Jerome Wiesner

Jerome Wiesner was science advisor to President John F. Kennedy, and as such, launched an effort in 1963 to design a uniform policy on innovations and patents to apply across all federal agencies. Wiesner’s initiative led to a presidential policy statement by President Kennedy in October 1963 in which he outlined a program to try to allocate property rights between the government and its contractors — including universities — to serve both the public interest and to encourage the utilization of the inventions. Rather than recommending universal adoption of consistent policy, the statement opted to set forth general guidelines. Numerous consultations and studies followed, but no major change in federal technology transfer policies occurred. Wiesner later served as president of MIT.