Senator HRUSKA. I think a guidance system on a submarine that will take the submarine under the North Pole bears on national survival, but when a forklift in a warehouse is improved in some way, and the company who improves it happens to have a patent on the forklift at the same time, it is difficult as a practical matter to see the the casual relationship. The forklift has nothing to do with national survival, and it is the necessity of general legislation to deal with the guidance system for a submarine and also with the forklift improvement, you see. Both have to be all under general legislation, and how are you going to separate the two? Admiral RICKOVER. All you can do is lay down general statutory principles with guidelines and purposes. The Congress does this and gets around the difficulties you mentioned by providing a certain amount of discretion to the administrator to adjudicate and decide the problems that arise. In this manner there can be fairness to the Government and to the contractor. You remember I strongly urged that when a man has equity in something like the forklift, that equity should not be taken away from him; not at all. Senator HRUSKA. Yes, you have been very fair on that, and I think that would be very equitable, but as a lawyer I am hindered a little bit by the necessities of proofs, and those things involved in the process of adjudication. Admiral RICKOVER. Yes, but lawyers are not the only people who have something to say about how this country is run. Why don't you try to get help from other people? Senator HRUSKA. We try our best. We call witnesses in like yourself. We ask for inspiration from you, and I think we have got a lot of it today. Admiral RICKOVER. I didn't give you much inspiration. My knowledge is limited. I am a naval officer with technical knowledge, and my views are limited. I am not a lawyer. Senator HRUSKA. If your views are limited I think our prayers should be for more limitations on knowledge. Thank you very much. Admiral RICKOVER. Thank you, sir. Senator MCCLELLAN. Gentlemen, any questions? Admiral, would you care to make a closing statement or any further comments? Admiral RICKOVER. The only thing I can say is that I am deeply grateful for having been given the opportunity to talk with this distinguished group. I appreciate the courteous way I have been treated. I have tried to give the best advice I could. I don't know whether it will be helpful, but at least you have one another viewpoint. I have no ax to grind. I am not a patent lawyer. I do not believe the public, the taxpayers' part in this matter from all that I have read, has been adequately presented. I respectfully suggest you tell the patent lawyers to stop making that same old speech and get another one. Again, sir, may I thank you for your courtesy. If there is anything else I can do, if you require additional information, I shall be only too glad to help. Senator MCCLELLAN. Thank you, Admiral. We appreciate your coming. And from the standpoint of the Chair, at least, this was a new problem, and it has become rather complicated and we try to go through it and study it, and my first impression was that you ought not to have one agency of government over here doing one thing and another agency over here with the same contract or making a different contract for the same government. There ought to be some uniformity. I don't know just where the real equities are, but we have gone into this to try to study it. Admiral RICKOVER. I certainly would have uniformity. The TVA, of course, says their problem is unique. The DOD says their problem is unique. When you finally get down to it you will find you have 183 million unique problems if you hear enough people. Senator MCCLELLAN. That is true. We have to do this in almost all legislation. You have to make some provision, have to leave some discretion in administration, and you have to do this. Admiral RICKOVER. To answer your question, if you stated what the policy was to be and left the administrator to be guided by that, I think the problem could be worked out. Senator MCCLELLAN. Thank you, Admiral. The committee will stand adjourned. (Whereupon, at 4:20 p.m., the committee adjourned.) Need of small business to obtain title to finance consumer marketing-. Patents for medical or surgical treatment, instruments, and drugs_. 27 31 21 23 2 34 40 21-32 47 13 50 29 38 31 46 6 47 63 Patent policy regarding U.S. development in space and atomic energy as Purpose of patent system__ Reexamination of the patent system needed to obtain greater utilization Ramo-Wooldridge__ Small business patent contracting policy--. Saline water conservation patent contracting_policy--- Testimony of Vice Adm. H. G. Rickover before Subcommittee on Monopoly, Weather control-patent contracting policy‒‒‒‒ о |