By The Numbers
Patents and Apps for the Last Week of December 2021
Hello from FedInvent,
Happy 2022. FedInvent is aiming for positive news on the federal innovation ecosphere and negative COVID tests in the new year. And good riddance to 2021.
We're keeping it simple this week. Today's newsletter has the Patents and Applications By The Numbers sections for Tuesday, December 28 and Thursday, December 30, 2021, and links to the Tuesday and Thursday FedInvent Reports. Since there was no newsletter last Thursday, the links to the December 23, 2021, FedInvent Report are included as well.
The analysis of all of the federally-funded patents granted in 2021 is underway. There are over 7,700 patents in our initial portfolio. The portfolio includes patents with government interest statements, patents assigned to a government agency, patents that are the work of federal employees in the course of their work for the federal government, and patents assigned to Federally Funded Research and Development Centers and their administrators. The 2021 FedInvent Patent Report is underway. The 2022 newsletters will include highlights of what we've found.
Tuesday's Patents
On Tuesday, December 28, 2021, the USPTO granted 6,791 new patents. One-hundred forty-eight (148) benefitted from taxpayer funding. Here are the numbers.
One hundred forty-four (144) patents have Government Interest Statements.
Twenty-nine (29) patents have a federal agency as an applicant or an assignee.
The 148 new patents have 168 department-level funding citations.
These patents are the work of 522 inventors.
The 492 American inventors come from 37 states and the District of Columbia.
The Big Three States:
California and Massachusetts tied for first place. Each has 22 first-named inventors and 81 total inventors.
Maryland has nine first-named inventors and 41 total inventors.
New York has seven first-named inventors and 30 total inventors.
The 30 foreign inventors come from 14 countries.
There are 89 patents (60%) where at least one assignee is a college or university, the HERD.
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) received ten (10) patents.
A federal department is the sole assignee on 15 patents.
On the Bayh-Dole scofflaw front, we have two entries this week. General Electric and Northrop Grumman were each granted a patent that included incomplete government interest data as required by the Bayh-Dole Act. General Electric's patent was for gas turbine engine technology. Northrop Grumman's patent was for a dynamic tracking regulator to protect radiation-hardened devices, space and missile technology. This week we found an interesting side note from the Wall Street Journal. A quarter of Northrop Grumman's revenues come from space-related work for the federal government.
This week 13 patents contain Y CPC symbols indicating that the Patent Office believes the inventions may be useful in mitigating the impact of climate change. One of the more perplexing patent titles was for a Solar Fuel Generator. We thought that the sun was the solar fuel generator. This invention is from Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). This patent is for novel photovoltaic cell technology.
Patents Count By Department
The Health Complex
The Health Complex, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health continue to be a patent machine. The number of newly published patent applications from the Health Complex shows that their pipeline of new inventions remains full.
Patents By Technology Center
Read the FedInvent Patent Report for December 28, 2021, here.
Browse the December 28, 2021 details by department here.
Thursday's Patent Applications
On Thursday, December 30, 2021, the Patent Office published 9,486 pre-grant patent applications. One hundred ninety-two (192) benefitted from taxpayer funding. Here are the numbers,
One hundred seventy-nine (179) patent applications have Government Interest Statements.
Thirty-six (36) applicants have an applicant or an assignee that is a government agency.
The 192 applications have 226 department-level funding citations.
These applications are the work of 635 inventors.
The 610 American inventors come from 37 states and the District of Columbia.
The Top Three States This Week:
California
New York
Maryland
Twenty-five (25) foreign inventors are from 12 countries.
There are 126 applications (66%) where at least one assignee is a college or university, the HERD.
A Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDCs) is the assignee or applicant on 11 applications.
A federal department is the sole assignee on 19 patent applications.
There are three Bayh-Dole scofflaws among this week's published patent applications. The first is from Johns Hopkins, where it looks like the Johns Hopkins patent application template doesn't have auto check set up:
This invention was made with government support under grant nos. ______ awarded by ______. The government has certain rights in the invention.
Eagle Technology, LLC of Melbourne, FL, and Rampart Communications fill out the other two. Eagle manufactures airframes for the aerospace industry. Rampart Communications works for NSA.
There are three applications containing Y CPC symbols indicating that the Patent Office believes the inventions may be useful in mitigating climate change. Johns Hopkins gets a twofer. The Bayh-Dole scofflaw application, Methods, and Compositions for Reducing Alcohol Toxicity has been identified as being beneficial against vector-borne diseases, e.g., mosquito-borne, fly-borne, tick-borne, or waterborne diseases whose impact is exacerbated by climate change. A compound for helping mitigate the health effects of heavy drinking is useful in reducing the impact of climate change? The second application, NC State's application for a genetically engineered CRISPR-built nanoparticle antimicrobial, is a better fit.
The University of California's application for a submergible wave energy converter that harnesses the mechanical power of the ocean to generate renewable energy is a much better fit. The Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) funded this work.
Patent Application Count
The Health Complex
Read the FedInvent Applications Report for December 30, 2021, here.
Browse the December 30, 2021 details by department here.
Last Thursday's Patent Applications
There was no FedInvent Newsletter on Thursday, December 23, 2021. Links to the Patent Application Report with the data and details on the published federally-funded patent applications are below.
Read the FedInvent Applications Report for December 23, 2021, here.
Browse the December 23, 2021 details by department here.
The FedInvent 2021 Patent Report
We started working on the annual FedInvent Patent Report for 2021. It's been a very busy year. Our round one harvest has identified over 7,730 patents where the inventors received federal funding. The patents contained a government interest statement, or the assignee or applicant was a federal government agency or a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). We expect the number to jump around a little as we complete our analysis, but identifying over 7,730 patents with federal funding is significant.
Before We Go
The early 2022 newsletters may be delayed a bit. We're updating our software and analytics processes for the new year. The Patent Office has published updates to the CPC symbols. We're working on those as well.
If you aren't a paid subscriber yet, please consider subscribing. Subscriptions help us keep our analysis and reporting going. For those of you who are paid subscribers, we thank you.
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 to the FedInvent team if you have questions or suggestions. You can reach us at info@wayfinder.digital.