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The article reports that calling India "a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology," the U.S. Administration this week agreed to share U.S. civil nuclear technology with its ally despite India's refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. A Washington visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also produced a protocol on the contentious issue of intellectual property rights for joint research projects. Export controls between the nations will also be scaled back, agricultural projects boosted, and joint space projects tackled.

The article reports on the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act (B-D), which has had a profound impact on science in the U.S. and, indirectly, in other nations as well. Under B-D, the U.S. government renounced intellectual property claims on research supported by federal funds in universities or other nongovernment institutions. The argument in its favor went this way: because few patents were being issued on government-funded work, scientists and their institutions needed an incentive to patent their discoveries and then license the new technology for development into useful products. To those who had worried about technology transfer, it's a huge success.