71.   Its new patent protections are lauded by former critics in the computer and pharmaceutical industries.

72.   Just weeks before, it had jumped into the generic drug business, to produce cut-price versions of Merck brands that had lost their patent protection.

73.   Legal experts say the key components of the law do not threaten patent protections spelled out in World Trade Organization agreements, as the companies have argued.

74.   Los Alamos withheld disclosure of its achievement until Tuesday, Peterson said, to give the laboratory time to seek patent protection.

75.   Makers of brand-name drugs may face another challenge in the Senate to the extended patent protection granted them under an international trade agreement.

76.   Merck has become a more aggressive marketer because five of its best-selling drugs will lose their patent protection in the next two years.

77.   Monstanto also said that increased patent protection helped pave the way toward its new Argentine investment.

78.   Microsoft has refused to disclose details about Cleartype, saying it did not want to compromise the patent protection it seeks.

79.   Monsanto says it will eventually have adequate patent protection in Brazil.

80.   Nets appear to be modeled on a batch of popular products called Holdrs that Merrill Lynch created and sold and for which it is seeking patent protection.