Filed under: News
There are some amazing opportunities in the clean and sustainable technology area that, according to this report, may well defy the economic downturn. As reported in this article, some suggest that the spike in food, energy and raw material prices that was experienced before the onset of the financial crisis was a sign that the world could be reaching the limits of its consumption capacity, requiring a new ordering of priorities. Can clean and sustainable technologies offer us economic growth were traditional technologies can not?
Filed under: News
The influencial economist Nicholas Stern argues in this article that the only economic way forward, particularly in light of the financial crises, is to promote sustainable growth, including making the technology base that underpins out economy clean and sustainable, and to prevent further destruction of our environment.
Filed under: News
Better Place, AGL and Macquarie Capital announced they are building infrastructure for electric vehicles in Melbourne, including public charging points and battery exchanges. The electricity will be from renewable sources.
Filed under: News
ICT has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by many times its own direct emissions. Find out what some companies are doing.
Filed under: News
Households earning less than $100,000 qualify for an $8000 rebate from the Federal Government if they install roof-top solar panels to generate electricity. But it is reported that the government is rethinking the rebate after it has received 30 times the number of applications it budgeted for.
Filed under: Conferences
Australia’s first conference for carbon market participants & service providers across Australasia, the Carbon Market Expo Australasia 2008, is being held on 30-31 October 2008 on the Gold Coast. Griffith Hack will have representatives attending the event.
Filed under: Conferences
The 3rd International Solar Energy Society Conference for the Asia Pacific Region is being held on 25-28 November in Sydney, Australia. Griffith Hack is the Keynote Speaker Sponsor for Professor Martin Green’s session on photovoltaics, and Dr Justin Blows will be presenting during the Industry Forum session on Wednesday 26 November on Patents and trademarks for low emission technologies: what you need to know.
Filed under: Community Activities
A number of Griffith Hack staff in our Sydney Office participated in this year’s Walk to Work Day, an annual event organised by The Pedestrian Council.
We understand not everyone is fortunate enough to live within walking distance of our offices in North Sydney but we encouraged all staff members to get involved by walking or catching public transport to work instead of driving, or organising to carpool for the day if walking or public transport was not a reasonable option.
One group of enthusiastic staff members met at Wynyard train station and then had a lovely walk across the Harbour Bridge, whilst another group met at Willoughby and picked up people on the walk in. Many others walked from the bus terminal at Neutral Bay, instead of catching a second bus to North Sydney.
The Principals kindly supplied a healthy breakfast for all participants. We even allowed those who rode to work to have some breakfast, even though Ride to Work day was a week later!
Filed under: News
The Australian government has promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050, but as reported the UK government thinks that is not enough. Will Australia’s target move to this figure too?
Filed under: News
Did you know that Texas will soon have a wind power generation capacity equivallent to 45 Coal fired power plants? This article discusses the explosive growth of installed renewable power geration capacity in the US.
Filed under: Articles
Dr Justin Blows has been quoted in an article which discusses the growing green IP trend in the September 2008 issue of Managing Intellectual Property magazine. The article looks at what businesses are doing in meeting the climate challenge with regards to emerging technologies, and Justin comments on the economic benefit of using clean technology. MIP magazine is available to subscribers only. For non-subscribers, an extract of the article is available online.
Filed under: News
Solar thermal power has been criticised for not being able to supply base load power, especially when the sun stops shinning. New technology is changing this fast, and now storage of solar thermal energy is commercial reality. Read more here
Filed under: News
Coal is one of Australia’s biggest exports and is also one of the worst green house offenders. Does coal have a future? Many people believe it does. This news item discusses the Australian Governments funding of clean coal R&D.
Filed under: News
Geothermal and hot rock power may be inexhaustible. The technological & economic challenges are now being attacked by researches and engineers with success. This news item discusses Australian governmnet funding for this promising renewable energy source.
Filed under: Community Activities
Griffith Hack is supporting Bush Heritage Australia for the first time this year. Bush Heritage Australia is a national, independent, non-profit organisation committed to the preservation of Australia’s biodiversity through the purchase and creation of a network of reserves to protect Australia’s unique animals and plants and their habitats.
Bush Heritage Australia’s vision by 2025 is to protect one per cent of Australia to ultimately conserve land, water and wildlife of high conservation value. For further information about this organisation, visit www.bushheritage.org.au. We encourage you to support Bush Heritage Australia and other environmental initiatives within your jurisdictions.
Filed under: Articles
by Peter Switzer
The Carbon Crunch: What You Must Know About Emissions Trading is a recently published book by Peter Switzer, exploring how carbon emissions trading affects business. Dr Justin Blows contributes on the consequences of carbon trading on intellectual property in Chapter 10: Law & Order .
Justin covers how ‘clean and green’ patents and trademarks are being filed quickly, to avoid being locked out of the game. He also looks at the controversy over patents and drafting patents so that they emcompass a carbon credit. Justin also considers the ACCC’s publication, Green Marketing and the Trade Practices Act, and how it affects trade mark registrations.
The book is available through leading bookstores.
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!
Filed under: Podcast & Media
Dr Justin Blows - Patent Attorney, Griffith Hack
Justin outlines important patent strategies for innovators in climate change mitigation technologies, as well as associated trade mark issues. Justin drafts and prosecutes patents for clean and sustainable technologies, and provides patent validity and freedom to operate advice. Justin has authored more than 90 publications in the fields of science, engineering and patent law, including articles on the likely impact of carbon trading and other government policies on patent strategy.
Strategies for Protecting Clean and Sustainable Technologies - download the PowerPoint presentation by Dr Justin Blows (PPT, 2.08MB)
Seminar invitation: Clean and sustainable technologies: protecting intellectual property (PDF, 581KB)
Colin Chambers – CEO, GridX Power
Colin discusses GridX technology, how the technology responds to market requirements and drivers, and opportunities for clean and sustainable technologies now and in the future. GridX technology can generate sustainable energy on-site – connecting residential, commercial and industrial customers to a reliable energy supply that also delivers highly sought-after environmental concessions. GridX has won many national awards for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, whilst being mindful of the commercial imperatives that are required to attract financial partners. Colin co-founded GridX, and has maintained a continuous position of Managing Director or CEO for a number of companies of which he has either founded or co-founded for more than 40 years.
Filed under: News
Governments around the world are now aggressively pursuing legislation that will drive green house gas emissions down, transforming the economy, which will directly affect you. Some of the Australian acts are already in force. A sample of Australia’s legislative timetable is outlined below.
- September 2007 National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act passes. Mandatory reporting on energy/emission.
- July 2008 Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) green paper released by Federal Government.
- December 2008 Draft ETS legislation released.
March 2009 ETS Bill before Parliament. - January 2010 ETS commences
- January 2010 Electric hot water heaters, inefficient lighting phased out.
