From post 29 by Dorothy http://forums.aboutmecfs.org/showthr...FS-Study/page3
Amazing!
Complete DeFreitas patent application available online
The Elaine Defreitas complete patent application is available online (.pdf document, 91 pages) at
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP0546126.pdf
It's not clear to me whether this patent was ever granted; the "publication date" seems to refer only to publishing the application. I did a search at the World Intellectual property organization (www.wipo.int) and found the Defreitas application listed there:
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/fetch.j...fWO9205760%29+
If this long link doesn't work, just go to
http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en
and click on "patent search" and type in WO9205760 (the second character is a capital "O", not a "zero") next to "publication number", then click on the title that comes up. You'll find documentation under various tab headings. One interesting point is that under "national phase", it says that the patent (or perhaps just the patent application) was withdrawn in 1997. This may only refer to the US patent office (a check of that site shows no patents granted under this subject).
Even if a patent was never granted, the 91-page application documentation is a treasure trove of valuable information. I, too, wonder what happened to Elaine Defreitas and hope she'll be vindicated by the WPI's further research! I hated the way the CDC trashed her work. If I recall, in Osler's Web, Hillary Johnson stated that the CDC at one point seemed to confirm her work (and briefly became alarmed at the ramifications of a new, communicable retrovirus), but later only published their negative findings. (I don't remember for sure, but I think Walter Gunn was the main source of information on the CDC antics). Does anyone know what became of him? I hope he had a happy retirement. Anyway, I have no hopes that the CDC will even properly try to replicate the WPI findings, at least not with Reeves in charge; he'll never admit he's been on the wrong track.
Amazing!