Friday, March 27, 2009

Patent Watch

Ideas to help keep your bottomline from bottoming out

Video Gallery

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Patent Watch: Patent waters flow with aquatic inventions [July 25, 2008]

Patent Watch: All method, no madness in these business patents [May 30, 2008]

In our present economy, everyone is looking for lower-cost products. Inventors too often focus on ways to make products less expensive. This month, let’s take a look at several recently issued patents and published patent applications naming New England inventors where the focus is lower cost.

• “Beam time,” for the uninitiated, means the limited time scientists get to use synchrotron radiation-based X-ray equipment for their studies of atoms and genes. Beam time is limited because these systems cost more than a billion dollars each and therefore not everyone has one. MIT patent No. 7,391,850 (June 24) proposes a lower-cost X-ray source including a radiofrequency photoinjector, a linear superconducting accelerator module, a high-power optical laser apparatus, and a passive enhancement cavity. A stream of photons generated by the laser apparatus is accumulated in the enhancement cavity and an electron stream from the photoinjector is directed through the enhancement cavity to collide with the photons to generate high-brilliance X-rays via inverse-Compton scattering. Yeah, it’s got a Hemi. The inventors include Franz Kaertner of Newton, William Graves of Marblehead, and David Moncton of Newton.

• Disposable glucose test strips can cost a diabetic thousands of dollars per year. Published patent application No. US 2009/0014340 (Jan. 15) relates to a far less expensive re-usable glucose tester including baronic acid as a coating that selectively and reversibly binds to glucose. The listed inventors include John Williams of Lexington.

• Mark Stull of Bedford, N.H., and Thomas Muckle of Old Lyme, Conn., came up with the idea of marrying compressed air energy storage systems with windmills configured to compress the air stored in the system. The system results in a very low cost per unit of energy stored and solves several problems associated with prior wind turbines which directly generated electricity in a highly variable and unreliable way. Their patent application, No. US 2009/0021012, was published on Jan. 22.

• Currently available arc detectors include an analog front end which costs too much to include in household appliances. Patent No. 7,400,481 (July 15) covers a low cost arc fault detector with fewer electronic components and yet, because it analyses changes in both powerline current and voltage, the detector can discriminate between arc faults and nuisance loads with increased accuracy. Christian Pellon of Norton and Christopher Nicolls of Cumberland, R.I., are the listed New England inventors in this patent for Sensata Technologies Inc. of Attleboro.

• Analog Devices Inc., located in Norwood, won patent No. 7,394,857 on July 1 for a low-cost wireline transmit driver capable of driving numerous lines having different and varying impedances such as cable lines, twisted pair lines for DSL applications, and powerlines. The transmit driver is configured between one of two current modes and a voltage mode of operation. The inventors are Prabir Maulik of Lexington, Paul Hendriks of Wakefield, and Iuri Mehr of North Andover.

• Patent No. 7,431,489 (Oct. 7) is a for a low production cost light fixture for fluorescent bulbs and LEDs. Light gathering particles direct the light in the desired direction. The fixture is easy to clean and has increased spatial luminance and uniformity. Terence Yeo of Boston is listed as an inventor in this patent for Fusion Optix Inc. of Cambridge.

Patents by the numbers

Number of patents issued in February 2009, by state and field
 

Kirk Teska is an adjunct law professor at Suffolk University Law School, and is the managing partner of Iandiorio, Teska & Coleman, an intellectual property law firm in Waltham. His book “Patent Savvy for Managers” is available online and in most major bookstores. He can be reached at kirk@iandorio.com.