We Followed the Money
FedInvent Taxpayer-Funded Published Patent Applications for December 9, 2021
Hello from FedInvent,
On Thursday, December 9, 2021, the Patent Office published 7,850 pre-grant patent applications. One hundred eighty-four (184) benefitted from taxpayer funding.
Today we decided to take you a deep dive into the process of figuring out the path to the spending of taxpayer dollars to get to an invention. So be prepared for sudden acronym overload.
But first, the data.
The FedInvent Patent Application Report is here. You can browse the patent application details by federal department here.
Here are a few of the highlights from Thursday's pool of federally funded patent applications:
A Test for Cyanide Poisoning
Funding — It’s Complicated
A Treatment for Cyanide Poisoning
A Bit of Patent Chicanery
Federally Funded Down Under
Patent Applications By the Numbers
A Test for Cyanide Poisoning
Smoke inhalation is a major cause of injury and death for people exposed to smoke. Cyanide is a dangerous component in the smoke generated by fires. Cyanide is suspected of playing a role in smoke inhalation injury and death. Cyanide intoxication can lead to death by ceasing cellular respiration or contributing to a heart attack.
Published patent application document 20210378590, "System and Method for Detecting Cyanide Exposure," explains the impact of smoke inhalation and cyanide poisoning:
The most common cause of death in fires is the inhalation of noxious gases. On average, more than 3,000 Americans die each year, and more than 14,000 by injuries sustained from fires in the United States, with most being the result of smoke inhalation. In 2017, there were 1,319,500 fires in the United States, approximately 30% of which were residential and non-residential building fires. In addition, 4,510 firefighters were injured by smoke inhalation, 550 suffered heart attacks, and 850 had other respiratory distress. Of the 550 heart attacks, 50 fatalities were reported.
Only recently has the medical community understood the consequences of cyanide poisoning associated with building fires and the need to address this potential threat. Hydrogen cyanide gas, the most toxic product of combustion, seldom was recognized as a significant hazard in smoke inhalation. Even the most heroic efforts were ineffective if cyanide blocked life-saving oxygen from the cells.
One of the challenges with cyanide poisoning is that it is hard to measure in an exposed individual. Timely administration of the antidote is important to treat the exposed individual. The high cost of treatment renders it difficult to justify its use without more reliable proof that the individual is suffering from cyanide poisoning.
Two chemists working for the Department of Homeland Security invented a saliva test to determine a person's cyanide exposure. Their test measures the thiocyanate level of the individual. It compares the measured thiocyanate level to a preset thiocyanate threshold. If the measured thiocyanate level is above the preset thiocyanate level, it indicates acute cyanide poisoning. If the threshold is met, it indicates medical treatment is recommended to treat the health effects of the exposure. This novel saliva test replaces the current time-consuming and challenging blood test. Cyanide treatment is costly. So quick, reliable proof of cyanide poisoning justifies the use of life-saving antidotes.
Next, we followed the money.
Funding — It's Complicated
Figuring out the path from R&D funding to an invention requires digging through a bit of federal funding smoke and mirrors. The cyanide exposure saliva test patent application shows how complicated the funding path is to get taxpayer money to researchers.
There are two elements for identifying the funding on this application:
The assignee and applicant data
The Government Interest Statement
Based on those two pieces of information, this patent application shows funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD) via the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the assignee on the patent application. DHS will be responsible for licensing the invention since they are the assignee.
Next, we analyzed the contract data. The government interest statement cites contract FA8075-14-D0003. Contract FA8075-14-D0003 is an Air Force indefinite-delivery contract awarded to Battelle Memorial Institute. This contract's tasks are focused on Homeland Defense and Security Technical Support.
The contract summary shows:
Funding Agency: Office of the Secretary of Defense (DOD)
Funding Sub-Agency: Immediate Office of the Secretary of Defense
Funding Office: Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC)
Awarding Agency: Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC)
Awarded Vendor: Battelle Memorial Institute
The Air Force Materiel Command's mission is to deliver "affordable and sustainable war-winning capabilities to U.S. and international partners, on time, on cost, anywhere, anytime from cradle to grave." AFMC is to the Air Force as GSA is to civilian agencies.
So now we have DHS, DOD, OSD, iOSD, USAF, AFMC, DITC, and Battelle.
The government interest statement also indicates that the invention was also the work of an employee of DHS. Add a government employee. Two inventors. Only one is a DHS employee.
The inventors are Dr. David Reed and Dr. George Emmett. Both inventors work at DHS's Science & Technology Directorate’s Chemical Security Analysis Center (CSAC). Dr. Reed is a chemist who works in the Surveillance/Detection area. Dr. Emmett, a chemist, works in the Chemical Hazard Analysis area.
Published articles about the inventor's work note that CSAC chemists Dr. George Emmett and Dr. David Reed invented a test to indicate possible toxic cyanide exposure at the fire scene.
A published organization chart shows that Dr. Reed is a DHS employee. Dr. Emmett appears as a contractor on the same chart. Based on the contract cited in the government interest statement, it's safe to assume he works for Battelle.
Operationally it's more complicated. The DHS S&T CSAC is co-located with the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (CBC). The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center is the United States's principal research and development resource for non-medical chemical and biological defense. The DHS S&T CSAC and Army CBC being in the same facility enables both organizations to leverage the Army's expertise in chemical defense, chemical threat agents, and toxic industrial chemicals. (One thing we can be sure of is that the two organizations at the facility have a cost-sharing arrangement.)
The DOD 2022 budget request notes that the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) is responsible for the Chemical Biological Center (CBC).
Battelle also operates the Battelle National Biodefense Institute (BNBI). This Battelle subsidiary manages the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) for the DHS Office of Science in Fort Detrick, MD.
Here is what we have. (Please prepare for the acronym whiplash.)
The contractual and financial path from the money to the inventors includes:
DOD
OSD
iOSD
USAF
AFMC
DITC
Battelle
DHS
DHS S&T
DHS S&T CSAC
Operationally we have:
DHS
DHS S&T
DHS S&T CSAC
Battelle
DOD
The Army (USA)
DEVCOM
CBC
All of the funding and operational entities provided support the inventors.
This week’s FedInvent Patent Application Report shows that this application had department-level funding from both DHS and DOD.
(You can learn more about this invention without the patent-speak here.)
A Treatment for Cyanide Poisoning
Inventors from the University of Pittsburgh had their pre-grant patent application published this week too. The publication 20210380666, "Synthetic Heme-Containing Molecules and Their Use," is for novel synthetic heme-bound peptides that bind carbon monoxide with high affinity, and their use for the treatment of carboxyhemoglobinemia, cyanide poisoning, and hydrogen sulfide poisoning. These inventors took a much less circuitous funding route. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) at the National Institutes of Health funded this work.
Maybe DHS and the University of Pittsburgh should team up.
A Bit of Patent Chicanery
Johns Hopkins University is the number one recipient of federal R&D funding. In 2019, the university received $2.91 billion in R&D funding. Eighty-five percent (85%), $2.48 billion, came from taxpayers. Johns Hopkins has a deep patent portfolio and patent application pipeline.
This week, USPTO published its latest pre-grant patent application, 20210379756, "Generation of Robotic User Interface Responsive to Connection of Peripherals to Robot." This application has one claim:
"1. A computer-implemented system and method substantially as shown and described."
Nonsense.
The application cites a provisional patent application and other patent mumbo-jumbo. So we'll leave it to USPTO and the university's patent attorney, whose bio points out that he started his career with a two-year gig at the Patent Office, to unravel these details. But the rejection worthy claim remains.
The patent is for a robotic graphical user interface to make robotics more useful to small and medium enterprises. In August, FedInvent wrote about one of the patents cited in Thursday's one claim application. (Robotics for Small and Medium Businesses) It's a compelling patent that can accelerate the adoption of robotics at smaller, innovative manufacturing facilities. Johns Hopkins created an RGUI that supports easy-to-install or hot-swappable robotic peripherals.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) National Robotics Initiative (NRI) funded this R&D.
We can't help but wonder why Johns Hopkins submitted the patent application like this. A placeholder? A licensing stunt to say there are more patents pending? A patent chicanery tactic to keep their latest invention off the radar. Publish with a crummy claim, and then as soon as the application is published, submit a new set of claims? I guess we'll see.
Patent examiners have a demanding, intellectually challenging, and text intense job. The patent examiner will not be amused.
Federally Funded Down Under
FedInvent specializes in and reports on U.S. federally funded patents. Twice a week, we screen a wide spectrum of government R&D. Our analysis catches inventions that come from foreign governments. For example, on Thursday, we investigated application 20210378856, "Restraint for Securing a Person to an Object, and a Cut-Resistant Webbing" from New South Wales Department of Corrective Services (NSWDCS) in Sydney, Australia.
The proposed invention incorporates a flexible strap with locking mechanisms resistant to cutting or tearing. The applicant points out,
"Whilst handcuffs are often suitable for restraining a person, there are many scenarios where handcuffs are inappropriate and potentially dangerous.". Suitable scenarios are persons restrained by "police, military, in courtrooms, in adult and juvenile corrective facilities, including extremism areas, in immigration centres, in treatment facilities for forensic patients and in mental healthcare facilities."
(Why doesn't American English use "whilst" more often?)
This invention is an alternative to handcuffs with a better fastener than zip tie flex cuffs. The invention has qualities to be a non-injurious detention apparatus to control a person's limbs.
Australia's Department of Justice funded this research.
Soapbox Alert — Climate Change
We're back on the soapbox. This Thursday, USPTO identified four patent applications that contained inventions that might be useful in mitigating the impact of climate change. Three applications have art focused on pharmaceutical compounds for vector-borne illnesses and cancer treatments and one for a method of rare earth extraction.
FedInvent found six lithium-ion and calcium ion-related battery applications. There is a biofuel invention. There are at least 20 other patent applications that deal with cancer detection and treatment. There is another application for early-stage Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness. Using the Y CPC symbols as guidance in hunting for climate change inventions is not working.
Applications By The Number
On Thursday, December 2, 2021, the Patent Office published 7.850 pre-grant patent applications. One hundred eighty-four (184) benefitted from taxpayer funding. Here is how the numbers came out this week:
Two hundred twenty (179) patent applications have Government Interest Statements.
Twenty-six (26) have an applicant or an assignee that is a government agency.
The 184 applications have 221 department-level funding citations.
These applications are the work of 636 inventors.
The 613 American inventors come from 39 states and the District of Columbia.
Thirteen (23) foreign inventors come from ten countries.
There are 126 applications (68%) 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 seven (7) applications.
A federal department is the assignee on 15 patents.
It is an unusual patent app Thursday. There are no Bayh-Dole scofflaws.
Patent Application Count By Department
Department-level funding citations on Thursday’s published patent applications.
The Health Complex
The table below shows the Department of Health and Human Services count of funding citations found in Thursday's pre-grant published patents.
Before We Go
As usual, there are many more taxpayer-funded patents than we can cover here. Please explore the FedInvent Patent Application Report. It adds value to your newsletter subscription. The Report has all of Thursday's application and information about who funded what.
If you'd like to catch up on earlier FedInvent Reports, you can access the newsletters here on Substack. In addition, the reports are available on the FedInvent Links page.
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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.
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