12 
Federal Register on March 9, 1977, Commerce announced suspension 
of the order (except for applications relating to safety of research 
in this field, which would continue to receive expedited processing). 
At a meeting held on March 29, the Committee reviewed the order 
and documents prepared by the Commerce Department explaining in 
detail the underlying policies. The majority of Committee members 
were favorably disposed to the reinstatement of the Commerce Depart- 
ment order because: (1) accelerated processing involves no change 
in patent policies, merely a speeding up of the procedures; (2) it 
motivates compliance with the safety standards of the NIH Guidelines 
by nongovernmentally funded domestic investigators during the period 
while national legislation is being considered; and (3) it encourages 
compliance with a set of recognized safety standards by foreign 
investigators who may not yet be subject to comparable standards in 
their own countries. The views of the Committee were transmitted to 
the Secretary for his review in April 1977. The Secretary has taken 
no action, pending enactment of legislation. 
2 . Institutional Patent Agreements 
An analysis of the HEW Institutional Patent Agreements was 
referred to the Committee for review. A number of the agency 
representatives referred the analysis to their patent counsels. 
Among the relevant agencies that commented were the National 
Science Foundation, the Defense Department, the Department of 
Agriculture, the Energy Research and Development Administration, 
and the Department of Justice. 
[ 14 ] 
