HARDING TAKES EXECUTIVE ACTION AGAINST WILSON'S CHEMICAL FOUNDATION
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On July 2, 1922, the Evening Star reports that President (Warren G.) Harding has directed Chemical Foundation, Inc.*, to return immediately all "patents, trademarks, copyrights, contracts (and) applications" transferred to it during the presidential administration of Woodrow Wilson by "the alien custodian at that time."
Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty stated that the President "is justified" in taking this executive action which follows "weeks of investigation" by the Justice Department.
The Attorney General adds that the President's instructions "will be carried out with all possible dispatch."
*Chemical Foundation, Inc. was organized during the Wilson administration to buy & manage former German patents 'for benefit of the American chemical industry.'
A postwar federal lawsuit challenged the legality of the foundation. Prior to WWI, German chemical companies dominated the production of dyes, but during the war their patents were confiscated by the Office of Alien Property.
SOURCES
"Patents, Patriotism, and 'Skilled in the Art' USA v. The Chemical Foundation, Inc., 1923-1926," by Kathryn Steem, The University of Chicago Press Journals, www.journals.uchicago.edu/
"President Assails Dye Patent Sales of Wilson Regime," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., July 2, 1922, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
