perhaps you missed my note last week, where i cited: %T patents and the progress of science: exclusive rights and experimental use %A rebecca s. eisenberg %J university of chicago law review %V 56 %N 3 %D summer 1989 %P 1017-1086 follow the footnotes. here's a quote to entice you: If basic research cannot be insulated from the patent system entirely, it might still be possible to reconcile a system of exclusive patent rights in prior discoveries with the interest of the scientific community in allowing subsequent researchers to enjoy free access to such discoveries by exempting the use of patented inventions in research from infringement liability. While the United States patent statute does not provide for such an exemption, the courts have long recognized, at least in principle, that a purely "experimental use" of a patented invention, with no commercial purpose, should be exempt from infringement liability. over and over, she reiterates that patent courts have consistently recognized the experimental use defense. peter