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U.S. Patent official says Maine one of most innovative places in nation
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS
David Kappos, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, chats with participants in the Invention to Venture conference at the Black Bear Inn in Orono Wednesday.
By Matt Wickenheiser
BDN Staff
Under Secretary of Commerce David Kappos spoke at the Invention to Venture conference, held at the Black Bear Inn and organized by the Target Technology Center. Roughly 120 people were in attendance, including students from the University of Maine and from the Maine Maritime Academy, faculty members, inventors, entrepreneurs and experts up and down the entrepreneurship food chain.
Kappos has a second home in the Rockport area, and said he's been intimately familiar with Maine for about a decade.
"Mainers have a very special innovative capability that is as good or better than anywhere else I've been in the world," said Kappos.
The state has a "terrific can-do attitude; people are natural problem-solvers," said Kappos.
After his talk, he pointed to big and small ventures that he's seen Maine taking on. He noted the deep-water wind project that Professor Habib Dagher is working on at UMaine as an example of where "Maine innovation meets a huge problem - global energy consumption." There's a tremendous opportunity there, as well, said Kappos.
"It's something Maine is leading, and quite appropriately so," he said.
On the smaller scale, Kappos talked about the local craftsman who made furniture for his home, pieces that look fragile but are surprisingly sturdy.
"He should be filing patent applications," said Kappos.
Another example is the businessman who built a custom dock system for his house, and created a stainless steel attachment that could handle all the various movements the dock would experience. People from other parts of the country have come to see how the piece was made.
"I just meet people constantly like this in Maine," he said.
And beyond homegrown problem-solving skills, Maine attracts a lot of people who have honed their skills, made their fortunes and have retired to the state to live. That sort of gray-hair capital is missing in many other parts of the United States, Kappos said.
Those experts are a resource that should be tapped, he suggested; they can mentor small startups that are looking for expertise from successful businesspeople.
"It's an unheralded advantage," said Kappos.
During his talk, Kappos talked about the sizable backlog of patent applications that his office continues to process. There's a bit more than 700,000 unexamined patent applications in the office, he said. It takes about 27 months before an inventor gets a "substantive response" from the office, and about 38 months before they get a final disposition. But the office also has several initiatives to get certain patent applications shunted to the top of the pile, he said. The "Green Tech Initiative" gives priority to patent applications that are related to the environment, aiding in alternative energy, energy use reduction, etc. If approved, inventors whose applications fit the profile get a response within about 45 days.
The office is working on a similar program for medical products, and for patent applications that may be made available to help humanitarian efforts, he said.
Kappos said his office was undertaking several initiatives to try to speed turnaround time. One is an investment in technology. Another is a program under review whereby inventors who pay additional fees will see their applications sped up, with a final answer within a year or less.
"Just like FedEx, if you want your package to get there overnight, you pay for it and they take care of it," said Kappos.
Another is a massive hiring increase. The office plans to hire 1,300 people this year, and another 1,300 next year. Kappos made the pitch to students or professionals interested in becoming patent examiners. They don't need to be lawyers, but must have a bachelor's degree and a background in engineering, math, physics, computer sciences or the like.
And pending legislation will allow patent examiners to work from home, around the country, he said.
"You can actually be in your bunny slippers, working from your home in Maine, as a patent examiner," Kappos said.
Following his talk, Kappos was set to spend most of his day at UMaine, touring the Advanced Structures and Composites Center, the Foster Center for Student Innovation and the Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative before meeting with university President Robert Kennedy.
Deb Neuman, director of the Tech Target Center, said Kappos' talk illustrated how important innovation was to the U.S. and Maine economy. The purpose of the conference was to recognize that, and to help foster it, she said. There were various workshops, ranging from how to recognize good invention ideas to how to protect them. Numerous inventors also gave talks about their business path, she said.
"The real value of today is to try to inspire and encourage and to help guide and educate and inform," said Neuman. "We have a lot of great resources and experts to help folks."
A number of success stories were shared during the day, she said, such as the SteriPEN, an unltraviolet water purification system that was invented in Maine.
"You can do this in Maine," she said. "SteriPEN has a worldwide market, and they're in Blue Hill," she said.
National Science Foundation Phase II Grantees Conference
In mid May 2010, our very own Zeomatrix traveled down to Maryland to attend the National Science Foundation Phase II Grantees Conference. This annual conference is an opportunity for small businesses that have received NSF SBIR/STTR Phase II awards and supplements to share their technical and commercial achievements with the NSF program staff, potential investors and strategic partners, as well as having an opportunity to network with other small businesses for possible collaborations to grow their businesses. It also provides an opportunity to learn about new supplemental funding opportunities available to our Phase II grantees.
For More Information Regarding Zeomatix go to: http://zmtrx.target.maine.edu/
The Inflatable Bridge
A Fast-Build Bridge Could Replace Our Decaying Infrastructure
This August, Randy Gardner's construction crew blocked off a road in Anson, Maine, and set up what looked like a childrence bouncy castle. Neighborhood gawkers grew even more curious when a concrete tuck arrived on the scene. Despite the inflatable carbon-fiber tubes toylike appearance, Gardner explained to passerby, they provide the backbone to a new generation of sturdy bridges.
Roughly a quarter of the country's bridges need to be repaired or replaced, an setimated $140-billion project. The inflatable bridge system designed by engineres at the University of Maine, could get the job done cheaper - and faster. Workers unpack each carbon-fiber tube rolled up like a sock from a duffel back, inflate them, harden them with resin to produce sturdy arches, and fill them with concrete. Cover the top with sand and asphalt and its good to go.
The process uses fewer raw materials and minimal heavy machinery, saving 20 percent of the initial building costs. This summer, Gardner's crew put the tech to work and built a 28-foot bridge - typically a two-month job - in just 11 working days. Because the tubes protect the concrete from the elements, each bridge is projected to last 100 years - double the life of standard bridges. And if the concrete does break, the carbon-fiber tubes prevent an immediate disaster. "If one of the arches fails, it slowly sags instead of snapping," says engineer Habib Dagher of the University of Maine. "That's a warning to get out of there."
Advanced Infrastructure Technologies, the company that licenses the system, has contracts to replace eight bridges over creeks in New England. It expects to scale the arches up for 70-foot highway overpasses this spring and is investigating using the arhes to construct buildings.
-Susannah F. Locke
For more information on Advance Infrastructure Technologies go to http://www.aitb
Target Welcomes Environetixs
The Target Technology Incubator is pleased to welcome a new company to Incubator: Environetix LLC.
Environetix's is an University of Maine spin-off from the LASST Lab specializing in sensors resistant to extreme high temperatures.
Visit their website for more info: http://environetix.com/ or
Contact: Bob Lad
Email: rjlad@maine.edu
Phone: 207.581.2257
User Groups at Target Incubator
IT USER GROUPS now at Target!
The Target Technology Incubator has partnered with TechMaine to now offer IT User Groups up in the Orono location. TechMaine is the statewide trade association for Maine's technology industries. TechMaine enhances the technology sectors through programs designed to increase awareness of the industry, develop community, industry perception and workforce development.
We are pleased to host a video conferencing site for TechMaine members to watch the User Groups here at the Target Technology Incubator.
Sea & Reef Aquaculture receives awards
Orono, Me- Sea & Reef Aquaculture, LLC has been awarded an $80K SBIR Phase I award from the USDA. The award was given to support research leading towards commercial culture of difficult-to-raise marine ornamental fish species. The successful outcome of the research could give Sea & Reef Aquaculture the opportunity to be the first company in the world to offer these capitive breed species of reef fish.
Sea & Reef Aquaculture also has received a $12.5K MTI Seed grant to develop a detailed blueprint for scale-up commercial fish culture and coral propagnation systems. It is anticipated that Sea & Reef Aquaculture will expand its production by relocating into a large business incubator located at the Center for Corporative Research (CCAR) in Franklin, Maine.
IST Takes AT&T Prize!
Intelligent Spatial Technologies (iST) takes prize at the AT&T devCentral Fast-Pitch Platinum Awards
Las Vegas, Nevada- "iST's iPointer was presented an AT&T devCentral Fast Pitch Platinum Award at this year's competition, which took place at CTIA in Las Vegas on April 4, 2009. iST was selected to present from over 350 applications from mobile software developers from around the globe. iST presented their mobile application to a panel of judges, including business leaders from AT&T, industry experts, and venture capitalists, in a five-minute "fast-pitch" format. All applications were judged on innovation and orginality, marketability, ease of use and user interface design. As a result, iST will be promoted as an AT&T premier wireless application, giving the company exposure to AT&T's more than 70 million customers.
"Fast Pitch continues to be a very successful program in helping us find new and innovative wireless applications," said Mark Collins, vice president of Consumer Data, AT&T's Wireless Unit. "We extend our congratulations to all winners and thanks to this year's participants."
"Competing in the Fast Pitch was a great experience. Being selected by one of the largest wireless operators -- at one of the largest wireless shows -- is an honor in itself, as it validates the unique capabilities provided by iST. We look forward to potentially making iST's pointing-based search technology available to AT&T's customer base," said Chris Frank, CEO of iST.
About the iPointer: Imagine walking through a city, one that is familiar or unfamiliar to you, and seeing a Point of Interest (POI) about which you would like more information, such as an historical site, landmark, restaurant, or other business - just take out your iPointer-enabled cell phone and point and click. In milliseconds your cell phone returns an overview - image, audio, or text - of the point of interest. If it was a restaurant, then you could get a restaurant review, the menu, as well as the day's special. This is possible with iST’s iPointer “pointing-based” mobile search and content delivery platform. The iPointer mobile search and content delivery platform is network and carrier agnostic and will run on any mobile communication devices with a GPS, Digital Compass, and a wireless data connection. Our customers benefit from the dynamic content retrieval and update capabilities of our Web-based geospatial search engine and content delivery architecture.
About Intelligent Spatial Technologies, Inc. Founded in 2003 and privately held, Portland, Maine- based iST develops Location-based Services and technologies for mobile users. iST has developed the iPointer® system, a pointing technology that enables specific content about selected landmarks to be delivered to a mobile user, based on geographic location and direction. iPointer® answers the mobile user’s question “what's that?” For more information on iST, its technology and products, visit the company’s website www.i-spatialtech.com.
About AT&T: AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world’s most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation’s leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations. The AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates are available at http://www.att.com.
About AT&T: AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world’s most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation’s leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations. The AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates are available at http://www.att.com."
http://www.i-spatialtech.com/content/view/156/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANhDORcl16Y
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