Enrico Fermi’s patent number 2206634 on the slow neutron technique was accepted in the United States. The inventors were Fermi, Amaldi, Pontecorvo, Rasetti, and Segrè, while D’Agostino and Trabacchi had been promised shares of any profits if the patent was accepted. The patent would go through a complex process: it was filed by Italians, who during the war were enemies of the United States, so the American government demanded and was granted practically free use of it. However, after the war, Fermi took legal action. After several years, the parties agreed on a lump sum payment of $300,000. After paying $180,000 in legal fees, each party was left with just under $30,000 at the time, enough to each buy a nice apartment in one of Chicago’s best neighborhoods. Obviously, Pontecorvo, having fled to the Soviet Union, did not receive his share. The litigation put Enrico Fermi in an awkward position, and the result is unfair: the patent on slow neutrons remains one of the most important patents in the history of atomic energy, its true value literally incalculable. The Italians accepted it simply because they had no choice (cit. David N. Schwartz, biography of Enrico Fermi, 2017).
