Posts Tagged: "wind turbines"

Boston, MA-based global digital industrial firm General Electric filed a complaint for patent infringement against Dutch wind turbine company Vestas Wind Systems A/S. GE filed the lawsuit in response to alleged infringement conducted by Vestas in the field of power grid technology. The suit is filed in the Central District of California. GE is asserting one patent in the case: U.S. Patent No. 7629705, titled Method and Apparatus for Operating Electrical Machines. Issued in December 2009, it discloses a method for operating an electrical machine by coupling an electrical machine to an electric power system, and configuring the machine so that it remains electrically connected to the power system during and after any instances in which the operating voltage of the power system is outside of a predetermined range for an undetermined period of time.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there is a potential 4.15 gigawatts of energy which can be collected from offshore wind collection around the country’s waters. The total electric generating capacity of the entire nation was 1.01 gigawatts as of 2008. All of this energy can be collected from waters within 50 nautical miles of America’s shorelines… Offshore wind farms face unique problems in seafloor depth and corrosion from ocean water which can cause higher operational costs in the form of maintenance team transport and replacement components. Offshore wind technology development projects are needed to develop tools for engineering modeling and analysis which can spur further innovation and lower the facility costs for offshore projects.

Today’s featured patent application would protect a novel system of addressing power outages when a utility network doesn’t receive notification of the event directly from customers. This system allows a utility network to scan social media posts for relevant information about outages, and then turn those posts into instructions for maintenance crews. We also discuss a few inventions related to wind turbines, including a new method for measuring lightning strike damage on wind turbine blades, and a couple of patent applications filed to protect medical monitoring technologies. Medical and healthcare innovations were a main focus during our recent search of General Electric’s recently issued patents. We were greatly interested in a couple of inventions allowing for upgrades to various medical systems and procedures, including fetal heart rate monitors and virtual colonoscopy techniques. Another GE patent protects a system of authorizing ownership of an electric vehicle during charging to prevent auto theft. We also wanted to share a final patent we noticed that discusses means of treating sour water and removing contaminants like cyanide which could be useful for communities lacking effective water treatment.

Our featured patent application today discusses improvements to methods of ultrasound therapy in medical settings. Ablation therapies in this system would have better safeguards that keep a patient’s skin from becoming uncomfortably warm during the procedure. Another medical technology innovation is discussed in a patent application focused on imaging a patient’s tongue for speech therapy. Other applications include more secure telecommunications systems and protocols and a system of detecting short circuits in the charging systems of electric vehicles. Energy generation and medical technologies are featured in a group of issued patents we’re exploring here today. Two medical patents were issued recently by the USPTO, one for better organization of patients and connected medical devices in hospital settings and another for more efficient biochips in use for genetic therapies. Siemens was also issued patents protecting improvements to systems of maintaining wind turbines as well as one protecting a solar thermal power plant.

Recently published patent applications include documents filed to protect a more efficiently designed turbine blade and an electronic sensor that can determine if corrosive forces have damaged a turbine blade. Another application is for a light reflective substance that can help warn birds away from turbine blades, which may at first seem insignificant but a major obstacle in the adoption of wind energy are complaints from environmentalists relating to the number of birds killed each year. GE has also received a few patents recently granting them the legal right to protect certain wind energy system designs. These include a new tapered tip design that increases energy generation efficiency and a new method of pre-assembling internal components to reduce costs.

On Friday, July 6, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a decision in General Electric Co. v. ITC. The Federal Circuit, per Judge Newman with Chief Judge Rader and Judge Linn, did not give GE a total victory, but victory enough over Mitsubishi. The Federal Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the original decision of the ITC, and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with the decision. Ultimately, the Federal Circuit ruled that claim 15 of the ‘985 patent, correctly construed, covers the domestic industry turbines. Of note, the CAFC continues to interpret “connected to” and “coupled to” as not requiring physical separation.

22% of social network patent applications are filed within one year of the youngest prior art cited against them. So speed of filing counts. If these applications had been filed a year earlier, then 22% of them would have avoided the youngest prior art cited against their independent claims. The applicants would have had correspondingly broader claims allowed. They would not have had to argue or amend around this prior art or abandon their applications altogether.