits from curtailed supply or monopoly, quite unconscious of damage to h-be nation. The present patent laws and the use of patents in time of war appear to have curtailed our industrial capacity for the present war, and might prove dangerous unless corrected.” Mr. John Henry Lewin, special assistant Attorney-General, testifying ■before the committee, described a vast patent pool linking the American General Electric Company with the German Krupps which, he said, resulted in a bottleneck in United States war production. Mr. Lewin .said that General Electric licensing agreements gave Germany an enormous advantage in the usage of cemented tungsten carbide, a metal-hardening material vital to the machine-tool industry and the production of guns, shells, armour plate and aeroplanes. Acute American Shortage. ‘■Ju contrast with Germany, the present drastic shortage in the United Stales of this essential material is notorious,” lie said. “The usage of tungsten carbide was one of the greatest secrets of German rearmament. Tungsten carbide in machine tools is capable of increasing production 500 per cenl.” Mr. Lewin submitted documents which, lie said, tell the story from 1928 to the latter part of 1910, which had resulted in the monopolizing of the American market and limiting the American production of hard, metal composition and tools. This had permitted Krupps since 1930 to decide who would become the American manufacturers, fixing and maintaining unconscionable, prohibitive prices throughout the United Stalos. 'file chairman of the Committee, Senator Bone, asked Mr. Lewin if there had been any interruptions between General Electric and Krupps after Hitler rose to power. Mr. Lewin replied, “None that I know of.”

Senator Bone commented: “These gentlemen seem to have been doing business with Hitler on a very friendly basis while the Senate and House were industriously damning Hitler and calling down the wrath of the Deity on his head. These gentlemen were going along with him. Our leading business lights seem to have been holding., hands withpHitler.”