INTERAGENCY COMMITTEE ON RECOMBINANT DNA RESEARCH 
Summary Minutes of Meeting 
March 29, 1977 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 
The sixth meeting of the Interagency Committee took place on March 29 
at the National Institutes of Health. The meeting was chaired by 
Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson, Director of the NIH. The two agenda items 
considered were: (a) the Commerce Department Order providing for the 
accelerated processing of patent applications for inventions related 
to recombinant DNA activities and (b) Committee review of the draft 
legislation prepared by the Office of the General Counsel, DHEW . 
REVIEW OF COMMERCE DEPARTMENT ORDER ON 
ACCELERATED PROCESSING OF PATENT APPLICATIONS 
The Department of Commerce Order providing for accelerated processing of 
patent applications for recombinant DNA inventions was suspended on March 9 
(except for applications relating to safety of research in this field) so 
that the Interagency Committee could consider recommendations concerning 
research in this field by the private sector. The Committee review of the 
Order and the explanatory documents prepared by the Commerce Department 
centered on the following issues: 
1 . The Accelerated Processing of Patent Applications 
Dr. Betsy Ancker-Johnson , the Commerce Department representative, explained 
that the acceleration of the patent process will result in earlier dis- 
closure of the information included in the patent application. She 
emphasized that the manner in which the review of the application would be 
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