Trends --.

The article announces that the U.S. secretary of commerce Maurice H. Stans reported that 138 anti-pollution patent applications have been approved for priority processing since last February 17, 1971 when the federal government accelerated the patent process for applications relating to environmental protection. 113 of these patents have already been acted upon by an examiner. Though the number of patents which will be issued on these applications is not yet known, the agency expects that 70 percent of these applications will be patented.