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News from Senator BOB DOLE
(R - Kansas) SH 141 Hart Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1984
CONTACT: WALT RIKER, SCOTT RICHARDSON 202/224-6521
DOLE TO CHAIR HEARING TOMORROW ON PATENT PROCEDURES -- HI-TECH DEVELOPMENT ENCOURAGED
WASHINGTON -- Kansas Senator Bob Dole, Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, will chair a Patents Subcommittee hearing tomorrow on legislation designed to encourage development of new technologies. S. 2171, the "Uniform Patent Procedures Act," would standardize agency patent procurement policies and procedures, and encourage private sector development of new discoveries made under a federal research and development contract.
The Tuesday, March 27 hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m., in Room SD-226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Witnesses will include Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh, University of Maryland President John S. Toll, Commerce Department officials, and several hi-tech industry executives and scientists.
The Uniform Patent Procedures Act would:
. Create a presumption in favor of contractor ownership of new inventions developed under federal R&D contracts;
. Prohibit agencies from requiring the surrender of so-called "background rights" as a pre-condition to obtainment of a federal R&D contract except where the agency head person- ally determines that such rights are essential to the accomplishment of agency purposes in the contract;
· Streamline the procurement procedures, establish one policy for all government agencies, and conform that policy to the principles of P.L. 96-517;
. Eliminate existing provisions of law that unnecessarily complicate the procurement process.