Word: ge
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...When GE tried to patent the bacterium in 1972 under Chakrabarty's name...
...patent officials balked. They argued, in effect, that if either Jefferson or Congress had intended life to be patentable, special laws would not have been needed to protect certain new plant hybrids like the Red American Beauty Rose. But when GE pressed its case, the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals rejected the Government's argument, and the Supreme Court last week went along with that position. As Chief Justice Burger explained, the issue is "not between living and inanimate things, but between products of nature-whether living or not -and human-made inventions...
...Though GE was pleased by the decision, it seems in no rush to exploit the bug commercially. Ronald Brooks, head of the GE environmental unit where Chakrabarty did his work, says that the company would entertain licensing agreements with those who want to develop the oil eater. But he adds that GE does not see a market big enough for it to become directly involved...
March 4: South African Prime Minister Botha admits that South Africa has developed nuclear weapons, thanking IBM, GE and the Bell Laboratories for their assistance in the project. In neighboring Zimbabwe/Rhodesia Popular Front guerrillas resume attacks in the civil war. Botha calls for an immediate end to the combat, threatening to "turn Mozambique into a parking...