Perpetual Innovation

Category: Patents

  • No PTA For Divisional Application… Term Adjustments.. 20 years +/-

    No PTA For Divisional Application | PharmaPatents:

    When does a 20 year patent turn out to be more than a 20 year patent… Patent Term Adjustments.

    Okay, so under certain situations, an extension can be requested to the 20 years that the US has for patent applications after 1995. The idea is that for such applications as pharma the long lead time in all approvals through the PTO and the FDA and more… can significantly reduce the useful life of the patent. So Patent Term Adjustments, PTA, (not to be confused with when your parents got together with teachers and the principal), are sometimes allowed. This is the reason that your friendly Patent Attorney will usually say “a patent is the arrangement with the government to offer a monopoly on your invention for about 20 years when you disclose the invention in the formal patent process”.

    Okay, so PTAs are sometimes allowed, but the extensions can be very qwerty. In this case, you would think that the term adjustments to the main, parent, application would be afforded to the patent applications associated with dividing that original application. Not so, it would seem.

    Very interesting, and a very well written article on the whole issue (POSTED BY COURTENAY C. BRINCKERHOFF)

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Intel science winners… cool inventions… and patents

    Meet the teen who just won $75,000 for inventing a system to keep germs from spreading on airplanes http://wapo.st/1d3L2Eo
    Wang, the young winner, created a way to give everyone on an airplane their own space, with kind of  air walls around them.
    His simulation shows a 55 times reduction in the air transmittable diseases. The retrofit for an existing airplane? It takes one evening and cost a whopping $1000! With the reduction in sick time, the airlines will make it back from employees in one single trip.
    And what does Wang want to do when he grows up? He wants to go to college and study engineering and business!

  • Control of IP on Business Side of Corporation

    There’s a key point in this IAM magazine article by Joff Wild in the July 9, 2014, issue.  Note that the Chief IP Officer is not an attorney- he a business professional.  This is a significant change, a recognition that commercialization of Intellectual Property in a marketed product, a Patent Licensing Agreement with Royalties, a technology transfer or an outright patent sale is a business decision, not a legal one.  In some companies going back nearly 50 years, (AT&T, IBM, DuPont, Xerox to name a few) the decisions on IP were made by the business side.  But, for most, it has only been since the late 1980s that brought the marked change from predominantly physical assets in a corporation to intellectual assets that has prompted more and more corporations to view IP as a key revenue generator that has a place in the strategic plan.  The business development organization would be an appropriate place for decisions on IP revenue generation.

  • Intellectual Property is going to POT (Marijuana, that is) – Bloomberg

    Marijuana, Motorola, Moroccanoil: Intellectual Property – Bloomberg:

    You have to laugh about the ideas being plant patents on Marijuana. But this is serious business.

    First, if you come up with a new strain of a plant, you can apply for a “Plant Patent”. If the patent is issued, you can use DNA testing to determine if/when someone else is infringing on your patent. Monsanto is the king (or Redwood) of plant patents.

    HOWEVER, it is not possible to patent something that is illegal. The USPTO will say “offensive to public morality” (USPTO.)

    So now, you as a happy pot grower have the dilemma. You would like to get ahead of the competition. You would like to get your strain of Mary Jane out there, protected by patent, but you can’t because it is an illegal product. Of course, you could move to a state where it is legal. Then presumably you would be able to legally grow it, legally sell it, and legally patent it. You would, of course, want to trademark the name, and copyright the slogan and the official description.

    No wait, come out of the smoke-filled fog and clear your slow and soggy head!… Marijuana is still illegal Federally, as in the good olde US of A. That’s were the USPTO lives and all patents are federal. Hmmm…

    All in all, the intellectual property could be quite valuable. And Monsanto and Altria will probably leave you alone for years; the market’s too small and the legal risks are too big.

    Now you are wondering, prior to the allowance of IP into the pot market, how did you protect your strain. Once the buds left the dealer’s hands there was no way to corner the market. Any common criminal who didn’t want to smoke it today, could sow the seeds of happiness, indefinitely into the uncertain future.

    I can’t wait to see the patent applications over the next few years as marijuana continues it rapid path down the rabbit hole of decriminalization. An Alice in Wonderland adventure awaits.
    KEY: Patents, plant patents, USPTO, Illegal, Crime, Monsanto
    ‘via Blog this’

  • Phosphate World and Patent World. Sir John Bennet Lawes, Father of Fertilizer!

    Check out the post at our sister blog SustainZine.com: Phosphate World.

    This blog talks about the phosphate industry in Florida and the nice resort being built out of the rubble of past Phosphate mines over in the Tampa Bay area. That actually is pretty cool, but the point that phosphate fertilizer from mines is non-sustainable, and consequently is a broken business model. Peak Phosphate in the world could arrive by 2030.

    Innovation in preserving and recycling phosphate is critical. More sustainable uses of fertilizer is essential and a responsible way forward.

    But this blog looks at one of the key patents and technological breakthroughs that built the phosphate industry — and consequently, modern farming as we know it.

    Sir John Bennet Lawes is credited as the father of artificial fertilizer. He developed what is referred to as the superphospate fertilizer…. (Many politicians can make such a super fertilizer, only without the patented processes.)

    The inherited owner of the Rothamsted Manor in England, John Bennet Lawes, is credited with inventing the process for extracting useful phosphate from phosphate rock using sulfuric acid. In 1842 he obtained a patent on the process. (This must be only a UK patent since it seems hard to find in the USPTO.)

    Britannica had this to say about Sir John.
    “Lawes inherited his father’s estate, Rothamsted, in 1822. In 1842, after long experimentation with the effects of manures on potted plants and field crops on his estate, he patented a process for treating phosphate rock with sulfuric acid to produce superphosphate. That year he opened the first fertilizer factory, thus initiating the artificial fertilizer industry. The following year, the chemist J.H. (later Sir Henry) Gilbert joined him, and they began a collaboration lasting more than a half century; Lawes considered 1843 the year of the station’s foundation. Together, the pair studied the effects of different fertilizers on crops. They also researched animal nutrition, including the value of different fodders and the sources of animal fat.”

    There are several patents/applications within the last few years related to phosphate (fertilizer). Check out this one, first filed in China, related to extracting phosphate from low-grade rock using a microbial strain.

    And, of course, virtually all GMO seeds/plants are patented — Monsanto, Dupont, a university, etc. 

    Here’s a longer look at Sir John’s life history from Oxford’s DB.  The Rothamsted Research center is still active today, including GMO research.