What's Happening At The Y?
The FedInvent Application Newsletter for January 27, 2022
Greetings from FedInvent,
Here is this week's pre-grant published patent applications quick count.
On Thursday, January 27, 2022, the U.S. Patent Office published 8,399 pre-grant patent applications. One hundred seventy-eight (178) benefitted from taxpayer funding.
In the first four weeks of 2022, FedInvent found 674 published patent applications that benefitted from taxpayer funding.
Here are the links to the FedInvent Applications Newsletter for January 27, 2022. If you want to start by browsing by federal department, start here.
What’s Happening At The Y?
Today we’re getting up on the soapbox again. Why do so few patent applications (and patents) receive the coveted Y CPC classifications? What is happening at the Y?
For almost a year now, we've been writing about the Patent Office's assignment of "Y" classifications to inventions it deems as useful in mitigating the impact of climate change.
The inventions that are assigned these symbols fall into two broad categories:
Y02 — Green House Gas Mitigation — Y02 covers selected technologies, which control, reduce or prevent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement and technologies that allow adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. Y02A covers technologies for adaptation to climate change, which allows adapting to the adverse effects of climate change in humans, industrial (including agriculture and livestock), and economic activities. Y02P covers climate change mitigation technologies in any industrial processing or production activity, including the agroalimentary industry (relating to agriculture and food), agriculture, fishing, ranching, and the like.
Y04 — Enabling Technologies — Y04 is focused on the information and communications inventions that facilitate climate change technology. Y04S covers systems that integrate power network operation, communication, or information technologies to improve electrical power generation, transmission, distribution, management, or usage. Examples of the art covered here are technologies related to smart grids, home appliances, and systems supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles.
(You can find these inventions in the Emerging Technologies section of the FedInvent Report.)
Every week we pull out the federally-funded patent applications and patents and identify those with Y classification. Usually, there are two or three. Sometimes we may find as many as eight or nine applications that get the official symbol indicating the invention's capability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or the presence of enabling technology like managing the two-way flow of electricity on the grid.
Then we analyze the patent applications. We always find many more applications for inventions that cut GHG emissions, clean up water, make lithium-ion batteries more efficient, measure particles in the air to detect pollution or biohazards, and more, that haven't received the Y classification. Here are some examples of green tech patent applications of what we found in this Thursday’s collection of published applications.
Lithium-Ion Batteries
For example, this week, there are six published taxpayer-funded patent applications for lithium-ion battery technology. Five are from inventors at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Argonne National Laboratory. The sixth application is from Stanford University. The DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy funded this research. Lithium-ion batteries are key to the growth of the electric vehicle market. Not a Y CPC in sight.
Solar Technology
Sunpower and Northwestern University both have published patent applications related to solar technology improvements. No Ys.
Environmentally Friendly Coating Removal
Molekule, Inc.'s patent application 20220023922 for coating removal technology was published. The inventors created an innovative and cost-effective coating removal technique for removing thick elastomeric coatings — rubbery materials — from Department of Defense (DoD) Weapon Systems. These types of coatings are removed using chemical treatments. The chemical treatments are often toxic and hazardous to the environment. There is a need in the coating removal field to create new and useful ways for coating removal. This invention provides a new and useful coating removal mechanism and method.
The Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), DOD's environment research program, funded this research. SERDP seeks to harness the latest science and technology to improve DoD's environmental performance, reduce costs, and enhance and sustain mission capabilities. DOD works with EPA and DOE to invest in basic and applied research and advanced development. The program responds to environmental technology requirements common to all military Services, complementing the Services' research programs. No Y CPC here either.
Anti-Fouling Slime Removal
Inventors from North Dakota State University have created an improved anti-biofouling coating (20220025209). Marine biofouling, the constant colonization and accumulation of marine organisms on "ocean immersed structures," patent-speak for boats, ships, and submarines, is an economic and environmental challenge. This application notes that slime fouling can significantly affect fuel consumption due to increased frictional drag. Studies have shown that heavy slime can result in a 10.1% increase in fuel costs.
To provide some contemporary context, every year, container ships plying the world's waterways spew about 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air, which is about three 3% of all greenhouse gas emissions. So reducing drag by reducing slime can cut fuel costs and fuel emissions. And with all of those container ships chilling off the coast waiting for their chance to unload, the marine organisms are probably having a field day growing not the bottom of the ships.
So here we have NDSU inventors who have an improved coating for dealing with those pesky slime things that stick to the parts of the boat in the water that can improve fuel efficiency. The Patent Office didn't deem this invention Y CPC-worthy.
Autonomous Robots in the Forest
Then there's the FedInvent pick for the most Y-worthy patent applications in this week's collection. Published patent application 20220022388, "Autonomous Robotic Forest Rover for Automated Resin Collection," has something for every climate change activist and autonomous technology enthusiast. It was filed by inventors from Georgia Southern University and B&L Naval Stores Inc. and funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
First the resin.
This invention is for the automated collection of resin from slash pine trees. Slash pine grows in the swampy ground overgrown with trees and bushes, the slashes, common in the Southeast U.S. Resin from slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm) is a renewable and alternative source to petrochemicals for a wide variety of industrial, commercial, and household products. Traditional methods of resin tapping are time-consuming, labor-intense, and expensive.
The USA produced 53% of the world's turpentine in 1937. Resin production peaked in 1949. The industry began its slow decline not long after due to petrochemicals, labor costs, and foreign competition. By 1980, only 300 gum producers existed. The last U.S. oleoresin processing plant closed in 1991. Except for a few boutique farmers and stills, the industry has been dormant since then.
The resin and turpentine industry faces challenges that present a new market opportunity for the U.S. The resin import market is volatile. The U.S. is experiencing a reduction of exports from other countries, the USA's primary supplier. Demand for renewable, recyclable materials and biofuels is growing. Slash pine resin is used to develop renewable products that can replace petrochemical-based products. This creates market conditions that may lead to the resurgence of the oleoresin and turpentine industry in the Southeastern United States. These products can be made in the U.S., eliminating the need to import products that would be delivered on one of those polluting container ships. This resurgence will require novel technologies to achieve and sustain competitiveness in a world market.
This invention seems Y-worthy.
But wait, there's more.
The autonomous robot, the forest rover, enables an automated process for collecting the resin. The fully automated, autonomous technology can identify mature slash pine trees, approach them, and perform the tapping operations required for collecting their resin.
The forest rover is equipped with an industrial robot, an automated tool changer, tools required for robotic operations, vision and navigation systems, and a powertrain for long-range operation. The system can incorporate Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology and machine vision to identify cylindrical objects equal to or larger than approximately eight inches in diameter at an approximate five-foot elevation from the ground. Image analysis of the bark determines if the tree is a slash pine tree. The forest rover avoids obstacles using LIDAR, machine vision, and mathematical algorithms for obstacle avoidance. After arriving within working distance from the pine tree, the industrial robot performs the operations required to tap it.
The robot powertrain has "a high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEM) stack, methanol reformer technology for onboard production of hydrogen, methanol tank, electrochemical hydrogen pump, battery and D.C. to A.C. inverter." HT-PEM fuel cells allow equipment to run on renewable methanol or ammonia, enabling off-grid power generators to work with low- or zero-carbon fuels that are easily transportable to remote locations.
The Autonomous Robotic Forest Rover for Automated Resin Collection patent application certainly seems Y CPC worthy.
The Patent Office needs to take a deeper look at patent applications that can help mitigate the impact of climate change especially if researchers use Y classifications when they are on the hunt for new, useful green technology.
On to this week's patent application numbers.
Patent Applications By the Numbers
On Thursday, January 27, 2022, the U.S. Patent Office published 8,399 pre-grant patent applications. One hundred seventy-eight (178) benefitted from taxpayer funding.
One hundred seventy-four (174) patent applications have Government Interest Statements.
Twenty-six (26) applications have an applicant or an assignee that is a government agency.
A federal department is the only assignee on ten patent applications.
The 178 new patents have 199 department-level funding citations.
These patents are the work of 696 inventors.
The 658 American inventors come from 37 states and the District of Columbia.
The 35 foreign inventors come from 12 countries. This week 12 of the 35 foreign inventors are from India. Three (3) inventors are from China.
There are 122 patents (68%) where at least one assignee is a college or university, the HERD.
Nine patents (9) resulted from the collaboration between two universities.
Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) received eleven (11) patents.
Two (2) patents were assigned Y CPC symbols indicating that the invention may be useful in mitigating the impact of climate change.
The Big Three States:
California and Massachusetts have the number one and two spots for inventors for both published patent applications and granted patents. The number three position tends to move around each week.
California has 35 first-named inventors and 143 total inventors.
Massachusetts has 19 first-named inventors and 76 total inventors.
Illinois has 12 first-named inventors and 41 total inventors.
Application Count By Department
Health Complex Patent Applications
The table below shows the number of funding citations where the recipient cites the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the institutes at the National Institutes of Health, and other subagencies that are part of HHS, the Health Complex.
Health Complex Applications for 2022 So Far
This week we started tabulating the year-to-date number of patent applications associated with the Department of Health and Human Services Health Complex. The chart below shows all HHS entities that have appeared as a funding source on any taxpayer-funded patent application in 2022.
HHS is a patent application machine.
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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. FedInvent is a work in progress. Please reach out if you have questions or suggestions. You can reach us at info@wayfinder.digital.