German Patents

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 03:27 PM 3/7/97 -0500, Ed Meyers wrote:

>Marc, I had been told that part of the German surrender was their
>loss of all patents. Reason was that during WWI we fought them using
>the Springfield '03 rifle, which was a copy of the better Mauser used
>by the Germans. After the war the Germans sued the U.S. government
>(or manufacturer of the Springfield) for patent infringement--
>and won. We were upset, to say the least and didn't want it to
>happen again. So, I'm told, we did them in on the patents.
>I believe that diffusion transfer, the basis of the Polaroid
>process, was also among the patents we didn't let them keep.
>I could be wrong on this and would welcome an expert's
>comment. 

Urban legends of this sort abound.  During both World Wars, the US
government seized all German patents in the US as government property.  The
German surrender of 1945 did NOT surrender national rights, but merely
assigned these to the Allies.  Thus, in the entire world save for the Allied
nations or Japan, Zeiss and Leitz could defend -- and did defend -- their
patent rights.  

MacArthur's action was bitterly resented by the Alien Properties Office in
Washington, as THEY had intended on suing Nikon and Canon for protection of
the US Zeiss and Leitz patents.

As to the Springfield, note the date:  1903.  If Mauser had intended on
suing, they would have done so long before the War.  But there was nothing
to sue for:  the actions are a bit different, and the Springfield has
advantages over the Mauser, the 'improvements in the art' necessary to
ensure a lawful patent.  (My sole firearm happens to be an '09 Argentine
Mauser chambered for .30-'06, with, of course, a Ukrainian scope.  Nice
piece, though a 7.62mm projectile in an 8mm bore means I HAVE to use
high-power rounds for accuracy, and this, in turn, causes much bruising of
my poor, tired, shoulder which, in turn, limits the speed and ease of my
'net correspondence.)

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!