on 16. PATENT ATTORNEY Throughout the first three-year period of SFO, a qualified member of the LASL staff represented SFO in the field of Patent Law, authority being delegated for him to deal directly with the opposite office in AEC, Washington. By the‘time of the establishment of SFOO in Albuquerque, the volume of matters arising in or related to the field of Patent Law increased to an extent requiring an office to take care of such activities for all SFO offices and related contractor installations other than LASL. Accordingly, an Office of Patent Attorney was established on June 16, 1952, at the Headquarters, SFOO. The Patent Attorney advises and assists the SFO organization on patent matters, in accordance with the Atomic Energy Act, the Commission's patent policies and rules, and patent laws, regulations, and rules. In general, he negotiates, interprets, reviews and verifies clauses and agreements pertaining to patent rights, patent procedures, and the re- porting of inventions; furnishes advice and assistance as to patent policy relating to contracting and subcontracting, assignment and reporting of inventions; considers questions of patent infringement; performs investigations requisite to patent clearance of agreements containing patent provisions in favor of the Government and assists contractors in reporting discoveries and inventions; reviews contractors’ technical reports for disclosures of inventive subject matter and advises contractors as to reporting such material; analyzes and evaluates subject matter of reported discoveries and inventions, and advises as to preparation and filing of patent applications; and prepares and prosecutes patent applications. Until June 1950, an Office of Patent Attorney Advisor was maintained in the Sandia | Field Office. In February 1951, the office was deactivated, and the functions of the Patent Attorney Advisor were transferred to SFOO. Patent matters at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory continue to be handled by the Los Alamos Patent Group. During the present reporting period, the SFOO Patent Attorney opened 142 patent dockets on probable inventions, including those of the now defunct Sandia Patent Group. The Los Alamos Group opened 99 patent dockets during the period. The SFOO Patent Attorney filed 20 patent applications in the U. S. Patent Office, including those filed by Sandia; and the Los Alamos Groupfiled 29. 17, SECURITY yeaa: mn The task of providing security for the SFO complex of laboratories, manufacturing plants, procurement programs, and test operations has increased greatly in scope and difficulty during the last three years. Although considerable program stabilization has been achieved, much expansion and development has continued to be planned and necessarily executed on a"crash" basis. Too infrequently was there time for wholly satisfactory ad- vance planning and orderly program development, and the security organization and its program have continued to suffer growing pains. A significant increase in over-all program effectiveness since 1950 has been achieved, however, accompanied by organizational changes to meet the rapid expansion in SFO activi- my ties.