Focus According to an article by Rudolph A. Pyatt, Jr., in the Washington Post (July 27, 1982, pp. D7-8), Pacific Scientific claims that "Rosenthal wanted to develop the analyzer for himself and that after resigning he obtained financing for research and development from a Swedish firm with which Neotec had had discussions." The near-infrared technique is not a new one. For instance, an I N S T R U -
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Petroleum in the Marine Environment
Advances in Chemistry Series No. 185 Leonidas Petrakis, Editor Gulf Research & Development Fred T. Weiss Editor Shell Development Company A symposium jointly sponsored by the Divisions of Petroleum and Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.
A carefully balanced presentation of analytical methodology and application that will be of major interest to environmentalists and energy conservationists. In this volume prominent chemists, marine ecologists, microbiologists, and toxicologists bring together for the first time the most important and most pertinent analytical techniques for the complex issues involved in this field. CONTENTS The Biogeochemistry of Fossil Fuel Hydrocarbons · Analytical Chemistry of Petroleum · Oil Spill Identification and Remote Sensing · Determination of Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Zooplankton and Macrofauna • High Resolution Gas Chromatography · Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Environmental Samples · Solubility Behavior of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons · Multiple Gas-Phase Equilibration Method · Nonhydrocarbons in the Analysis of Virgin and Biodegraded Petroleum · Application of Trace Analytical Techniques · Analysis of Oily Water • Hydrocarbons in the Sediments of the Bermuda Region · Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Marine/Aquatic Sediments · Ambient-Temperature Extraction of Hydrocarbons from Marine Sediment · Distribution of Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Sediments from Selected Areas · Comparison of Methods for Analysis of Hydrocarbons in Marine Sediments 371 pages (1980) Clothbound $42.00 LC 79-25524 ISBN 0-8412-0475-6 Order from: SIS Dept. Box 07 American Chemical Society 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 or CALL TOLL FREE 800-424-6747 and use your credit card.
1252 A · ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 54, NO. 12, OCTOBER 1982
M E N T A T I O N article on "Near Infrared Reflectance Spectrophotometric Analysis of Agricultural Products" by C. A. Watson appeared in the August 1977 issue of ANALYTICAL C H E M I S T R Y
(pp. 835-40 A). Rosenthal's Trebor90 Grain Tester differed somewhat from earlier designs, however. With earlier instruments, the grain was first ground and infrared radiation was reflected off the ground sample; whereas radiation is transmitted directly through a sample of whole grain with the Trebor-90, and grinding of the sample is no longer necessary. According to Trebor's suit, the three defendant firms conspired to steal a Trebor-90 unit to learn the trade secrets involved in its manufacture. An instrument such as this is normally protected by both patents and trade secrets. "When youtnke'out patents, all you've done is provide a track for other people to go around," said Rosenthal in a recent interview. "In other words, you've exposed your poker hand. A clever guy looks at it, and is perhaps able to come up with another way of doing the same job without infringing on the patent." Perhaps a better way of protecting yourself, explained Rosenthal, is the trade secret route, where you simply don't divulge publicly how you do something. This is the route that Coca-Cola has taken with its recipe, for instance. "Yes, we were covered by three patents on the Trebor-90," said Rosenthal, "but in addition to the patents there were a number of areas we considered proprietary. "It's not unusual for one company to buy another company's product," Rosenthal continued, "either directly or surreptitiously, and take that product apart. What's unusual in this case is that was not how it was done. A property owned by my company was, we allege, stolen and dismantled. We've taken great pains in our selling approach to try to avoid having someone purchase a unit and surreptitiously turn it over to a competitor. But in this case, we claim that an instrument owned by us and in the possession of an intermediate party was taken without permission and dismantled." Stuart A. Borman
