Posts Tagged: "green patents"

Little impacts cascading together can have a large impact, but for the time being we need to realize that the technology is not where it needs to be to leverage alternative and renewable energy in an impactful way. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, but it does mean we need to be perfectly honest with ourselves and realize that a silver-bullet green technology is unlikely. In the meantime as we incentivize innovators we need an all-of-the-above series of solutions.

A tip of the hat to Wheelpump Corporation and all other start-up and established companies seeking to be more environmentally friendly and energy conscious. We need more independent inventors pursuing these technologies, we need start-up companies to attract venture capital and we need clean, home-grown American jobs. Incremental innovation is what will bridge the gap between our current energy economy and whatever the sustainable energy economy of the future will be. Let’s just hope that the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit don’t kill incremental innovation by rendering steps in the right direction obvious because they were inevitable eventually.

Currently, the average time between the approval of a green technology petition and the first action on an application is just 49 days. In several cases, patent applications in the green technology program have been issued within a year of the filing date. Earlier patenting of these technologies can help inventors to secure funding, create businesses, and bring vital green technologies to market much sooner. In fact, since the pilot program began in December 2009, a total of 790 petitions have been granted to green technology patent applicants, with 94 patents having already been issued.

Coming on the heels of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico the expansion of the green tech initiative at the PTO seems to be in line with the overall direction of the Obama Administration, which today shifted away from a true “all of the above” energy solution and is tending away from domestic oil exploration and drilling in favor of green technologies, including increasing the fuel efficiency of automobiles even further. The USPTO is front and center in a coordinate effort by the federal government to pursue green technologies as part of a unified energy plan. The latest USPTO green initiative will lead to faster patents and a coherent national policy built on the back of American inventors and entrepreneurs.

Yesterday the United States Patent and Trademark Office announced the creation of a pilot program to accelerate the examination of certain green technology patent applications. The announcement was short on details, which will apparently be forthcoming, but the move to accelerate green technology patents is one that can and should pay off handsomely. Back on March 30, 2009, I wrote…

The Wall Street Journal is reporting good news for patent owners, in particular those holding patents on green technologies. President Obama, who is currently attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Shanghai, China, along with other world leaders announced that they no longer have ambitions of reaching a binding international agreement on climate change during the United Nations Climate Change…

As I was reading IP Kat this morning I learned that yesterday the UK Intellectual Property Office announced that green inventions will be fast tracked through the patent process.  David Lammy, Minister for Intellectual Property, announced the launch an initiative which will enable inventions with an environmental benefit to be given priority within the patent system.  About six weeks ago…

President Obama’s Task Force on Autos today received a copy of the Automaker Patent Assets Intelligence Report (2009 APA-Intel Report) prepared by PatentCafe.com.  The report compares the patent portfolio assets of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Volkswagen, and concludes that GM, Ford and Chrysler may be sitting on patent assets that could be directly exploited for immediate revenue and…