ENCOURAGING INVENTIONS BY GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
| Published date | 01 October 1950 |
| Date | 01 October 1950 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1950.tb00178.x |
ENCOURAGING
INVEN'I'IONS
BY
GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES
IN
England Patent Law is still regarded as an esoteric,
if
highly
lucrative craft. Academic lawyers rarely touch it
;
university law
faculties and professional law-teaching bodies ignore it
;
economists,
sociologists and political scientists seem scarcely interested.
A
very different state of affairs prevails across the Atlantic,
where all the leading law schools give courses in Patent Law and the
law reviews devote much space to its problems.'
Nor
is Patent
Law taught
or
discussed from
a
narrow angle
in
the United States.
It
is widely realised there that the problem of stimulating and
rewarding inventiveness is basic in modern industrial society, and
nowhere more than in a democracy since it raises in its sharpest
form the whole issue of
'
incentives
'.
The object
of
this paper is
to
investigate the methods adopted
to
encourage inventions by Government employees not only in the
United States but also in the Soviet Union. The study will be
confined to Government employees
for
three reasons
:
first,
for
reasons of space; secondly, because
it
is desired to have the best
possible basis for a comparison between the practice of the two
leading industrial countries
of
the world
;
thirdly, because it is
believed that from such a comparison many lessons can and should
be learned by other countries, particularly countries the Govern-
ments
of
which are playing an ever-increasing part in the manage-
ment
of
industry and in the direction
of
scientific research.
It
is proposed to begin with the Soviet Union, where an over-
whelming proportion of potcntial inventors are naturally Govern-
ment employees; but it should not be forgotten that, in the United
States also, the role of the Government in research has been
enormously expanded in recent years
and
the problem of cncourag-
ing invention by Government employees has been made just as
critical as it is
in
the Soviet Union by the necessity of developing
atomic energy exclusively under public control.
THE
SOVIET
UNION
The first Soviet Patent Law was passed in
1924
and was closely
modelled on the patent systems of Western Europe, particularly
of
Germany. This law su$ced
for
the period
of
the New Economic
Policy
(1922-1928))
which was a modification
of
the enthusiastic
socialism of the early years of the Revolution and which established
1
Sce
Nos.
12
and
13
of
'
Law
and Contemporary Problems
'
published
by
nukc
428
Univemity.
These
two
numbrri
are entirely
devotcvl
to
Patent Law.
OCT.
1950
INVENTIONS
BY
GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES
429
for
an avowedly interim period what would now be described as a
‘
mixed economy
’,
that is, public and private enterprises existing
side by side in a manner not altogether unlike that which prevails
in the United Kingdom today.
In
1928,
however, when the first Five Year Plan was launched,
the existing Patent Law was felt to be inappropriate
to
the new
conditions. Under the new economy, in which all major industrial
activity was carried on by State enterprises, there was little that
an inventor could do with his patent save sell it
tc*
the State enter-
prise concerned. Exploitation of the invention hy the inventor
himself was rendered impossible in practice even though there was
no
immediate change in the Patent Law. Even
so,
such a change
was deemed necessary.
In considering what changes to make in their Patent Law Soviet
planners were obsessed with the notion that the buying and selling
of
rights in inventions was reminiscent of capitalism and was not
in
accord with the new Soviet psychology. Something radical and
new was needed to stimulate the inventiveness.
of
the workers,
now
in most cases Government employees. The preamble to the Sovict
Ytitent Law of
1931,
therefore, makes interesting reading.
It
says,
hiass invcntions constitute one
of
the most important
forms
of
immediate participation of the workers in socialist rationalisation
of
production and in the introduction of new technique into thc
national economy
of
the
U.S.S.R.
‘
However,
so
far the attention paid
to
inventions, and espccially
to
workers’ inventions, has been altogether inadequate, owing to
horeaucratic distortions, inertia, red tape and in many instances
downright sabotage. In spite
of
the enormous importance of mass
inventions to the cause
of
the struggle for the speed-up
of
industriali-
slition, the exploitation of inventions and the exchange of technical
experience are most unsatisfactory. The work
of
the bodies set up
to
assist inventions is inadequate. The creative initiative of the
worker-inventors is not sufficiently encouraged. The patent legis-
lation which has existed until now arid has protected the inventor
by
giving him an exclusive right to his invention no longer satisfies
thc aspirations
of
the foreniost inventors.
‘
It
has become necessary to create other forms
of
inter-relation
between the worker-inventor and the socidist State which will be in
koeping with the role of the worker-inventor as an immediate par-
ticipant in socialist reconstruction. Along with the guarantees of
eiirly and full exploitation
of
the inventions, it is necessary
to
create conditions which will further mass inventions and will
giiarnntee
n
proper
remuneration
(on
a fised scale) to the worker-
invcntor, securing him a number
of
exemptions and privileges
’.
This law of
1982‘
created, alongside the patent, the author’s
2
For
nn
explanntion
of
thr
Inw
of
1!)31
scc
’
Priiiciplcy
of
Soviet
l‘atciit
Ln\v
nutl
Social
Orgmisntinn
of
Tnrcntions
iir
the
U.S.S.K.’.
Victor
0.
Olkhovsky,
Vol.
17,
Jouriial
of
1111.
t’:itciit
Otlice
Society.
p.
5tiS.
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