Patent delays slow company

December 27, 2009
By Jeff Starck
Wausau Daily Herald

The federal government says it takes an average of 34 months to approve or deny a patent, but one Wausau businessman is not letting that delay keep him from developing his innovation.

David Baker, founder of PDM Solar, has developed a thermal transformer that generates energy to provide heat, air conditioning and electricity in homes and businesses. The Wausau man thinks his invention could both earn him a tidy living and lead a green revolution. All he needs are investors for his company.

His problem: He has filed for seven patents with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, including one that dates back to 2005, but he has yet to receive a ruling on any of them.

The delay threatens individual innovators such as Baker and could be slowing an economic recovery.

Baker, for example, could put his thermal transformer on the market without a patent, but his competitors then could use his technology to make the same product without spending time or money for research and development as he did.

A patent in hand also would give him more credibility with entrepreneurs who fund startups like his.

"(A patent) should help us raise money because people investing in the company will have better confidence in us," said Howard Manske, chief financial officer of PDM Solar. "The patent also allows us to defend our work if someone is doing the same thing or trying to steal our technologies."

A patent gives an inventor extensive rights to manufacture, use or sell an invention for a certain number of years.

Not having a patent can be a huge disadvantage for a small company that doesn't have the capital to invest in its own technology and must woo investors, said Kurt Waldhuetter, Northeast Regional Director for the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Network, an organization that helps inventors and businesses develop new technology.

Fred Lane, a Wausau patent agent, said shortening the delay could speed the time in which a product goes from a concept to market. There were more than 1.2 million patents pending at the end of the 2009 fiscal year, and more than 190,000 were approved last year, according to the agency.

While the wait for a patent might be long, Lane said inventors and businesses typically spend that time developing prototypes of their inventions, testing the prototype, and looking for ways to manufacture and market it, he said.

Baker's invention follows the push for renewable energy. A U-shaped tube that contains an engine at one end and a compressor at the other generates power that can be used to provide electricity, heat and air conditioning, Baker said. He filed four of his seven patent applications in the past year to protect the technology he developed.

Baker wishes the patent process wasn't so long, but said he is more concerned about the agency making sound decisions on patents.

"In a down economy, we need as much innovation as we can," Baker said.

SOURCE: wausaudailyherald.com