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Show THE AMERICAN WAY) KILL INCENTIVE fj&& GORE INVENTORS fe -. By Georze Peckm "Were it my job as super- saboteur sab-oteur to destroy America's greatness, great-ness, I can think of no more ef-fictivc ef-fictivc way than to destroy our patent system. The tragedy is that if we permit impractical theorists and faddists to distort the facts and hypnotize our nation na-tion into this act of hari-kari, all of us will suffer and yet no adequate ade-quate punishment can be meted out to those really responsible. Let us nnot by our inaction have any share in such a terrible responsibility." re-sponsibility." The above are the remarks of Dr. Robert E. Wilson, Scarsdale, New York. They are most significant signif-icant because Dr. Wilson is ably qualified to speak on the subject in 1943 he was the thirty-seventh recipient of the Perkins medal awarded annually by the Society of the Chemical Industry. Indust-ry. There are now before the Congress Con-gress and in committee, numerous nume-rous bills proposing basic changes chang-es in our patent system so num-numerous num-numerous are they, in fact, that it is almost impossible for the average individual to keep a-breast a-breast of them. Even our esteemed esteem-ed members of Congress can be forgiven because they, too, are a bit confused about this "concerted" "concert-ed" but diverse attack. I use the word "concerted" because underneath under-neath the skin all of these bills are designs to rob inventors of their 17-year exclusive rights to make, use, or sell their inven tions granted them by our present pres-ent patent system. One of the most polific introducers intro-ducers of bills to improve (?) our patent system in Senator Harley M. Kilgore (Democrat of West Virginia). This gentleman is well named because each of the bills that he has introduced, whether he is aware of it or not, would KILL incentive and GORE hapless hap-less inventors and small manufacturers. manu-facturers. For just as surely as night follows the day, the abrogation abroga-tion of private patent rights and the vesting of same in a government govern-ment agency,' as embodied in Senator Kilgore's various proposals, pro-posals, would destroy all incentive incen-tive fox the inventive genius of this nation to function for the benefit of every class of our citizenry. Not even the most ardent protagonist pro-tagonist of our present patent laws but will admit that they are not perfect. But surely the remedy for these minor flaws does not lie in. turning over all patents from private to bureaucratic bureau-cratic control. The remedy lies rather in carefully surveying the patent system, to discover ways and means whereby it can provide pro-vide even greater service in stimulating the inventive genius of our people to create inventions, inven-tions, and in furthering their prompt utilization for the public good. What needs to be done is to provide even greater incentive for inventors to invent most of the legislative proposals that are now in the legislative hopper, aim to decrease incentive for individuals to invent. Dr. Wilson warned, "Let us not by our inaction have any share in such a terrible responsibility." respons-ibility." It is the responsibility of every American who has any regard for the future welfare of this nation, to let his Washington representatives know that there must be no tampering with our ifl0?1 laws no tampering with the 17-year period of exclusive exclu-sive rights. The workers of this country have the most to lose if laws are passed denying individuals exclusive ex-clusive rights to their patents, be-cause, be-cause, over the period of American Ameri-can history, most of our inventions inven-tions 'have been evolved by working men and most of the Jobs in America have been and are created by inventions. Therefore, There-fore, it behooves every worker to register his vigorous protest against any law that will KILL Incentive to invent and GORB hapless inventors. |