Patent Office puts green tech on quick pathway

Technology.am (Dec. 08, 2009) — Patent requests associated to green technology will get the corresponding of the carpool lane at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The patent office on Monday introduced a pilot program to speed up the reviews of green technology-related patents. The objective is to trim as much as one year off the process, which currently takes on standard of 30 months for an initial action from the USPTO and 40 months for an ultimate decision.

The primary 3,000 patent petitions to be filed will be qualified for the sped-up evaluation program, and about 25,000 by now pending applications are entitled, said Undersecretary of Commerce David Kappos, according to GreenWire.

The declaration, made by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, was timed to correspond with the COP15 international climate treaty talks going on this week in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In addition on Monday, the Department of Energy announced that $100 million is available in ARPA-E energy technology research grants. And the Environmental Protection Agency issued its decision that greenhouse gases jeopardize public health and can be synchronized by the EPA.

The move to fast-track patent petitions too reflects how politicians are more and more emphasizing the economic significance of investing in green technologies, rather than only the environmental foundation.

“American competitiveness depends on modernization and innovation depends on creative Americans developing new technology,” Locke said in a statement. “Every day a significant green tech innovation is caught up from coming to market is another day we damage our planet and another day lost in creating green businesses and green jobs.”

The question of intellectual property in clean energy technologies is a significant subject of negotiation in Copenhagen. Developing countries are looking for access to green technologies on favorable terms to speed up their transition to a cleaner energy system.

Further Reading

• Obama Selects Chopra, US First Technology Officer
• NASA Plans Self-Sustaining Green Building
• Green News Harvest: Big Oil’s Hypocrisy on Clean Energy
• Companies continue to invest in green IT
• Asia’s First Renewable Energy Law
• Researchers create smaller, lighter and more efficient Nuclear Battery
• Sony develops highly efficient Wireless Power Transfer System
• Method to Convert Nuclear Energy Directly into Power without Steam
• IT Industry to Join Energy Efficiency Push
• Microsoft finally settles 10-year battle with Europe on browsers
• Study: Bioelectricity Bests Biofuels on Miles Per Acre
• Researchers Closer to Ultimate Green ‘Fridge Magnet’
• University of Cambridge Unveiled Solar Car
• LED light, Green Tea Extract reduces Skin Wrinkles 10 times faster than LED light alone
• Travelling to become more convenient with solar charging options

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