Trade secret

Don Wolfe was there, as was Joe Baird, the TV reporter. And then Mart saw, with a somewhat sinking sensation, the portly figure of his former colleague on Project Levitation, Professor Dykstra from MIT. Mart groaned, and nudged Berk as Dykstra took a seat at the rear of the room. “Nemesis is here,” said Mart.

There were five congressmen on the Committee in charge of the hearing. Berk and Mart studied them intently as they came in and took seats at the long table. There was nothing obviously outstanding about any of them — but neither was there about the group of scientists, Mart thought. He reflected on the situation wherein the decision of these five could affect the lives and work of all these others in the room. What made these five and their colleagues in the Congress competent to judge the limitations to be placed upon the men of science and channel their thinking?

His reflections were interrupted by the gavel banging of Senator Cogswell, who stood at the head of the Committee table and spoke into the cluster of microphones, calling for attention.

Mart watched Cogswell intently. He was the key to the Committee. The senator had come from a Midwestern state, a dealer in farm machinery before coming to the Senate. His face and neck and hands had the perpetual florrid tint of a man who has spent long years of his life in the sun and wind. The press called him Honest Abe Cogswell, and Mart was certain the name fitted.

But you couldn’t be honest if you didn’t have the data, Mart thought. It wasn’t honest to judge a thing concerning which you had no data. And what a fetish you could make of honesty if you didn’t even know you lacked the data! Somehow he would have to find the way to give it to Cogswell.

The farmer-politician announced: “The first to be called for testimony in this hearing will be Dr. Martin Nagle.”

Mart stood up and moved slowly to the seat before the microphones. There was a well filled press section, he noted. Evidently all the news services had been stirred into sending representatives on the off chance that something spectacular might develop.

Cogswell faced him across the microphones. “You are Dr. Nagle?”

“Yes.”

Briefly, he was sworn in. Then Cogswell resumed. “You have been called before this Committee as a result of certain allegations on the part of yourself and others. It is alleged that you have refused the military and commercial exploitation of certain discoveries made by you, and that these discoveries are of primary importance to the welfare and defense of the country.

“It is alleged that you have criticized the Patent System of the United States in a very serious manner, claiming that it offers you inadequate protection for your work. It is further alleged that you have threatened to withhold knowledge of your important discoveries until revision of the Patent Laws gives you the protection you desire.

“Would you like to state your position, Dr. Nagle, to clarify your points of contention for the Committee, or would you prefer to be cross-examined, first, point by point?”

“I would like to ask,” said Mart, “if the Committee is prepared to recommend to the Congress that modifications be made to the Patent System if it can be shown that this is in the best interest of the public, whom the Patent Laws are designed to protect.”

“We are not committed to any action,” said Cogswell. “But if it can be shown that action is called for, the Committee is prepared to make recommendations accordingly.”

“Then I would like to state my case,” said Mart.

“Proceed, Dr. Nagle.”

“In the beginning of industry and manufacture,” said Mart, “the basis of success was often what came to be known as Trade Secrets. A man or a family, over a period of years discovered superior techniques for producing some item of trade. The process would be zealously guarded from disclosure to any possible competitor. Only by preserving the secrecy of these processes could the inventors and discoverers of them obtain any just remuneration for their work of discovery.

“Until very recently, historically speaking, this system of Trade Secrets prevailed. Obviously, it has drawbacks. It impedes the flow of knowledge. It prevents the progress which might result from the application of one man’s knowledge to another's discovery. Because of these drawbacks, the Patent System was born. In theory, this is designed to release the vast store of Trade Secrets and put them in the reservoir of common knowledge to be used by all men. In return for contributing his discoveries to the common store, a man is theoretically rewarded by the Patent System by being given a limited monopoly in the exploitation of the discovery.