• Home
• About
• IP Mall Resources
• News and Noteworthy
• Awards and Accolades
• Contact

The Mystery of the the Classified and Missing National Inventors Council (NIC) Files

By Professor Jon Cavicchi, J.D., LL.M. (I.P.)

• New York Times 1941 - Hedy Lamar Hot Inventor
• NARA FOIA Letter from Ms. Ciarlante (Update)
• NARA Accession List Showing Missing Files
• NARA Status Change RG167
• NARA Disposition Schedule
• NARA Response from Ms. Ciarlante

In March 2003 I received several calls from Patti Young at the Patent Office Search Facilities. She had been contacted by an Inventor who had submitted an idea to help the World War II war effort. He submitted the idea to the National inventors Council. Neither she nor I had heard of citizen invention disclosures and files outside the Patent Office System. She called me because the only reference on the Web she had found was http://www.ptcforum.org which indicated that the NIC had been transferred to the public sector in 1973 under the auspices of the Academy of Applied Science and the Franklin Pierce Law Center. She had assumed that the files would be located in the Pierce Law Intellectual Property Library.

http://www.ptcforum.org

Remote Sector reorganizing charter members of the National Inventors' Council and the Academy of Applied Science who attended the 1981 Inventors Conference (pictured in the Franklin Pierce Law Center Library). Seated (left to right) Alan A. Smith, Donald B. Sinclair, Brooks Walker, Charles Stark Draper, Richard Walton, Kenneth J. Germeshausen, and Harry Saragovitz. Standing (left to right) Draper Harvey, Hugh Brett, John Lothrop, Isaac S. Blonder, Duane Marshall, Charles W. Wyckoff, William Yates, Lamar Washington, Nelson H. Shapiro, Jason Weisman, Samuel Nakasian, Robert H. Rines, Howard S. Curtis, Kenan Sahin.

1. National Inventors Council Files, 1940-53 Classified Records
   
   National Inventors Council committee files, arranged by Committee number, thereunder by a NIC numerical designation, thereunder alphabetically by name of inventor. Each Committee was responsible for evaluating submisssions for a specific area of science and technology, such as ordnance and firearms, metals and metalurgy, signals and communications, etc. The files contain explanations and evaluations of the more significant proposals received by the Council, which was established in 1940, under the Office of Technical Services, Department of Commerce, to provide a clearing house for inventions that might be useful for national defense, and to bring such inventions to the attention of the armed forces. The NIC was most active during WW II but continued to solicit inventions into the mid-1950s. When the OTS was abolished, the Department of Commerce transferred its functions to the National Bureau of Standards, which had provided both technical and administrative support to the NIC. AUTHORIZED DISPOSITION: PERMANENT. Transfer to the National Archives in FY 1999.
   
   Justification: These records were appraised as permanent in an appraisal report dated March 25, 1971 (NN371-166). The appraisal report was not formally approved because of the restrictions imposed by the agency, which strongly believed in the proprietary nature of the records, precluded accessioning at that time. As late as 1988, the National Bureau of Standards Records Officer Bernie Hale, reiterated this position, saying that the records could not be opened to the public "until after the turn of the century." The value of these records for research into the history of science and technology is undisputed, and these records are especially significant considering the impact of technology on WW II.
   
   
2. National Inventors Council Plans and Drawings
   
   Largely oversize plans, drawings, and supporting documents arrange alphabetically by last name of inventor. Files include photostats and blueprints. The plans and drawings were removed from the incoming correspondence files. AUTHORIZED DISPOSITION: PERMANENT. Transfer to the National Archives in FY 1999
   
   Justification: These plans and drawings visually, supplement the inventions files documented in item 1 above, and were part of the original inventors submissions.
   
   Added in handwriting on the original document: "According to Donna Miller, NIST Records Officer, the first two boxes (A & B) were missing when she went to look through them. They were charged out but no employee name given (10/2/02)
   
   
3. Nations Inventors Council Chronological Files 1947-54
   
   Chronological correspondence files ("Day Files") of the National Inventors Council, 1950-1958, and of John C. Green, 1947-1958. Green served as Chief Engineer for the Council during WW II, and was head of the Department of Commerce's Office of Technical Service, under which the NIC was established. Tissue copies of outgoing correspondence, including both form letters and substantive replies to inventors concerning the utilization of their submissions as well as entitlement due them. AUTHORIZED DISPOSITION: PERMANENT. Transfer to the National Archives in FY 1999.
   
   Justification: These correspondence files relate to the inventions documented in item 1 above. Given the lack of an index or other finding aids to the NIC files, these correspondence files should be permanent. They also provide a useful supplement to the invention files, because they document both NIC's post-war existence and continued interest by inventors in their submissions. Any duplicative files should be destroyed during archival processing of the records.
   
   
4. National Inventors Council Incoming Correspondence
   
   Incoming correspondence files of the National Inventors Council, 1940-1953, largely inventors submissions and inquiries, arranged alphabetically by inventor's last name. All that remains of this is mid-T through rest having been destroyed. The bulk of this file had been permanently withdrawn by the age and returned under a different accession number. That accession was destroyed under N1-40-90-2, the disposal authority for patented invention case files of the Office of Chief Counsel for Technology, Department of Commerce, which appears to have been inappropriate for these records. AUTHORIZED DISPOSITION: PERMANENT. Transfer to the National Archive FY 1999.