Category: Intellectual property
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European Patent Office Filings, Awards Gain in 2011
The European Patent Office, based in Munich, says the number of patent applications and awards increased in 2011, with applications from Asia now making up about a third of the total. The largest single technical field among applications was medical technology, which had almost as many filings in 2011 as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology combined. EPO…
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U.S. Patent Awarded for Airborne Pathogen Diagnostic Device
PositiveID Corporation in Delray Beach, Florida says it has received a patent on a key element of its technology to test for airborne bacteria and viruses and deliver results within 30 minutes. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded patent no. 8,133,451 for the technology on 13 March 2012 and assigned it to Microfluidics Systems,…
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Unilever Launches Open Innovation Initiative
The consumer goods manufacturer Unilever unveiled today its open innovation program seeking ideas for new products and technologies from the public at large. The initiative is managed by the online intellectual property marketplace yet2.com. Unilever’s program is structured around a set of issues or problems for which it seeks collaborators to find solutions. The opening…
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Start-Up Licenses Univ. of Colorado 3-D Imaging Technology
University of Colorado in Boulder has licensed an advanced imaging technology developed in its engineering labs to a start-up company founded by the technology’s inventor. Double Helix LLC, also of Boulder and founded by engineering professor Rafael Piestun, has negotiated an exclusive license to commercialize the technology from the university’s technology transfer office. Piestun developed…
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U.S. Patent Awarded for Isobutanol Production Process
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Gevo Inc. in Englewood, Colorado, a maker of biofuels from renewable feedstocks, a patent for its process of producing isobutanol with reduced accumulation of by-products. Patent no. 8,133,715, “Reduced By-Product Accumulation for Improved Production of Isobutanol,” was awarded today to 12 inventors and assigned to Gevo. Isobutanol…
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Coating Developed to Enable Faster, Stronger Dental Implants
A clinical study led by researchers at Linköping University in Sweden shows that a new process speeds and strengthens the implants of artificial teeth in the jaw bones of patients. The findings of the study appear online in the journal Bone (paid subscription required), and the study leader has founded a company for commercializing the…
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Avanir, Concert in Licensing Deal for Neurological Drugs
The biopharmaceutical company Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Aliso Viejo, California and the biotechnology firm Concert Pharmaceuticals in Lexington, Massachusetts have agreed on a deal that licenses Concert’s drug-development technology to design treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders. While the companies did not disclose financial details, the industry Web site Xconomy says the deal can provide…
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Patent Issued for Protein-Engineered Flu Vaccine Technology
Fraunhofer USA in Newark, Delaware has been assigned a U.S. patent for its technology that binds proteins with antigens to fight influenza. The Patent and Trademark Office awarded patent 8,124,103 on 28 February to three inventors, including Vidadi Yusibov, executive director of Fraunhofer USA. Yusibov also serves as the chief scientific officer of iBio Inc.,…
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One-Step Process Developed to Produce Multi-Color Polymer
Researchers from University at Buffalo in New York have developed a simple, inexpensive process for generating a polymer that emits many different wave-lengths of light. The findings from Buffalo’s engineering department appear online in the journal Advanced Materials (paid subscription required), for which a provisional U.S. patent application has been filed. The engineers, led by…
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Patent Awarded for Migraine Drug Inhalation Method
MAP Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Mountain View, California says it received a U.S. patent for its formulation and method of administering the drug dihydroergotamine (DHE) used to treat migraine headaches. Patent 8,119,639 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was awarded to four inventors including Thomas Armer, MAP Pharmaceuticals’s chief scientific officer. DHE is a type…