Filed under: Feature
The Griffith Hack Clean & Sustainable Technologies Group is Australia’s pre-eminent provider of intellectual property services to organisations that develop technologies with a reduced environmental impact. We have been immersed in these technologies for many years.
We constantly monitor technological advances, review relevant economic and legislative developments, and align ourselves with key industry, academic and governmental players. Why – we believe that the IP we produce for our clients needs to reflect, anticipate and protect current and future trends, models and instruments and, in addition, capture the downstream benefits. We call this – clean and green IP.
We are excited by the challenges and opportunities that now present to Australian technologists – we enjoy working with them in transferring their technology globally. We also hope you find this blog provides some good links and feeds of interest. We welcome your feedback!
According to this report, wind power in Spain reached a new record recently, providing at its peak 53.7% of Spain’s total electricity demand – 10.7% greater than the previous record set in November last year.
According to this article, the amount of nitrogen released into the environment, predominantly by fertiliser use, may exceed the planet’s ability to recycle it.
The consequences are bleak, particularly for the worlds seas, oceans and rivers, which are starting to exhibit dead zones devoid of much life. The article argues that nitrogen is to water what carbon dioxide is to the atmosphere.
As this NASA site explains, enhanced phytoplankton blooms can create dead zones. Dead zones are areas of water so devoid of oxygen that sea life cannot live there. If phytoplankton productivity is enhanced by fertilizers or other nutrients, more organic matter is produced at the surface of the ocean. The organic matter sinks to the bottom, where bacteria break it down and release carbon dioxide. Bacteria thrive off excessive organic matter and absorb oxygen, the same oxygen that fish, crabs and other sea creatures rely on for life.
There appears to be massive opportunity for agricultural innovations that address this issue.
Many of the agricultural methods developed may be patentable. Like other clean technology areas such as hybrid cars and solar that we have investigated, it will be those that get into the field before it becomes a mainstream issue and patent first that will profit the most.
Filed under: Feature
According to this report, the concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) market could reach 24 GW by 2020 with most of the growth in Spain and the US. The growth of the industry in Spain in particularly strong because of strong government backing – by way of feed in tariffs.
Filed under: Feature
According to this report, by 2020, the world’s biggest potential solar markets will be found in the developing world, areas largely ignored by solar industry today.
Filed under: Feature | Tags: patent, intellectual property, lithium ion battery, secondary cell, rechargeable battery, lithium air battery
Some people project that the market for lithium ion batteries will grow 11% per annum to US$6.9 billion per annum by 2012. But I think this is too conservative.
Why? Because that projection does not account for one of the biggest growth opportunity yet - powering electric and hybrid cars. The CEO of NISSAN says that the electric cars – let alone hybrid cars – could make up 10% of the market by 2020.
Neither does that projection account for lithium ion batteries storing energy from alternative energy sources such as wind and solar – which is expected to be a $1 billion dollar industry by 2018.
The prospects for the technology are so great that this article describes lithium based car batteries as becoming a “major disruptive force”, dictating the fate of the world’s largest vehicle makers, and reshaping the electronics industry.
The Toyota Prius is just one example of a hybrid car that has a very big battery in it. Sales of the Prius – and the battery packs in them – grew by about 500% when the Japanese government introduced inducements worth around US$4,000 per purchased car. In fact, the Prius recently became the most sold car of any type in Japan.
Expect this to be repeated across the globe. Other governments are now introducing strong measures to increase the fuel efficiency of their countries’ car fleet to improve energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. United States President Obama wants national fuel efficiency to increase by 5% each year from 2012 to 2016. The United Kingdom government has confirmed it will offer from ₤2,000 to 5,000 to purchasers of electric and hybrid cars. Highly efficient hybrid and electric cars are expected to flourish under the new measures – and the sales of Li-ion batteries will boom.
Tech-savvy readers may point out that the Prius does not use lithium ion batteries. But Toyota’s Prius is the exception. Lithium ion batteries are, in fact, the prefered choice by vehicle manufacturers. Volvo, Subaru, GM, and VW are all developing hybrids with Li-ion batteries. The Nissan Leaf, Tesla Volt and concept cars by Audi, Ford all use lithium ion batteries.
Graph 1 shows the number of published International Patent Applications (PCT) by year describing a secondary cell (that is, a rechargeable battery) having lithium as a component – including lithium ion and lithium air cells. Since year 2000, the number of published International Patent Applications has nearly quadrupled.
Graph 1 - Published International Patent Applications by year
In fact, there are many more patent applications because not all patent applicants go down the International Application route. Our searches indicate that there are about 10 times as many patent applications per year as shown in Graph 1- around 2,500 per year!
Graph 2 shows the breakdown for the country of origin of the International Applications.
Graph 2 - International Patent Application Country of Origin
If we look at country of origin for all patent applications, not just International Applications, the slices of the pie change but the top five countries remain. They become China 13.4%, Korea 11.7%, Japan 11.2%, US 6.3% and Germany 1.3%.
Clearly China’s IP position in battery technology is becoming very strong and it is challenging Japan and Korea in this area.
According to this report, Japan currently meets half of world demand for lithium batteries, Korea is the second-largest manufacturer with a market share of 27 percent, with China standing at third place with a 23 percent market share.
Already fortunes are being made in China. According to this report, Wang Chuanfu, the founder of car and lithium ion battery maker BYD has become China’s richest man.
The US has recently injected $1.5 Billion in grants to US-based manufacturers to produce batteries and their components and to expand battery recycling capacity. A123 Systems, a manufacturer of nano-iron phosphate lithium ion batteries was awarded $249 Million, presumably in an attempt to bolster the US industry. We found 10 published international patent applications by A123.
Given the dominant patent position of Asia, howver, it may be difficult for US manufactures to make a big impact.
We found that the top industry players had roughly somewhere from 10 to 102 published International Patent applications. In no particular order, the companies that have strong patent positions include SAMSUNG SDI CO. LTD, SANYO ELECTRIC CO LTD, MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC IND CO LTD, SONY CORP, MITSUBISHI CHEMICALS CORP, LG CHEM LTD, PANASONIC CORPORATION, 3M INNOVATIVE PROPERTIES COMPANY, and BYD COMPANY LIMITED.
According to this report, SANYO and SAMSUNG SDI Co. are the worlds first and second largest markers of lithium ion batteries. This is reflected in their patent positions with the second most and most patent applications respectively. SAMSUNG SDI just reported its biggest profit in 5 years, aided by its commanding patent position.
Breakthroughs in alternative lithium based battery technologies are being regularly reported by many groups. These typically have vastly superior storage capacity than today’s commercial lithium ion batteries. Recent breakthroughs have occurred in lithium air batteries, lithium sulfur batteries, and nanotechnology based batteries, for example. With so many alternatives it is hard to know which technologies and companies are going to be the long term winners. However, the patent filing rate will accelerate and the winners will have well protected technology.
While for sure there are great opportunities, the secondary cell patent landscape is rapidly becoming a mine field that needs careful mapping before being traversed.
The patent landscape will undoubtably shape the direction the various industry players will take – depending on what options they can secure. For example, some may license or cross license patents or try to work around existing patents to ensure they are free to operate.
Those that don’t have patents to bargin with may find themselves locked out of this growing clean technology market.
Filed under: Feature
The Federal Government has released details about its $1.5 billion project to construct and demonstrate up to four large-scale solar power plants in Australia, using solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) technologies.
More details are here.
Filed under: Feature
Dr Justin Blows, Patent Attorney at Griffith Hack, conducted a radio webcast on the the success of Hybrid Vehicles resulting from patent dominance. To listen to the webcast Click Here.
Filed under: Feature
According to this report, London’s rubbish could be used to generate electricity for up to two million homes.
Filed under: Feature | Tags: clean and sustainable technologies, renewable technologies policy, solar commercialisation, solar energy, solar investment, solar power
In a broadcast this week on Boardroom Radio Australia (www.brr.com.au), Dr Justin Blows led a roundtable discussion on the topic of solar energy with the following contributors: Richard Caldwell (Chairman, Dyesol), John Grimes (CEO, ANZ Solar Energy Society), Alistair Sproul (Associate Professor UNSW School of Photovoltaic & Renewable Energy Engineering) and John Dyson (Investment Principal, Starfish Ventures).
The interactive broadcast allowed listeners to submit questions as it was in progress, directing the focus of the discussion.
The broadcast explores the future of solar power as a viable renewable energy, and the medium to longer term commercial opportunities that exist in this area. It was noted that Australia is currently behind other countries such as the US, China and Germany, in solar power usage and development. Archaic government policies in the renewable technologies area, when compared with other countries, was one reason given for this.
The full broadcast is approximately 25 minutes long, click here to listen.
Filed under: Feature
According to this report, cellulosic biofuels will on average emit more carbon dioxide over the next few decades than burning petrol, according to a study published in the journal Science.
Filed under: Feature
I found this interesting article in the Australian, 22 October 2009 – Justin Blows.
AUSTRALIA should take the lead in developing solar energy technology as part of the fight against global warming, the International Energy Agency’s chief economist says.
“We need a major (solar) program, a collective program,” the agency’s Fatih Birol said. “Australia has a lot of experience. In solar, Australia can also play a role.”
Speaking from Paris, Dr Birol said “solar energy has a very bright future” along with nuclear power. He said solar was potentially an easier option because it “enjoys a lot of public acceptance”.
Even with large investments in solar and nuclear, Dr Birol said the world would still need oil, but he warned it would not last. “My main motto never changes: the era of low oil prices is over,” he said.
Australia’s solar industry has had a chequered history, with researchers and manufacturers heading overseas over the past 15 years because of a perceived lack of federal government support.
AAP
Filed under: Feature
According to this report, Solel, a solar thermal company that has mainly been active in Europe, has a new owner: Siemens, a German conglomerate most recognized in cleantech for its wind turbines.
Filed under: Feature
According to this report, a new solar power station – the first in Queensland – opens today in Windorah. Apparently, it is the first large scale attempt for an Australian town to run off solar power.
Filed under: Articles | Tags: all energy, clean and sustainable, clean and sustainable technolgies, energy production, innovation, intellectual property, inventors, tidal power, wave power
Although solar, wind and clean coal continue to attract the majority of the attention as clean energy options for the future, wave and tidal power may also play a major part in future energy production.
A recent visit to the All Energy Conference showed that there are at least three Australian companies developing wave technology. Namely: Biopower, Oceanlinx and CETCO, who are all developing alternative means of capturing wave or tidal energy.
New Zealand is also at the forefront of investing in wave power, with 14 different projects considered, ranging from capturing the deep sea energy in the Cook Strait that separates Wellington from the South Island; to capturing the energy in the strong tides in one of New Zealand’s largest harbours.
Wave power has tremendous potential as base load power as it is pretty reliable and available twenty four hours a day. However, there are also likely to be significant engineering challenges such as maintenance in some extreme environments. The combination of economic potential and engineering challenges is leading inventors to come up with a whole range of quite different solutions.
No one solution has started to dominate yet. From an IP viewpoint, this makes wave power perhaps more interesting than some other clean technologies, where the engineering is now starting to mature.
Another important question that developers need to consider is the breadth of the claims of their patents and their competitor’s patents. A smart innovator might find that while their patented invention did not succeed in its own right, their patents do claim a more successful invention developed by another company. Or vice-versa.
I for one will be watching this space with much interest in the future.
Mike Lloyd
Filed under: Feature
This recent article states that the Chinese environmental technologies market, including renewable energy, is expected to be one trillion US dollars by 2013. Some foreign companies are taping into this market. For example, First Solar, an Arizona based solar company that manufactures solar modules recently won a contract to build a massive 2 GW solar field bigger than Manhattan.
But many believe that China is raising trade barriers to the importation of renewable energy plant. At the same time China is complaining that patent rights to foreigners are a barrier to importation. Both of these measures reduce the ability of non-Chinese companies to compete in the clean technology business in China.
So what exactly is China’s position on Clean IP? I found this emotive news item in China View which puts forward the arguments for weakened patent rights. The argument goes that weakened patent rights will increase clean technology transfer into developing nations like China. China View does not hold back:
The developing world, victimized by greenhouse gas (GHG) releases in the West, not only suffer from extreme vagaries of weather that wreak havoc but also are forced to yield ground on development. They are facing costs of around 100 billion euros a year by 2020 and crying out for technology used to treat carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and other GHGs. Yet slow and slim technology transfer remains one of the biggest hurdles for their environmentally sound pathways.
And if you’re looking for particularly strong language …
Unfortunately, techno-rich industrialized nations cling to repulsive standards in technology trade and cross-border licensing. The current intellectual property right (IPR) regime is “unduly biased toward the owners rather than the users of technology”, said the UN World Economic and Social Survey 2009 released recently. Combined with the market power of multinationals in the advanced economies, such a regime could thwart global efforts in environment by suppressing low-emission uses of developing nations.
In reality cleantech transfer into China is strong.
Shi Zhengrong was educated at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia and started Suntech Power in China. Suntech is a leading manufacturer of photovoltaic solar cells. Suntech made Dr Zhengrong the world’s first solar billionaire. Suntech has plans to become a commercial superpower like oil company BP. According to the China daily, in 2008, solar cell production in China accounted for 40 percent of the global output, and seven of the world’s top 15 solar cell manufacturers are Chinese companies. In fact it is so successful that now the Chinese government wants to slow growth in the industry.
Suntech benefits commercially from a healthy patent portfolio. That’s good – perhaps with the help of their patent portfolio they will become the energy giant they want to be, help develop China and mitigate climate change.
Wang Chuanfu is another Chinese billionaire. He founded and is the chairman of BYD, a company that manufactures electric cars and the lithium ion batteries that power them. Mr Wang turned out his first plug-in electric car for the market last year. The company has said that it plans to become China’s No 1 carmaker by 2015 and the world leader by 2025. Another case of successful clean technology transfer to China.
BYD also benefits from a healthy patent portfolio.
But if developing nations like China are benefiting from clean IP is there any reason to change the IP system as they are arguing?
Technology transfer and IP rights are going to be one of the big issues in the upcoming Copenhagen meeting. Developing nations believe IP rights are a barrier to the transfer of clean technologies but developed countries strongly defend IP. But it appears that the arguments being put forward by developing nations, at least in the case of China, are exaggerations. Successful Chinese cleantech companies enjoy commercial success at least in part from their patent portfolios.
This issue may scuttle a global deal on climate change at Copenhagen. As reported in the American Chronicle, a recent 432-0 vote on an amendment to the US Foreign Relations Authorization Act was a signal that an overwhelming majority in the US Congress back intellectual property rights. This position is directly opposed to China’s view.
In fact, Patents and other form of IP are part of the solution, not the problem. Some things that are not pointed out by the author of the China View article:
- Companies develop clean technology and need IP to protect their investment. Why would free enterprise spend all that money if others are going to copy? The copyists are at an advantage because they do not have to spend on R&D, infrastructure, relationship building, working with governments etc.
- Protected IP reassure investors that their investment is protected, stimulating investment in clean technologies.
- Chinese industry has a history of infringement – are they trying to keep this ‘unfair’ advantage by diluting IP rights?
- IP rights provide legal clarity and certainty for technology transfer – something that is not well understood. How do you licence a technology without a clear legal right? How is a company motivated to transfer out and diffuse technology if there is no transaction centered around a ‘tangible’ property right? IP rights are part of the solution, not the problem.
- IP strongly encourages joint ventures because the IP that comes out of the JV can be assigned as required in a structured and well defined way.
Filed under: Articles | Tags: cleantech, green car innovation fund, griffith hack, hybrid vehicle, innovation, intellectual property, investment, patent
Griffith Hack is pleased to announce the launch of the report: ‘Who holds the power? Lessons from hybrid car innovation for clean technologies.’
Australian companies and developers looking to benefit from the upcoming clean technology boom have been warned to think carefully about how they protect their ideas, following analysis of global patents in the rapidly expanding hybrid car market.
The report found that the market leader in hybrid technology has filed so many patents ahead of its rivals, that other major manufacturers are now being forced to use the technology ‘under licence’ or develop very different types of vehicles. This has very real implications for Australian innovators, including companies and researchers hoping to receive funding from the federal government’s $1.3 billion Green Car Innovation Fund.
As the report warns: “Failure to understand how companies compare to their competitors, may lead to wasted investment, infringement and a lack of commercial success.” “Growing concerns about energy security, climate change and pollution are motivating governments everywhere to introduce strong measures that favour innovation in clean technologies, such as hybrid cars,” notes co-author, Dr Justin Blows. “Our report shows that clean technology innovators are massively investing in IP, to ensure they remain competitive as the world moves into a new age of clean technology.”
Report co-author Mike Lloyd adds: “Hybrid car sales were non-existent until Toyota made a commitment to this sector after 1994, at a time when oil prices were low. The company’s initiative and aggressive patent filing strategy have, in turn, forced other motor companies to respond in a variety of ways. There are lessons here for all innovative companies, including those Australian organisations and individuals looking to make their mark on our motoring future.”
For the full report click here.
For further information on the report, please contact:
Mike Lloyd IP Portfolio Management Consultant Clean & Sustainable Technologies Group Griffith Hack
Tel: 03 9243 8315
Email: mike.lloyd@griffithhack.com.au
Dr Justin Blows Patent Attorney Clean & Sustainable Technologies Group Griffith Hack
Tel: 02 9925 5938
Mob: 0425 215 470
Email: justin.blows@griffithhack.com.au
Filed under: Articles | Tags: clean and sustainable technolgies, innovation, intellectual property, Patents
The need for the world to develop new technologies to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment has led to calls by some to reduce the role of patents and other forms of IP in clean technologies. Patents and other IP provide a monopoly to their owners, which according to some pundits potentially reduces the spread and adoption of these planet saving technologies, potentially leaving us all worse off.
There are of course a wealth of reasons why IP ownership can help drive innovation by providing an incentive to invest in research and development. But maybe open innovation and IP ownership are not necessarily opposite approaches to development.
There is an argument being promoted by Marshall Phelps, IP Tsar for Microsoft, that clear IP ownership can actively help drive collaboration. Clear IP ownership gives IP owners and innovators the confidence take their ideas to market and look for collaborators and partners to help take these ideas forward.
The alternative to clear IP ownership in many cases is protecting new ideas as trade secrets or confidential information – which by its very nature will prevent the spread and likely slow the adoption of these ideas. In other words, IP ownership may actually assist open innovation….a radical thought for many, I know.
Mike Lloyd
Filed under: Feature
According to this report, Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said U.S. manufacturers would not invest in “alternative fuels and energy-saving devices and emission-reducing technologies if somebody is going to rip it off.” He was speaking in support of strong patent rights for climate change mitigation technology, and the demands of developing nations for greatly weakened protection.
According to this report, Solar company SunPower has successfully used one of its patents to force SunLink to take a licence for its patented light weight rooftop mounting system.
Facing court action, SunLink acknowledged infringement and presumably settled to the financial and commercial advantage of SunPower.
SunPower presumably now has an extra revenue stream through their patents and license. Now, profits from products produced and sold by SunLink may very well flow through to SunPower.
Its very likely that the use of patents by the solar industry will increase with its maturity.
Filed under: Feature | Tags: clean and sustainable technology, cleantech, climate change mitigation technology
According to this report, billionaire George Soros said he will invest $1 billion in clean-energy technology and create an organization to advise policy makers on environmental issues.
This is roughly the same order of magnitude of money as the current Australian Government has committed to Solar Energy.
