ACS News engineering but virtually unknown in chemistry, creating a joint ACS body with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers to work toward cross-fertilization of chemistry and chemical engineering curricula; establishing an ACS Committee on the Handicapped to help open up chemical education and the chemical profession to the physically handicapped, creating an ACS Appeals Board as a mechanism for appeal of accreditation decisions of the Committee on Professional Training, establishing a program that provides matching grants for innovative projects of student affiliate chapters, providing continuing education opportunities for college chemistry teachers, and expanding the ACS Video Courses program to broaden the scope of ACS continuing education. However, the commission's signal achievement, according to EdCom's chairman for the three years, Peter E. Yankwich, vice president of academic affairs at the University of Illinois, is that "it demonstrated convincingly that one committee was all it took, and at a fraction of the cost" for the three ACS committees operating before formation of EdCom. "And, indeed, a single committee—the new Society Committee on Chemical Education—is now doing the whole job." With the commission experiment concluded and with science and education activities firmly entrenched in brand new committees, the ADL Task Force that spawned the two commissions as well as the three original society committees has now moved on to the final two of seven areas it visualized as needing delegation of authority and responsibility—professional and member affairs, and public affairs and public relations. Ernest Carpenter, Washington
ACS on patent appeals, chemical fate tests In two public policy letters to government officials, the American Chemical Society has offered its support for the concept of a single court of appeals for patent cases, and its comments on proposed chemical fate test standards. Support for H.R. 2405, "Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit," was expressed in a letter by ACS president Albert C. Zettlemoyer to Rep. Robert W. Kastenmeier (D.-Wis.), chairman of the House Subcommittee
on Courts, Civil Liberties & the Administration of Justice. A letter by Zettlemoyer to Walter C. Barber Jr., acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, put forth the society's views on environmental test standards proposed by EPA for compounds under section 4 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). In urging a single appeals court for patent cases, Zettlemoyer notes that patent protection of new products and processes provides an important incentive for industrial innovation that has been weakened significantly by the variable protection offered by the trial and circuit courts. The federal courts differ in their interpretations of patent validity and of the scope and enforceability of patent claims. The resulting unpredictability is especially burdensome to the chemical industry, Zettlemoyer points out. "ACS believes that an appeal from the trial courts to a single court of appeals for cases arising under the patent laws, on balance, will provide greater uniformity to such disparate views," he says.
In his statement, Zettlemoyer acknowledges a risk of overspecialization inherent in courts composed of judges in specialized fields. "However, the long-existing state of uncertainty resulting from the unpredictability of interpretation of patent law, dependent upon the circuit or particular court where venue arises, is such an unacceptable impediment to technological development and innovation that ACS believes this risk must be taken," he adds. In his letter to acting EPA head Barber, Zettlemoyer offers the society's recommendations on EPA's proposed rules for evaluation of the chemical fates of compounds under section 4 of TSCA—existing chemicals on the market. He says ACS believes that test methods chosen by EPA must be "consistent with Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development test protocols; flexible in terms of kinds of tests performed and the methodology to be used; based on guidelines and performance standards which are consistent with the end use of the data; and consistent in the use of scientific units, notations, and terminology." D
2\ 4-Dichloro Acetophenone 2,6-Dichloro Benzonitrile 2,6-Dichloro Benzoyl Chloride Isoprene (2-Methyl Butadiene) Norbornadiene Pinacolone Available now from
biddls sawyer C O R P O R A T I O N ^
2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121 · (212)736-1580 May 4, 1981 C&EN 47
