ElectriPlast: Patents Pending or Innovation Delayed?

Valuing

Innovation





By Vince S.,
ElectriPlast Blog Editor

"… the Power... to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

The Constitution of the United States of America

[Editor’s Note: I first wrote about Integral Technologies’ patents last October when I talked about the number of patents the company had filed and our Chief Innovation Officers’ inventive genius. Since the company’s business strategy is based on ElectriPlast licensing and royalties, a review of our patent status is long overdue. Specifically, we’ll look at the USPTO bureaucracy, see what’s in the mix of overdue Integral patents and review the status of Integral’s patents pending.]

In the Beginning

The ink on the US Constitution was barely dry when Congress voted to establish a United States Patent Office in 1790. The rationale backing this legislation was so compelling that President George Washington signed it into law during the first year of his presidency. The first US Patent Board consisting of Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox and Edmond Randolph, was tasked with evaluating US Patent # 001, which was granted to Samuel Hopkins of Philadelphia for "making pot and pearl ashes," ingredients for making soap.

During the next 145 years, the US was fueled by creativity, driven by innovation and consumed by manifest destiny as it expanded “from sea to shining sea.” Along with expansion came the basis of a robust economic system. And the once rural backwater, often the subject of derision by Europe, became urban and industrial as it morphed into the most creative country in the history of the world.

Building a Bureaucracy

By 1935, the Patent Office had issued two million patents to US inventors; then America went on a tear creating the four millionth patentable invention by 1976. At the dawn of the Computer Age, in a blistering burst of creativity, the Patent Office issued the six-millionth US Patent in 1999! Six million patents in 209 years! Surely, the next two million patents would be issued by 2009. After all, the USPTO bureaucracy was operating at optimum efficiency.

Or was it?

Trouble in River City

Drilling down through the bureaucracy, EB found an Agency awash in paper in a computerized world, woefully understaffed and beset with a myriad of systemic problems that have lead to a backlog of over 700,000 unexamined patent applications. One highly-placed insider noted that the Patent Office continues to function much the same as it had 200 years ago. Problems have mounted as a result:

· At last count, there were circa 3,500 Patent Examiners (PE), about half the necessary strength to tackle the task. PE starting salaries range from $38K to $72K. (Good luck recruiting a Chemical Engineer graduate student to live in the DC Metro area for that money.)

· PEs who meet the citizenship, security and academic requirements are difficult to retain. The best and the brightest are frequently targeted by higher paying IP law firms in the private sector.

· Patents exceeding 100-plus pages in nanotechnology, bioinformatics, biotechnology, engineering, pharmaceuticals, software and the Internet among others are not uncommon.

· The case load per PE has increased in proportion to the difficulty of the technology and the accelerated rate of submissions.

· And last, but not least, was a Congressional “fix” that only made things worst.

Congress, in its infinite wisdom, tried to fix the Patent Office staffing deficit by increasing patent fees to give the Agency the ability to fund additional Patent Examiners. Unfortunately, the new fee structure produced so much cash that Congress raided the USPTO “piggy bank” whenever it needed funds. (They learned that from raiding the Social Security Trust Fund!) Needless to say, other legislation to fix “the fix” languishes in the hallowed halls of The Hill.

Enter ElectriPlast

Integral Technologies has filed over 120 patents; 21 have been approved and 100 are pending approval. Those unexamined pending patents will generate licensing and royalties from a many sectors, including, but not limited to:

· Automotive fuel cells, spark plugs, fuses, etc.,

· Avionics and aircraft structures, etc.,

· Braking devices and power components for subways; trains, etc.,

· Carpeting, flooring tiles, etc.,

· Cooking and heating elements; microwave oven components, etc.

· Fastening materials; i.e., bolts, screws, rivets and nuts, etc.

· Motorcycle, marine engine components, etc., and

· Specialty clothing and cloth materials.

In a recent press release covering the approval of one of its patents, Integral noted that the USPTO patent approval process was taking up to two years from the date of the patent filing. With that in mind, EB reviewed the 100 patents pending to determine how many were close to the two-year approval time.

The USPTO Patent Pending file reflected the fact that 59 Integral patents are overdue; i.e., they were filed more than two-years ago! Of course, the possibility exists that a small number of them might have been disallowed by USPTO. Even so, 59 overdue patents certainly bolsters the theory that Integral Technologies has plenty of news to deliver, big news!

Moreover, the EB review found that 18 additional patents pending are due to reach the two-year mark during May 2007.

Do the Math

So, let’s do some math to see if EB got it right. There are 21 Integral patents approved, plus 59 overdue for a decision, and 18 due to pass the two-year mark in May 2007. That’s 98 patents, folks! And there are another 22 Integral Technologies patents in the USPTO pile.