Monty Hyams (1918-2013): Patent Information Pioneer | home | intro | derwent | personal | downloads | links |
1960: First Moscow visit and aftermath Monty's
first visit to Moscow in June 1960 was preceded by a visit to
the
Soviet Trade Delegation in London and liaison with the
Commercial
Counsellor at the British Embassy in Moscow. The latter
included a series of
telegraphic cables -- no emails or faxes in those days. At
the Patent Office
Library, a Mr Zubov explained local procedures "with great patience."
Monty
then visited
Mr L.
Inozemtsev of the State Committee for Inventions, with whom he went on
to deal for several years concerning exchange of Soviet documents for
Derwent
publications -- there was particular interest in matters Japanese --
and the establishment of UK licenses for Soviet inventions. (Mr
Inozemtsev
visited
London and Monty was invited back at least once to meet the plenary
State
Committee for Inventions and Discoveries. Relations may have been cold
in the early 1960s at the military and security levels, but civilian
technocrats seemed more friendly and co-operative.) The
other main appointment was at the
Ministry of Trade & Foreign Affairs to
discuss Derwent 's publications being imported into the USSR and the
possibility of translating Russian publications. Back in London, Monty
wrote
straight back to send one copy of each of his
publications and to place on record
“that we
are most anxious to hear your
decision concerning the rights to translate the Soviet Bulletin on
Patents
& Inventions and assure you that in the event of these rights
being
granted, wewould produce a work of high standard and would ensure
regular and
quick publication.” The
background to this was that Robert Maxwell's Pergamon
Press had been granted the contract from January 1959, but had actually
produced almost nothing. A
follow-up
of 14th December enclosed
"photostat
copies of two recent letters showing
some of the chaos caused by the Pergamon Press....from one letter it
can be
seen that the translations provided by Pergamon are not of a very high
standard, and from the other it will be noted that the delays by them
in
publication are stated to be due to the Russian Patent Office where in
fact
this is not so. We have heard from many booksellers of complaints about
thedelays caused by Pergamon Press and sincerely hope that you will
reach an
early decision on this subject." Matters
then moved fast. By 3rd January 1961, Monty had received and
accepted an offer to pay an annual
sum of
£270 for the translation rights. He was prepared to visit Moscow to
finalise
details, but by mid-January had received a draft contract that
obviated the need. Details were finalised via a meeting with
Leonov
in London and the contract was signed in mid-February, by which time
the first
issues of the new year had reached Derwent for translation into
English. There was now a hitch, however. |
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