UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 
Patent and Trademark Office 
Address : COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS AND TRADEMARKS 
Washington, D.C. 20231 
October 12, 1976 
Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson 
Director, Public Health Service 
National Institutes of Health 
Department of Health, Education, and. Welfare 
Bethesda, Maryland 20014 
Dear Dr. Fredrickson: 
Dr. Hartwell has asked that I write you in connection 
with the inquiries contained in your letter of 
September 7, 1976. These concerned the patent policies 
of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 
in relation to recombinant DNA research activity. 
From your letter and the attachment regarding the patent 
application filed by Stanford University and the University 
of California, I gather that your principal concerns in 
this matter are first, that there be rapid exchange of 
information in this important new field, and second, that 
there be some degree of control over the type of experi- 
ments carried on to avoid possible hazards to humans. 
Presumably there is also the desire to make available to 
the participating institutions the incentives for 
exploitation which patents provide, so long as this does 
not interfere unduly with an appropriate resolution of 
your other concerns. 
It would seem to me that patents offer a very good vehicle 
for the sort of control which you would like to maintain. 
Either options 3 or 4, of those listed on page 3 of your 
letter, would afford your department the opportunity to 
set whatever conditions of use or experimentation might 
seem appropriate in any licensing of the patents. This 
opportunity would not exist if either option 1 or option 
2 were selected, and would only partially exist with option 
5. Whether this consideration should be the dominant one 
of course depends on how vital you consider it to be able 
to exercise this sort of control. 
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