Divine Inspiration

Today's Globe and Mail carried a death notice for a Lawrence Abello SJ, a Jesuit priest who passed away on January 22 at the age of 80. According to his obit, Abello earned a PhD in physics from Wayne State University and was an inventor. In 1975 he obtained US and Canadian patents for a device for enabling a gasoline engine to run on hydrogen. His patents were assigned to the Canadian Jesuit Missions of Toronto.

The notion that a priest might be interested in patenting an invention is not that unusual. There are many examples in the patent record. Some have even achieved fame from their inventions. For example, Rev. Julius A. Nieuwland of the University of Norte Dame is an inductee in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Nieuwland, a chemist, invented and patented the first synthetic rubber, neoprene, in 1931.

The California and Chicago provinces of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) own several patents; US5054310, related to ultrasonic beams; US4970907, transducer holder; and US4403916, wind turbine.

Changes to US Patent Law - New Rules for Prior Art

There's a nice summary of the recent changes in U.S. patent law in the Jan. issue of Physics Today, and their relevance to academic scientists and engineers. The American Invents Act moves the U.S. from a first-to-invent system to a (modified) first-to-file system. Under the pure first-to-file system used by most countries, publication of an idea or invention prior to filing a patent application will prevent an inventor from obtaining a patent. The AIA retains a one-year grace period for publications authored by the inventor (the inventor's own work) or derived from the inventor's work. The article has a nice flowchart that explains how the one-year grace period works.

Wikipedia References in US Patents Increase in 2011

Wikipedia continues to be a favorite source of prior art references for inventors filing patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The number of issued U.S. patents that cite Wikipedia articles increased by 26.3 percent in 2011, reaching an all-time high of 2,425. This is roughly one percent of all patents issued in 2011, a small but growing fraction. 

The top ten assignees shown in the table below hold approximately 17.65 percent of the 2011 patents that cite Wikipedia, which is off 5 percent from 2010. Once again, ICT firms dominated the top ten, which suggests that computer and telecommunications patents are more likely to cite Wikipedia than patents related to other technologies. The top three assignees (IBM, Microsoft and Google) account for nearly 10 percent of the total. Google jumped from 7th to 3rd place. Apple, which was in the top three last year, dropped to 5th place in 2011. Approximately 5 percent of the patents citing Wikipedia were unassigned, which is unchanged from 2010.

The second table below shows the top ten primary U.S. patent classes assigned to patents that cite Wikipedia. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the classes relate to information and communication technologies (ICT). However, four classes in the top ten, 514, 424, 435 and 463, cover technologies (pharmaceuticals and games) not directly related to ICT. In most cases, the percentage of patents in each class that cite Wikipedia exceeds the percentage of patents in that class. For example, Class 707 accounts for 7.67 percent of the patents that cite Wikipedia articles but only 2.16 percent of all patents issued in 2011.

USPTO Series Code 13

The USPTO is now using series code 13 for patent application serial numbers assigned from the end of 2010 forward. The first application in the series, 13/000,001, was published on May 26, 2011 (2011/0121738A1). Series code 12 was in use from December 2007 to early 2011.

2011 U.S. Patent Statistics

In 2011 the USPTO issued 225,777 patents and published 321,181 applications for a total of 568,577 patent documents, a 1.5 percent decrease from 2010. The USPTO has published approximately 2.9 million utility and plant patent applications since March 15, 2001. Published applications now account for about 30 percent of all U.S. patent documents.


On August 16, 2011, the USPTO issued patent 8,000,000 to Second Sight Medical Products for a visual prosthesis apparatus. Patent 7,000,000 was issued on Feb. 14, 2006. The time interval between "millionth" patents has decreased to 5.5 years.

Table 1. Quarterly Patent Document Counts*
2011 ..... Patents (B) ..... PGPubs (A) ..... Total (A + B)
Q1 ..... 62,132 ..... 78,828 ..... 140,613
Q2 ..... 58,915 ..... 83,279 ..... 142,194
Q3 ..... 62,365 ..... 77,221 ..... 139,586
Q4 ..... 64,331 ..... 81,853 ..... 146,184

Table 2. Patent Number Ranges, Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2011*

Utility patents ..... 7,861,317 - 8,087,093 (225,777)
Reissues ..... RE42,020 - RE43,052 (1,033)
PGPubs ..... 2011/0000001 - 2011/0321,207 (321,181)
Designs ..... D629,996 - D651,375 (21,380)
Plants ...... PP20,816 - PP22,427 (1,612)
SIRs ..... H2,251-H2,265 (15)

*Based on preliminary weekly data from the USPTO website. Number totals may change due to withdrawn patents and published applications.

USPTO Resdesigns Website

The USPTO has updated its homepage, the first major redesign in more than five years. The new design is modern and eye-catching. Unfortunately, the search interface of the USPTO patent database looks like it did in 1999. 

Strong Growth in Patent Applications Worldwide

Applications for patents and other forms of IP rebounded strongly in 2010, so says a new report from WIPO.
Inventors and companies filed 1.98 million patent applications worldwide in 2010, a new record. China and the U.S. accounted for about 80 percent of the growth. Canada experienced a slight decline of 5.1 percent; however, residents of Canada filed more than 80 percent of their patent applications in other countries.

PatentScope Adds Russian/Soviet Patents

PatentScope now includes records for Russian and Soviet patent documents from 1919 to 2010, about 1.4 million patent documents. Full-text is not include, but abstracts are available from 1960 forward.

Cooperative Patent Classification Project

The USPTO and EPO have launched a website for information about the Cooperative Patent Classification Project, which aims to create a shared patent classification system based on ECLA.

New Bio: Inventor Hedy Lamarr

Inventor/actress Hedy Lamarr is the subject of a new bio by Richard Rhodes:

Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. New York: Doubleday, 2011.

In 1942 Lamarr and composer George Antheil patented (US 2292387) a "secret communication system" designed to prevent enemies from jamming radio-controlled torpedoes. The invention was based on radio "frequency-hopping" and forms the basis of modern wireless communications systems. Lamarr's patent has been cited in 36 patents since 1976, including most recently in US 8031129, and in ~70 documents indexed in Google Scholar.