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October 12, 1984: President Reagan issued Executive Order 12490, 

 establishing a National Commission on Space, made up of a 15 

 member board, appointed by the President. The Executive Order, 

 directed the Commission to study existing and proposed U.S. 

 space activities, formulate an agenda for the U.S. civilian space 

 program, and identify long range goals, opportunities, and policy 

 options for civilian space activities for the next 20 years. 



October 30, 1984: Public Law 98-575, the Commercial Space 

 Launch Act was enacted. The Act was designed to facilitate the 

 launches of commercial expendable launch vehicles (ELVs). The 

 Act designated the Department of Transportation (DOT) as the 

 lead agency for the commercialization of expendable launch vehi- 

 cles. DOT is responsible for developing licensing requirements 

 tailored to the commercial launch process, issuing and enforcing 

 licenses, and assisting industry in the acquisition of space tech- 

 nology. 



November 11, 1984: Public Law 98-620, the Trademark Clarifica- 

 tion Act of 1984 was enacted. Title V of the Act allows Govern- 

 ment-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) laboratories, operated 

 by universities, to make decisions at the laboratory level regard- 

 ing the award of licenses for laboratory-generated patents. The 

 Act also permits private companies, regardless of size, to obtain 

 exclusive license for the full life of the Government patent. Prior 

 restrictions on large firms allowed exclusive license for any 5 of 

 the 17 years of the patent. 



November 15, 1984: The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the Nation- 

 al Academy of Sciences released the report of its 18-month study, 

 "Responding to Health Needs and Scientific Opportunity; the Or- 

 ganizational Structure of the National Institutes of Health." The 

 IOM study committee concluded that the current NIH structure 

 is effective and that there should be a presumption against the 

 creation of new categorical institutes. 



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