During the last few years of peace-time industrial activity, the annual reports of the Secretary of Commerce revealed that each year about 15,ooo patent applications were abandoned and allowed to perish.
Behind this somewhat obscure statement lies a story of economic waste that calls for a remedy. At first glance, it would appear that because the loss of a half million dollars in fees, paid to the Patent Office, is spread over a large number of individuals and companies, no one need be gravely concerned in finding a remedy for the situation. However, a moment's reflection ought to be sufficient to prove that the modest amount lost in fees is an insignificant fraction of the loss incurred in laboratories where the research was conducted upon the abandoned applications. This loss must run into millions of dollars.
The average business executive and research worker might do well to ponder upon his company's current procedure and to inquire what is its contribution to this not inconsiderable amount of waste, actual and potential. It is notorious that some business executives who claim to support the principle of research and development are nevertheless prone to restrict their research programs within the narrow limits of product improvement. This type of executive readily supports an appropriation for an investigation that will lead to an improvement in the setting of a bearing or of a gear train, but he raises opposition to the suggestion that the company should spend a large sum of money upon a program designed to develop something fundamentally new. This attitude is commonly attributed to a failure to appreciate the true functions of research. It may, however, arise from an unsatisfactory encounter with the Patent Office examiners after a long and expensive laboratory research program. It is unfair to accuse these cautious men of being actuated by motives that betray a lack of appreciation for research.
Unconsciously these men realize there may be an imperceptible defect in its conduct. In their eyes, research is not necessarily a gainful enterprise, as it should be, and is when properly conducted. Until they perceive the nature of the pit-falls they will not give research unqualified support.
Another unfortunate attitude is adopted by some executives and their disgruntled research workers. They denounce the patent system