Since then, inventors and assignors already in possession of isotope production patents could only claim compensation to the AEC, which was authorised to seize them. As the Atomic Energy Act (1946) made the isotope industry a monopoly of the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), it contributed to transform the trading of its relevant patents in a 'contentious' business. I especially focus on the consequences of the Manhattan Project on patent legislation. Then I examine the factors that hindered these activities by looking at the history of industrial patents in the establishment of the isotope industry. In the first part I survey the number of issued patents on the production of isotopes, also arguing that the isotope industry was typified by inadequate patenting activities. paper analyses the role that patents played in the establishment of the isotope industry. A contentious business: Industrial patents and the production of isotopes, 1930-1960ĭivision of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS), University of Leeds.

System shock 1 isotope