Wellerstein, Alex (Author)
During the course of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government secretly attempted to acquire a monopoly on the patent rights for inventions used in the production of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. The use of patents as a system of control, while common for more mundane technologies, would seem at first glance to conflict with the regimes of secrecy that have traditionally been associated with nuclear weapons. In explaining the origins and operations of the Manhattan Project patent system, though, this essay argues that the utilization of patents was an ad hoc attempt at legal control of the atomic bomb by Manhattan Project administrators, focused on the monopolistic aspects of the patent system and preexisting patent secrecy legislation. From the present perspective, using patents as a method of control for such weapons seems inadequate, if not unnecessary; but at the time, when the bomb was a new and essentially unregulated technology, patents played an important role in the thinking of project administrators concerned with meaningful postwar control of the bomb.
...More
Book
Bruce Cameron Reed;
(2021)
The Physics of the Manhattan Project
(/isis/citation/CBB435676317/)
Chapter
Pottage, Alain;
Sherman, Brad;
(2011)
Kinds, Clones, and Manufactures
(/isis/citation/CBB001221560/)
Chapter
Kevles, Daniel J.;
(2011)
New Blood, New Fruits: Protections for Breeders and Originators, 1789--1930
(/isis/citation/CBB001221559/)
Article
Kevles, Daniel J.;
(2007)
Patents, Protections, and Privileges: The Establishment of Intellectual Property in Animals and Plants
(/isis/citation/CBB000772262/)
Book
Galvez-Behar, Gabriel;
(2008)
La République des inventeurs: Propriété et organisation de l'innovation en France (1791--1922)
(/isis/citation/CBB000950301/)
Book
Michael Mays;
(2020)
Legacies of the Manhattan Project: Reflections on 75 Years of a Nuclear World
(/isis/citation/CBB158974609/)
Book
Kelly, Cynthia C.;
(2005)
Remembering the Manhattan Project: Proceedings of the Atomic Heritage Foundation's Symposium on the Manhattan Project
(/isis/citation/CBB000501497/)
Article
Sopka, Katherine R.;
Sopka, Elisabeth M.;
(2010)
The Bonebrake Theological Seminary: Top-Secret Manhattan Project Site
(/isis/citation/CBB001036148/)
Article
Alex Wellerstein;
(2019)
Manhattan Project
(/isis/citation/CBB737621067/)
Chapter
Vincenzo Cioci;
(2016)
Alvin Weinberg e il nucleare: Riflessioni su Hiroshima 70 anni dopo
(/isis/citation/CBB391197810/)
Article
Reed, B. Cameron;
(2011)
Liquid Thermal Diffusion during the Manhattan Project
(/isis/citation/CBB001036137/)
Article
Sime, Ruth Lewin;
(2012)
The Politics of Forgetting: Otto Hahn and the German Nuclear-Fission Project in World War II
(/isis/citation/CBB001220407/)
Article
Turchetti, Simone;
(2009)
A Contentious Business: Industrial Patents and the Production of Isotopes, 1930--1960
(/isis/citation/CBB000931749/)
Book
Boldrin, Michele;
Levine, David K.;
(2008)
Against Intellectual Monopoly
(/isis/citation/CBB000954253/)
Book
Hyde, Lewis;
(2010)
Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership
(/isis/citation/CBB001220822/)
Book
Roberto Berveglieri;
(2020)
«Ingegnosi artificij»: Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia. Trecento anni di storia della scienza, della tecnica e dell’innovazione (1474-1788)
(/isis/citation/CBB667721442/)
Chapter
Hilgartner, Stephen;
(2004)
Mapping Systems and Moral Order: Constituting Property in Genome Laboratories
(/isis/citation/CBB000470173/)
Article
Yi, Doogab;
(2011)
Who Owns What? Private Ownership and the Public Interest in Recombinant DNA Technology in the 1970s
(/isis/citation/CBB001220006/)
Article
Biagioli, Mario;
(2006)
From Prints to Patents: Living on Instruments in Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB000651755/)
Book
Gabriel, Joseph M.;
(2014)
Medical Monopoly: Intellectual Property Rights and the Origins of the Modern Pharmaceutical Industry
(/isis/citation/CBB001422032/)
Be the first to comment!