GriffithHack Patents Trademarks IP Law

Researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a polyethylenimine-based, easy-to-regenerate adsorbent which captures CO2 directly from air. They speculate that the material could be used for direct air capture to remove excess atmospheric CO2 resulting from small-scale sources such as transport and home heating. For more details follow this link.

Robert Wulff

In 2009 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) launched a Green Technology Pilot Program to accelerate the examination of “green” technology patent applications. This was extended to the end of 2011, and has again been extended through to 30 March 2012 (or until 3,500 applications enter the program). Presumably not enough applicants are availing the program, so if you’re an Australian CleanTech company with a recent US patent filing – get on to it!

Robert Wulff

A proposal for plug-in military vehicles can be found here. If these can go plug-in, it’s hard to see technical problems in any normal passenger vehicle doing so.  I like the reference in the article to the technology trickling down.

In relation to recent concerns about EV battery fires, it seems to me that most reports fail to point out that the ‘problem’ with batteries is much less concerning than the equivalent problem with tanks full of petrol or diesel.  I wonder whether the enhanced safety inherent in carrying more battery and less highly inflammable liquid fossil fuel, was a motivation in developing these military vehicles.

Daniel Rosenthal

From FierceEnergy’s website:

Houston’s Mike Butler, winner of CenterPoint Energy’s Biggest Energy Saver contest, saved a whopping 36 percent on his electricity use over a two-month period this summer with the help of data from his smart meter.

The top 10 percent of the contest’s entrants saved nearly 21 percent more than during the same time in 2010 — and those savings were achieved in record-breaking heat.

“As Texas made history this summer with record-breaking heat, Mike and our other winners significantly reduced their energy consumption,” said Kenny Mercado, CenterPoint Energy senior vice president responsible for smart grid technology. “Their efforts demonstrate how using smart meters and performing simple, energy-saving measures can make an impact.”

Justin Blows

The newspaper The Australian has published a listing of “Australia’s 10 greenest universities” along with a summary of the reasoning behind the selection.  It’s an interesting article, and we congratulate the universities on the list, most of which Griffith Hack has had the privilege of working with.

Daniel Rosenthal

Reuters reports here that Toyota and BMW have agreed to work together on a broad range of advanced environmental car technologies.  This should be of benefit to the car-buying public and the environment, and it may also be interesting to see how the IP issues are handled.

Daniel Rosenthal

The new Automotive Australia 2020 CRC has been awarded $26 million in the Australian Government’s CRC (Cooperative Research Centre) initiative to undertake research programs and build human capital in areas of vehicle electrification, gaseous fuels and production of greener vehicles and components. The government announcement can be viewed here  , and this article  provides some useful background.  More information can be found at www.autocrc.com.

Daniel Rosenthal

Another significant jurisdiction, Brazil, is to fast track green and clean technology patent applications.

The Brazilian Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) has announced this as a pilot programme. The programme is expected to start in June 2012, coinciding with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development at Rio de Janeiro, and will run for an initial period of one year.

Robert Wulff

I was delighted to see that after many years of focusing on recovery of kinetic energy, there’s now serious consideration of recovery of waste heat to help power vehicles, as summarized in this article.

There’s a patent application here which may be related (with the inventor given as Schmeltz Sterling, which seems delightfully appropriate).

Daniel Rosenthal

Toyota has won the 2011 Green Manufacturing Award from management company the World Trade Group Limited.  Brief details can be found, for example, here. The penultimate paragraph provides some interesting figures on reduction of environmental impacts during the last decade.

Daniel Rosenthal