U.S. Agrees to Share Technology

Energy Secretary James Watkins and a dozen chiefs of top U.S. high-tech companies on Thursday signed a breakthrough agreement that makes it easier for national labs to share research with private industry.

Transferring technology from defense and other government research to commercial purposes would make U.S. companies more competitive, said Watkins, who had worked on the pact since October.

The deal allows speedy cooperation with the government for the first time, said Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive John A. Sculley, chairman of the industry group that reached the accord with the Department of Energy.

“This is in some ways an event that has little precedence,” Sculley told a news conference. “There has not been great cooperation between the government and the computer industry in the past.”