Statistics and information reported by AEC to Joint Committee.......... AEC report to Senate Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and SELECTED MATERIALS ON ATOMIC ENERGY PATENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION the Before adjournment of the 85th Congress in late August 1958, chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Committee directed the committee staff to undertake certain studies during the congressional recess. One of these studies pertained to atomic energy patents, and possible amendments of chapter 13 of the Atomic Energy Act with respect to inventions and patents. Accordingly, the committee staff with the assistance of an informal advisory panel, prepared the following outline indicating the areas to be studied. I. Introduction: ATOMIC ENERGY PATENTS OUTLINE A. Brief summary of AEC patent policies and procedures. II. Atomic energy patent applications and grants under 1946 and 1954 acts--numbers and scope: A. By Commission. B. By others. III. Analysis of special provisions of 1954 act, AEC regulations, and experience: A. Compulsory licensing provisions (sec. 153)—expires as to applications filed after September 1, 1959. B. Inventions conceived under Commission contract "or other relationship" (sec. 152). C. Inventions in atomic weapons field (sec. 151). D. Award system (sec. 157). E. Reporting requirements and procedures in Patent Office (secs. 151, 152, and 153). F. Antitrust and encouragement of competition (secs. 153, 158). G. Others. IV. Special problems: A. Activities of former AEC employees and contractors. V. International patent problems: A. Comparison with atomic energy patent provisions of other countries. B. Problems of patent protection abroad. 1 Chapter I of this print is intended to serve as a brief introduction of the materials which follow. Chapter II includes excerpts from the U.S. Constitution and statutes. The constitutional clause in article I, section 8 provides that Congress shall have power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." Excerpts have also been included in Chapter II from the Atomic Energy Act and from the general patent laws contained in title 35 of the United States Code. Chapter III then sets forth certain correspondence between the Joint Committee and the AEC, and a draft bill and section by section analysis as prepared by AEC. The AEC letter of March 16, 1959, signed by Acting Chairman Libby, which forwarded this bill, stated that the Commission had not yet received complete views and advice from other Federal agencies, and that it might, therefore, submit certain modifications to the proposed bill prior to the patent hearings. In this proposed bill the Commission has recommended amendments to sections 151, 152, 153, 155 and 157 of the act, and deletion of present section 158. Section 5 of the AEC draft bill recommends that subsection h of section 153, the so-called "compulsory licensing" section, be amended by extending the expiration date another 5 years, from September 1, 1959, to September 1, 1964. Chapter IV of the print reprints in full the views of the members of the AEC Patent Advisory Panel, as forwarded to the Joint Committee by AEC letter dated March 4, 1959. Also included is a chart, as prepared by AEC, indicating in outline form the views of each of the three members of the Patent Advisory Panel (Mr. Ooms, Mr. Dienner, and Mr. Brown) as to each subsection of each present section of the act. In addition, there have been reprinted certain brief excerpts from the 1947 report of the Patent Advisory Panel. Chapter V of this print includes certain charts, statistics and information on atomic energy patents, as furnished by the Patent Office and AEC. The Patent Office charts indicate trends in filing patent applications from 1946 to present. The AEC has provided certain information in response to questions from the Joint Committee and also from the Senate Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights. Also included in chapter V are miscellaneous correspondence between the Joint Committee, the Patent Office and the AEC concerning access to applications and other matters. Chapter VI of this print includes excerpts from the meeting held at AEC headquarters on April 15, 1958, on AEC patent practices and policies. Representative statements from industry spokesmen, from the American Patent Law Association, and other groups, have been reprinted. Chapter VII of this print includes excerpts from reports on patent policies of other Federal agencies, including the 1947 Report and Recommendations of the Attorney General to the President on Government Patent Practices and Policies. Brief quotations have also been reprinted from the recent (March 9, 1959) report of the Senate Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights, which indicates that of 18 different Government agencies, preliminary studies conducted by the subcommittee revealed no uniformity of policy followed by these agencies in regard to their patent policies. The subcommittee report states further that it is continuing its investigations, and that reports will be issued of each agency in turn and then an overall final report discussing the problems and outlining the additional facts needed for informed legislative judgment. In preparing for these hearings, the staff of the Joint Committee has worked closely with and has received valuable assistance and cooperation from the staff of the Senate Subcommittee of the Judiciary on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights. Chapter VIII of this print includes three law review articles on atomic energy patents by recognized legal authorities. Chapter IX includes a bibliography of atomic energy patent materials, as prepared by the Library of Congress. The committee staff is continuing to obtain additional information concerning atomic energy patents, and has requested further reports from AEČ, particularly as to how it protects the Government's interests with contractors who also have extensive private atomic activities, and as to procedures for review of patent applications by former employees. Such additional information and statistics will be incorporated into the record of the hearings. In preparing for the hearings, the Joint Committee staff has received valuable assistance from two consultants, Mr. William K. Chipman of the University of Wisconsin Law School, and Mr. Bernard Wohlfert of the Department of Justice. The committee has also obtained certain studies and reports pertaining to atomic energy patents in the foreign field which were not completed at the time of publication of this print, but which will be published and distributed as an addendum in the near future, and prior to the hearings, scheduled for April 21-24, 1959. |