Patent Claim Settled

Settlement of a patent claim of long standing against the Atomic Energy Commission has been completed, according to the AEC, which announced on July 31st that payment of $300,000 as compensation for partial revocation of a patent granted to seven atomic scientists in 1940, and for infringing use by the AEC and the Manhattan District, had been approved by the Commission and its patent compensation board. The patent, entitled “Process for the Production of Radioactive Substances”, was granted in 1940 on the basis of work by the scientists in Rome prior to 1934; it involved the discovery that radioactive isotopes of a number of elements can be produced by exposing the elements to neutrons slowed down by passage through a moderating material.