The United States Patent and Trademark Office has announced a pilot program for green technologies, including greenhouse gas reduction, environmental quality, energy conservation, development of renewable energy resources, or greenhouse gas emission reduction.

The requirements for this program can be found on page 2 of the attached PDF.

This program will allow an applicant with an application pertaining to green technologies to petition to advance the application out of turn for examination. This program began on December 8, 2009 and will run for 12 months so petitions must be filed before December 9, 2010.

Claim 1 reads:

1. A network-based emissions tracking system for an enterprise, the system comprising:
(a) a central processor accessible on a computer network;
(b) an asset database in communication with the central processor, the asset database configured to store:
(i) asset information relating to a plurality of assets at a plurality of sites, wherein the plurality of assets comprises at least one emissions asset;
(ii) usage information relating to each of the at least one emissions assets; and
(iii) carbon credit information relating to each of the at least one emissions assets;
(c) a client processor in communication with the central processor, the client processor configured to allow for inputting any portion of the asset information, the usage information, and the carbon credit information;
(d) emissions tracking software associated with the central processor, the emissions tracking software configured to calculate and track a calculated greenhouse gas emissions amount relating to at least one of the at least one emissions assets based on the usage information relating to the at least one emissions asset; and
(e) carbon credit tracking software associated with the central processor, the carbon credit tracking software configured to calculate and track the carbon credit information relating to at least one of the at least one emissions assets.

It's great to see Minnesota firms active in the green tech patent space.

This style of claim would most probably be termed a business method claim. Recently, these claims have become more difficult to obtain, due in part to recent changes in the law. I'm glad to see other lawyers obtaining patents in the green space.

The Whitehouse has announced its intent to appoint David Kappos as head of the USPTO.

A little over one year ago, IBM's IP arm announced that it co-founded a patent pool called the Eco-Patents Commons. Kappos said, "[t]here's no reason that environmentally sustainable activity cannot be commercially advantageous," according to a CNET article posted last year.

The Wikipedia's wiki site for patent pools information is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_pool.

Bob Kidder is in as the new leader of the entity that will be formed out of the partnership between Chrysler and Fiat SpA. Kidder was formerly chairman and CEO of Borden Chemical, Inc. and Duracell International Inc.

Interestingly, Kidder is also chairman and CEO of 3Stone Advisors LLC. From the 3STone website:

3Stone Advisors manages the 3Stone Inflection Fund which is currently making control private equity investments in Cleantech businesses, with a focus on water. Typically, 3Stone invests $10 million to $50 million of equity in a company with a strong management and a strategically sound growth path. 3Stone engages at the strategic level, and holds management accountable for managing the growth of the business. We call this "active strategic engagement."

It will be interesting to watch as Chrysler heads in a new "clean" direction. The outfit splashed onto the EV scene when they unveiled a suite of EVs at the North American International Auto Show. Further, it is thought that the partnership with Fiat is to give them a head start using Fiat's small-car expertise.

Sunlight Research has studied patenting relating to the cooling of EV batteries as well as torque control of hybrid vehicles. Patent holdings for EV batteries ranked Chrysler as third, although it must be said that these properties now seem to belong to the United States Treasury. Fiat had no intellectual property in this sector, according to the forthcoming Sunlight Research report.

It will be interesting to watch how this company, which now seemingly has a great cleantech focus, will fair. While many note that Chrysler will benefit from Fiat's technology, it seems also that Fiat has a great deal to gain from the partnership.

The first patent application has the publication number 20090062969 and is titled: Hybrid robust predictive optimization method of power system dispatch.

The abstract reads: A method of power system dispatch control solves power system dispatch problems by integrating a larger variety of generation, load and storage assets, including without limitation, combined heat and power (CHP) units, renewable generation with forecasting, controllable loads, electric, thermal and water energy storage. The method employs a predictive algorithm to dynamically schedule different assets in order to achieve global optimization and maintain the system normal operation.

The second patent application has the publication number 20090062967 and is titled: HYBRID VEHICLE RECHARGING SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATION.

The abstract reads: A system and method for recharging a plug-in hybrid vehicle. The system includes a controller that schedules the recharging of the vehicles on local electrical distribution networks. The system arranges the schedule to minimize the demand loading on the local distribution network to more efficiently operate power plants providing electrical power to the distribution networks. A system for collecting charges associated with the recharging of plug-in hybrid vehicles is also disclosed providing for prepaid utility accounts.

I've attached a claim map of each so that the reader can quickly assess what's in the patent applications. For example, although "hybrid" is in the title of the first patent application, it's not in the claims.

There is a bit of a cleantech rush going on. Within this rush, there is somewhat of a duality. On one side, business is buzzing about how our government is trying to stimulate growth in this sector. How can we take advantage of this? How can we profit?

But few people are discussing the main reason cleantech is catching on. People like it. People want it. It's the beginning of a love affair. These things take time.

It will take years to update the grid. Car-to-grid energy storage will happen I believe, but not for a long time. Powerplants are built in decades, not quarters. And who knows how long the political tail wind will last. The approaches taken now, that will persist, are those that are built on fundamentals - delivering something with a solid business plan and some potential longevity.

This duality, speed vs. certainty, spills over into the patent world. And what's different with cleantech, versus other boom technologies, is that there are even more ways to poison your portfolio. It's not what you can get away with at the patent office (speed), it's what you can do to survive a litigation (certainty). It has always been this way in patent law, and just because there is huge boom in cleantech spending does not mean the approach to intellectual property should be a hasty one.

In future posts, we'll discuss:

• Obviousness (a major cleantech hurdle)
• Accelerated Patenting (aka, a bad idea)
• Patent Prosecution that wins in court
• Strategies to manage time and cash flow

We'll also publish the results of studies we do internally relating to cleantech. Industry trends in:

• Geothermal
• Lithium-ion Batteries
• Fuel Cells
• Solar Power
• Hydro Power
• Wind Power
• Electric Vehicles

In the meantime, feel free to send along your cleantech questions to mprater@slwip.com with "cleantech" in the subject line. Or, leave a comment!

At World IP Day, held at the Science Museum in London on April 23, 2009, David Lammy, the Minister of State for Higher Education and Intellectual Property for the UK, said, "I want to see the development of green technologies. Environmental and low-carbon industries will increase substantially in the coming years. I want to see us create the right conditions for them to grow here in the UK they will offer many 'jobs for the future'."

He went on to say, "[t]o help build on this, we will be launching an accelerated process for patenting green technologies which could mean that patents aimed at combating climate change are granted in as little as 9 months."

Currently, in the United States, as set forth in MPEP section 708.02(a), patents may be "made special" and examined more quickly if they are deemed to be directed toward the "conservation of energy resources."  Candidates for accelerated examination must follow the "accelerated examination program."  While the "accelerated examination program" is directed toward completing prosecution in 12 months, many practitioners advise their clients against it, as it is deemed too risky.

David Lammy's remarks are here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/c6pnfz

Information about accelerated examination in the USA is here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ckn8r9

http://tinyurl.com/dxmr3k

The Commonwealth of Kentucy, the University of Kentucyk and the University of Louisville have partnered with Argonne National Labs to establish a national battery manufacturing R&D center.

http://tinyurl.com/cfh4vq

The center will be located in central Kentucky, nearby 69 auto-related manufacturing plants and within 500 miles of Dearborn, MI, headquarters of project sponsor Ford Motor Company and Argonne national labs.

The project will initially focus on manufacturing lithium-ion batteries, and will alter move onto newer technologies including lithium-air and zinc-air systems.

A brief patent search limited to assignees University of Kentucky and Argonne National Labs did not produce  patent or patent application results, but government projects are often assigned to other government bodies.