Alice and Bob Are Here
FedInvent Patents for Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Hello from FedInvent,
As of Tuesday, February 22, 2022, the US Patent Office has granted 971 patents that benefitted from taxpayer funding. Over 6,300 patents with taxpayer funding will be granted in 2022 at the current run rate.
On Tuesday, USPTO granted 137 more patents with taxpayer funding.
Here are the links to the FedInvent Report and the Details Page organized by federal department.
Alice and Bob Are Here
Alice and Bob, and their evil adversary, Eve, make a guest appearance in this week's FedInvent patents.
Alice and Bob explain how complex computational things work. Instead of saying, "Computer A sends a message to computer B," explainers say, "Alice sends a message to Bob." Alice and Bob are the main characters in blockchain, cryptocurrency, applied cryptography, game theory, and physics. Eve appears to explain what happens when things could go wrong and how Alice and Bob protect themselves from Eve's nefarious antics.
Alice and Bob played an important role in explaining how cryptocurrency and blockchain work. Alice and Bob are also concerned about keeping their transactions secure from Eve, the eavesdropper, who wants to bust in and steal their stuff. Sybil, another malicious actor, may also try to trick Alice and Bob.
The Department of Defense and the scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology spend a lot of time freaking out over how to protect encrypted data and transactions once quantum computing becomes a reality. For example, General Alice needs to be able to send an encrypted message to Airman Bob without Comrade Eve seeing it. Encryption is also needed to keep Comrade Eve from accessing the keys for the hypersonic missiles.
Quantum computing and current encryption techniques are incompatible. Verizon is a company that also spends a lot of time thinking about quantum computing and the coming digital security apocalypse. Verizon reports that the security algorithms we use today would take roughly 10 billion years to decrypt. The decryption process could take as little as 10 seconds using quantum computing. Whether Alice and Bob's ability to execute transactions securely in a post-quantum universe with unlimited compute power is an important federal R&D priority. (The blockchain miners should be worried about quantum computing too.)
This week Alice and Bob joined us to explain the latest invention from Lawrence Livermore National Lab. The inventors invented a way to use a thermal source for quantum key distribution (QKD). Instead of a random number generator, they use a broadband thermal source, such as a continuous wave or pulsed source.
The inventors received US patent 11258594, "Quantum key distribution using a thermal source." This invention is "a passive continuous-variable quantum key distribution scheme, where Alice splits the output of a thermal source into two spatial modes, measures one locally, and transmits the other mode to Bob after applying attenuation. A secure key can be established based on measurements of the two modes without the use of a random number generator or an optical modulator."
The Alice and Bob quantum key distribution is a novel, useful, and nonobvious invention.
Better, Faster, Smaller, Cheaper
Taxpayer-funded R&D is policy-driven. Policy-driven R&D is focused on solving problems. In the patent world, solving problems yields useful things. Patented things are useful, novel, and nonobvious. Useful means better, faster, smaller, cheaper.
Taxpayer-funded patents are loaded with interesting facts about American life. For example, one of the patent applications published during the two-year-old pandemic said, "According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the average American spends 93% of their time indoors." It's unclear if this statistic is before or during the COVID lockdowns. Where does outdoor dining in a plastic igloo fit into this statistic?
Here is a sample of what we learned from Tuesday's taxpayer-funded patents.
Leave the Grass-Fed Cows Alone — Better AgTech
Are the grass-fed cows eating grass?
Foraging behavior in grazing ruminant animals, cows, is a complex process that is difficult to quantify. Direct observation of grazing animals is tedious, error-prone, and subject to natural limitations such as weather conditions and the number of animals that need to be watched at one time. Those pesky people get in the way. Human presence alone may significantly alter the foraging behavior of some animals.
Inventors from USDA patented a system for monitoring cow's ruminant foraging behavior. The system utilizes a piezoelectric film sensor in communication wirelessly connected to a computer to record and communicate jaw movement data for the cow. The computer applies pattern algorithms to categorize the jaw movement data. The algorithm categorizes jaw movements as chewing, biting, ruminating (chewing their cud), or idling. In addition, the inventors added GPS so you can also figure out where the cows are while moving their jaws and munching on some plants.
So the inventors have a cow chewing categorization and location determining wireless monitoring device to help ranchers understand what's happening with the herd. (11252941)
Treatment for Another Scary Virus
Ebolaviruses are members of the family Filoviridae. These viruses infect humans and non-human primates (NHPs), causing hemorrhagic fever with mortality rates up to 90%.
Tuesday's US Patent 11254732, "Monoclonal Antibodies and Cocktails for Treatment of Ebola Infections," is for novel monoclonal antibodies capable of binding to and neutralizing an Ebola virus in a patient. The new monoclonal antibodies bind to glycoprotein (GP) proteins from ebolaviruses, neutralizing viral particles' infectivity or targeting infected cells for destruction.
The inventors made a serendipitous discovery. The patent notes, "Surprisingly, the disclosed human antibodies possess pan-ebolavirus cross-reactivity and cross-neutralizing activity, and are thus capable of binding and neutralizing all known species of the Ebola virus." This work resulted from a bicoastal collaboration between MAPP Biopharmaceutical, Inc., Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Adimab, LLC.
The Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funded this research. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense for countering weapons of mass destruction. Ebola infections running wild has the potential to be a weapon of mass destruction.
Grid-Scale Batteries
Low-temperature molten salts offer promise as electrolytes in developing safe, reliable, grid-scale batteries. The invention covers a family of low-temperature molten sodium batteries that leverage a liquid, fully inorganic molten salt catholyte for safe, long-lifetime energy storage. (11258096 from Sandia National Labs)
Recover the Lithium — A Cheaper Way to Acquire Lithium
Lithium is an essential element for use in making lithium-ion batteries. Economically viable lithium concentrations are found in brines, minerals, and clays in various parts of the world. Lithium production was dominated by US producers using spodumene and pegmatite mineral deposits. Today, South America, Australia, and China account for most lithium production.
The Oak Ridge National Lab and All American Lithium, LLC figured out how to recover lithium from geothermal brine. Geothermal brine, the waste product of geothermal energy production, contains lithium, boron, and potassium.
The new invention uses a sorbent to recover lithium more efficiently from brine wastes at geothermal power plants. Lithium recovery is typically accomplished using natural evaporative processes. The primary product of such brine processing is potassium, with lithium being produced as a side product. Inventors at Oak Ridge National Lab invented a way to recover lithium as well.
11253820, "Lithium Extraction Composite for Recovery of Lithium From Brines, and Process of Using Said Composition," presents a way that a lithium-sensitive sorbent can extract lithium from geothermal brines.
American Lithium owns the TLC Lithium Project. This project is close to the Tesla giga-factory in Nevada. It's good to have a potential customer down the street.
The Bayh-Dole Scofflaws
This week there are two Bayh-Dole scofflaws, inventors that failed to provide the complete statutorily required information when inventors receive taxpayer funding. US patent 11256806 — "System and method for cyber attack detection based on rapid unsupervised recognition of recurring signal patterns," and 11258487 — "Communication system and method for achieving high data rates using modified nearly-equiangular tight frame (NETF) matrices."
HRL Laboratories received 11256806. The invention is a system for cyber-attack detection within cyber-physical systems (such as a vehicle). David Payton, one of the inventors, is the Principal Investigator on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program to develop cyber-security for automobiles using side-channel analysis. So we’ll chalk this one up to DHS.
Rampart Communications, Inc. received 11258487. Rampart Communications is a frequent Bayh-Dole scofflaw. Rampart Communications is a member of the Fort Meade Alliance. The Fort Meade Alliance mission is to promote Fort George G. Meade as a growing regional economic asset and provide impact to the region with targeted programs and initiatives. Our funding prognosticators credit this patent to the National Security Agency.
Patents By The Numbers
On Tuesday, February 22, 2022, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued 7,197 patents. One hundred thirty-seven (137) of these patents benefitted from taxpayer funding. Here is how they break down.
One hundred thirty (130) patents have Government Interest Statements.
Thirty-five (35) have a government agency as an applicant or an assignee.
A federal department is the only assignee on twenty (20) patents.
The 137 new patents have 154 department-level funding citations.
These patents are the work of 481 inventors.
The 470 American inventors come from 36 states and the District of Columbia.
The 11 foreign inventors come from 8 countries.
There are 77 patents (56%) where at least one assignee is a college or university, the HERD.
Three patents (3) resulted from the collaboration between two universities.
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) received thirteen (13) patents.
Three (3) patents were assigned Y CPC symbols indicating that the invention may be useful in mitigating the impact of climate change.
The Big Three States — Win, Place, and Show
California and Massachusetts are in the Win and Place positions. This week's patent Show position goes to New York.
California has 28 first-named inventors and 88 total inventors.
Massachusetts has 13 first-named inventors and 39 total inventors.
New York has nine first-named inventors and 42 total inventors.
Patent Count By Department
Count By Technology Center
Year-To-Date Count by Technology Center
The Health Complex
The table below shows this week's count of the number of funding citations on new patents where the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the institutes at the National Institutes of Health, and other subagencies that are part of HHS, funded the inventor's research.
The Health Complex Year-To-Date
The table below is the year-to-date count for taxpayer-funded patents that are part of the Health Complex.
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Next up is Thursday's newly published pre-grant patent applications.
As always, thank you for reading FedInvent.
The FedInvent Team
FedInvent tells the stories of inventors, investigators, and innovators. Wayfinder Digital's FedInvent Project follows the federal innovation ecosphere, taxpayer money, and the inventions it pays for. FedInvent is a work in progress. Please reach out if you have questions or suggestions. You can reach us at info@wayfinder.digital.