Micromachinery rolling at last?

Suggestions that we are on the verge of a second industrial revolution, based on microsystems technology (MST), are apt to leave many of us unmoved. After all, the prospect of tiny machines, less than a hairsbreadth in dimension, that can go to work in optical systems, conventional and RF electronics, a wide range of sensors, robotics, or even our own bodies, has been dangled before us for decades. Yet there are signs that microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) might, at last, be about to take off. Could it be that these barely perceptible (to the human eye) syntheses of microelectronics with micromechanics are finally poised to make a big commercial impact?Market projections are increasingly bullish. For example, a survey by Europe’s Network of Excellence in Multifunctional Microsystems (NEXUS) suggests a world market of $68 billion by 2005, more than double the level of two years ago (Fig. 1

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Fig. 1. This NEXUS graph shows that total world market for microsystems is expected to grow from $30 billion in the year 2000 to $68 billion by the year 2005.

). NEXUS had to revise earlier projections because of runaway successes like that of the optical mouse (Agilent Technologies recently shipped its 50 millionth), an anticipated breakthrough later in the period for microoptoelectromechanical systems (MOEMS), enhanced prospects for RF switching systems, and the possible emergence of a market in domestic appliances. Analyst Venture Development Corporation goes further, concluding that the market will grow ‘exponentially’ for the next ten years. The first device to exceed $1 billion in sales is expected to be MEMS-based photonic switches, within about two years. Current breadwinning applications — desktop ink-jet printers, biomedical pressure sensors/systems, and automotive devices — continue to thrive.     

The European patent office ‘Raising the Bar’ initiative

On April 1, 2010 a number of Rule changes to the European Patent Convention entered into force. At the same time, revised Guidelines for Examination were published to take account of these changes and to update the sections relating to inventive step. All these changes were introduced under the banner of "Raising the Bar". They can be divided into three categories - inventive step, procedural changes, and the filing requirements for divisional applications. This article aims to explain what the changes are and the reasons for them.     

Who influences USPTO patent examiners?

We test for evidence that the patent attorney has an extra-ordinary influence on the patent examiner using data on examiner citations of 93 608 patent applications to the USPTO. We find that examiners cite patents from the same patent attorney (as used for the focal application) at an abnormally high rate. This evidence is consistent with the view that attorneys are influencing the examiners reports. Coupled with new evidence that non-blocking examiner citations have a positive effect on the grant decision, this suggest that the grant decision may be compromised.     

Traditional knowledge and the patent system: Two worlds apart?

Traditional knowledge is a very broad definition which embraces technical concepts about a local environment, wherein said knowledge derives from the long-standing traditions and practices of certain regional, indigenous, or local communities. These technical concepts, which are intrinsically connected with the spiritual meanings and beliefs of the communities which had developed them, are the way indigenous people have in order to survive in the surrounding environment. The increasing awareness of the importance of this kind of knowledge brought about the necessity of the definition, classification and legal protection of traditional knowledge. As a consequence, after giving a brief overview of the main legal basis developed in the attempt at the protection of traditional knowledge, this paper deals with the problems associated with the codification in registers and databases, and gives some remarks about the Indian, Korean and Chinese traditional knowledge databases. Finally, a case study on a chemical patent search approached from a traditional knowledge point of view is presented.     

What is Middle Maintenance Policy?

The main purpose of this paper is to propose several new maintenance policies that can be performed at suitable middle times for trivariate preventive maintenance scenarios. Firstly, characteristics and limitations for the approaches of whichever occurs first and whichever occurs last are analyzed, and their respective maintenance models, which are called first maintenance and last maintenance, are given directly. Secondly, a combined approach of first and last is employed and middle maintenance is proposed. Thirdly, the aforementioned policy is modified to be performed at discrete working cycles, using the method of overtime maintenance. Finally, a new approach of whichever occurs middle is proposed for modelings. We give the analyses of how to formulate the middle maintenances and obtain their expected maintenance cost rates, using the technique of cumulative damage models. Numerical examples are given to compare the optimal policies among first, last, and middle maintenances. Finally, a potential application of middle maintenance is provided for future studies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Network structure of innovation: can brokerage or closure predict patent quality?

Patents are important intellectual assets for companies to defend or to claim their technological rights. To control R&D cost, companies should carefully examine their patents by patent quality. Approaches to evaluating patent quality are mostly a posteriori uses of factual information of patent quality. This paper examined whether patent quality can be predicted a priori, i.e., during the early years after a patent is granted, by analyzing information embedded in a network of patent citations. Social network analysis was applied to analyze two network positions occupied by a patent, brokerage and closure to determine whether either position is a good predictor of patent quality. Patent renewal decisions and forward citations were adopted as surrogates of patent quality. The analytical results showed that forward citations can be positively predicted by the brokerage position and negatively predicted by the closure position in the early and mature stages. Renewal decisions can be negatively predicted by the brokerage position in the early stage, and the closure position influences the renewal decision in a different way in the early and mature stages. These analytical results imply that a company should focus on developing patents that bridge different technologies as its technological developments reach maturity.     

Inventions shaping technological trajectories: do existing patent indicators provide a comprehensive picture?

Since Schumpeter’s (The theory of economic development, 1934) seminal work on economic development, innovation is considered as one of the main drivers of firm performance and economic growth. At the same time, technological innovations vary considerably in terms of impact with only a minority of new inventions contributing significantly to technological progress and economic growth. More recently a number of indicators derived from patent documents have been advanced to capture the nature and impact of technological inventions. In this paper, we compare and validate these indicators within the field of biotechnology. An extensive analysis of the recent history of biotechnology allows us to identify the most important inventions (n = 214) that shaped the field of biotechnology in the time period 1976–2001. A considerable number of these inventions have been patented between 1976 and 2001 (n = 117, 55 %). For all USPTO biotech patents filed between 1976 and 2001 (n = 84,119), relevant indicators have been calculated. In a subsequent step, we assess which indicators allow us to distinguish between the most important patented inventions and their less influential counterparts by means of logistic regression models. Our findings show that the use of multiple, complementary indicators provides the most comprehensive picture. In addition, it is clear that ex-post indicators reflecting impact and value outperform ex-ante indicators reflecting the nature and novelty of the invention in terms of precision and recall.     

Are patent trade wars impeding innovation and development?

When patents support anti-competitive conduct, innovation can be damaged not only by lack of market access but by the prohibitive costs of litigation. The creation of patent barriers is inconsistent with IP protection and enforcement agreed upon under the World Trade Organization and trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (‘TRIPS’). The study uses the US Apple v HTC IP legal case to investigate anti-competitive market behavior and trade barriers. The research provides a formal patent analytic methodology and the case analysis result. The research method tests whether patent conflicts and technical trade barriers are significantly encouraged by existing IP laws.     

A critical appraisal of IBM’S patent pledge model: The impact of patent quality on open source software START-UP’S market entry decision

In 2005, IBM provided open access to 500 of their software patents to establish a platform to further innovation. Recently, a paper by Wen and her colleagues empirically analyzed this relationship and found a positive association between IBM's patent pledge and open source software start-up firms' market entry. Despite their seminal findings, it is somehow questionable whether start-up firms enter markets regardless of the patent value of the market, as small-to medium-sized firms such as start-ups have a practice of selectively entering markets. By complementing Wen, Ceccagnoli and Forman's paper, we not only provide more contextual explanations, but also show that start-up firms tend to selectively enter markets where patents are filled with younger and higher citation rates.     

Undefined Jacobi last multiplier? Complete symmetry group!

The Jacobi last multiplier has an intimate association with the symmetries of differential equations. We present four examples in which the inability to obtain a last multiplier using the method of Lie itself provides us with information. We show that the three representations of the complete symmetry group of the linear harmonic oscillator can be obtained by searching for Jacobi last multipliers: they correspond to the Lie point symmetries that have zero determinant, thus far regarded as a useless case. The point is emphasized using the examples of the Volterra–Verhulst–Pearl equation, the Kepler problem and a scalar equation of fourth order.     

Going Green at West Point: Is It Economically Beneficial? A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Installing a Wind Farm at the United States Military Academy

Abstract:

In 2007, BQ Energy communicated an idea to the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, NY, about the construction of a 12.5 MW wind farm for electricity production on the western edge of its property in the training grounds near Camp Buckner. Such a project would bring educational, strategic, and potentially economic benefits to USMA, in addition to the obvious environmental benefits that would be realized by the Hudson Valley region. This article describes a quantitative approach to answer why it is financially beneficial for West Point to allow the installation of a wind farm on its property.     

What determines how long an innovative spell will last?

This paper is set out to examine the temporal pattern of innovative activities: what might have affected a firm??s patenting from one period to the next. Based upon data on ??information technology?? (IT) manufacturing firms in Taiwan covering the years 1990?C2001, we develop a survival model to analyze the underlying drivers of patenting duration. Our results indicate that the level of the patent stock at the onset of the patent spell, defined as the number of successive years during which a firm produced at least one patent per year, has a non-linear effect on spell duration. Other factors, such as industrial growth, firm size and firm profitability, have a positive effect on patenting duration, while firm age and spell sequence affect negatively to spell duration. We conclude that state dependence is demonstrated by innovative behavior, yet the advantages gained from such creative accumulation can easily be dissipated, thereby illustrating the transient nature of dynamic capabilities.     

A Methodology for Developing Maintenance Policy for Automated Manufacturing Plants

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