The Allies confiscated large amounts of German intellectual property (patents and copyrights, but also trademarks). Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years the US pursued a vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel comes to the conclusion, in his book ""Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany"", that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the US (and the UK) amounted to close to $10 billion. (Compared to America's 1948 GDP of $258 billion and total Marshall plan expenditure (1948-1952) of $13 billion, of which Germany received $1 billion in loans and $400 million as a grant). The US competitors of German firms were encouraged by the occupation authorities to access all records and facilities. In 1947 the director of the US Commerce Department's Office of Technical Services stated before congress: "The fundamental justification of this activity is that we won the war and the Germans did not. If the Germans had won the war, they would be over here in Schenectady and Chicago and Detroit and Pittsburgh, doing the same things." A German report from May 1, 1949, stated that many entrepreneurs preferred not to do research under the current regulations (Allied Control Council Law No. 25) for fear of the research directly profiting their competitors. The law required detailed reporting to the Allies of all research results.