PatentFox™

Nanoelectrodes Revolutionize Lithium Battery Capacity

webmaster — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 01:33:24 +0000

MIT researchers have invented and filed a patent application on an enhanced energy storage battery that may revolutionize the utility of electric powered vehicles and portable electronic devices. The invention may increase the power density of a conventional lithium battery by a factor of ten. The patent application relates generally to methods, compositions, articles, and devices associated with layer-by-layer assembly of carbon-based nanostructures. Using the methods described in the patent application formation of carbon-based nanostructure assemblies may be controlled to produce battery structures with significantly enhanced properties. For more detailed disclosure download PatentFox Posting 9366.

A patent application on this invention is currently pending in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The application along with select portions of the file wrapper of the case, including any actions by the patent examiner or response by applicants attorney, may be downloaded directly from PatentFox. This download will provide the reader with an in depth, current, detailed disclosure on advances in this leading edge technology that may not be fully exposed in other published literature.

PatentFox Report No.: 9366
Download File Size: 1 pdf file(s) totaling 5.6MB and about 123 pages.
Price: 15.00 USD

What’s Inside the Bloom Box?

webmaster — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:36:16 +0000

The NY Times, 60 minutes and other media have reported on the “Bloom Box” as a significant breakthrough in fuel cell technology. The Silicon Valley company, Bloom Energy, has received about $400 million of venture capital and has over 50 patent applications currently pending in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The company claims the development of a cost effective, durable fuel cell using proprietary materials and technology. So, what’s inside the Bloom Box? PatentFox has been able to identify and isolate one particular patent application out of the 50 that are pending that we believe encompasses the most comprehensive disclosure of the structure and technology that Bloom Energy is using.

The Bloom application relates to Solid Oxide Fuel Cells comprising: a plurality of angularly spaced fuel cell stacks arranged to form a ring-shaped structure about a central axis, each of the fuel cell stacks having a stacking direction extending parallel to the central axis; and an unperforated fuel reformer which is located in a middle of the ring shaped structure and which is surrounded by the fuel cell stacks. For more detailed disclosure download PatentFox Report 6704.

PatentFox Report No.: 6704
Download File Size: 1 pdf file(s) totaling 5MB and about 118 pages.
Price: 25.00 USD

Lender Evaluation System

webmaster — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 06:49:15 +0000

AIG is the assignee on about 20 patent applications currently pending in the “business methods” examination unit of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. AIG is in the business of underwriting risk and therefore may provide insurance to mortgage lenders either directly, indirectly (reinsurance) or through the use of credit default instruments (derivatives). AIG will be entitled to a patent if it can demonstrate that it’s claimed method of doing business is nonobvious and not anticipated or practiced by others. Patentfox is providing, at cost, select parts of the file wrapper of one of the pending applications so as to give the reader some feel for the scope of a business methods application. Background information on this application follows.

Companies that provide insurance for lenders and loan portfolios are known as “mortgage insurers” or guarantors. Either by preexisting arrangement with the lender, or upon a specific request by the lender, the mortgage insurers underwrite a particular loan in exchange for a fee to be paid by the applicant or lender. Each mortgage insurer sets its own quality assurance measurements and guidelines as to which loans it will or will not insure. Prior art approaches to evaluating lenders and loan portfolios were manual and time-consuming. In view of the foregoing, there exists a need for a more automated and integrated manner of auditing lenders and loan portfolios and for creating and maintaining a database of audit results.

The inventive system and method claimed eliminates much of the manual and time consuming operations described above. An audit conducted with the inventive system and method can be accomplished in a much more efficient and accurate manner than previously known. The possibility of human errors, including errors in calculations, is significantly diminished.

PatentFox Posting No.: 6690
File size: 2 pdf file(s) totaling 3577 kb and about 93 pages.
Price: 2.00 USD

Fat Absorbing Enzyme

webmaster — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:09:55 +0000

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes of Cardiovascular Disease have found that a key enzyme involved in absorbing fat may also be a key to reducing it. The enzyme, is found in the intestines and plays an important part in the uptake of dietary fat by catalyzing a critical step in making triglyceride, a kind of fat. Triglyceride accounts for nearly one-third of the fat eaten by people in developed countries.

Researchers found that mice that were genetically modified to lack the enzyme remain normal on a low-fat diet. However, when fed a high-fat diet that is similar to that eaten by many Americans, the mice do not get fat and do not develop other symptoms of obesity, such as glucose intolerance, hypercholesterolemia, and fatty livers. The mice eat the same number of calories as other mice, and the calories are fully absorbed. Results of their study were published in the current issue of the journal Nature Medicine .

This patent application along with select portions of the file wrapper of the pending case, including any actions by the patent examiner or response by applicants attorney, may be obtained from Patentfox. It will provide the reader with an in depth, detailed disclosure on advances in this leading edge technology that may not be fully exposed in other published literature.

PatentFox Posting No.: 3463
File size: 2 pdf file(s) totaling 5580 kb and about 126 pages.
Price: 25.00 USD

Enhanced Lithium Based Batteries

webmaster — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:38:14 +0000

“A lithium-ion battery electrode described in the journal Nature can deliver electricity several times faster than other such batteries. It could be particularly useful where rapid power bursts are needed, such as for laser weapons or hybrid race cars.” —More

Patentfox has found a related patent application that is currently pending in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

The application generally encompasses methods of forming small lithium-based compound particle compositions, as well as related particle compositions and structures. Lithium-based compounds, such as lithium metal phosphates (e.g., LiFePO.sub.4) and lithium metal oxides (e.g., LiMnNiO.sub.2), are materials that may be used in electrochemical cells such as batteries. The materials may be processed, for example, to form powders that are used to form electrodes (e.g., anode, cathode) of the cell. There is a desire in the art to improve electrochemical performance in cells including increased charging/discharging rates, increased power density and increased operational lifetime.

PatentFox Posting No.: 0141
File size: 2 pdf file(s) totaling 4764 kb and about 69 pages.
Price: 25.00 USD

Nanotube Coatings for Enhanced Medical Biosensors

webmaster — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 06:48:27 +0000

“Nanotechnology coatings could lead to better brain implants (Nanowerk News) Biomedical and materials engineers at the University of Michigan have developed a nanotech coating for brain implants that helps the devices operate longer and could improve treatment for deafness, paralysis, blindness, epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.” —-More

The present invention as disclosed in the U.S. patent application relates to biocompatible, biologically interfaced implantable devices capable of controlled bioactive substance delivery. The enhanced bioactive substance release is intimately coupled with probes and stimulation/sensing devices having effective three-dimensional integration into living tissue and other biological matrices for applications relating to neural prostheses, biosensors, targeted nanodelivery, and nanofiltration.

The disclosure further provides drug delivery devices, electrodes and sensors comprising one or more electrically conductive substrate in contact with a plurality of electrocontractile nanotubes. The nanotubes are coated on at least a portion of a conductive substrate. The nanotube comprises at least one opening and walls of conductive polymer defining a lumen therein. The lumen contains at least one bioactive substance. A power source can be connected to the conductive substrate(s) and provide a voltage to electrically actuate at least a portion of the nanotubes, causing the release of the bioactive substance from the nanotube through one or more openings by mass transport.

A patent application that is pending in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office relates specifically to the above invention. This patent application along with select portions of the file wrapper of the pending case, including any actions by the patent examiner or response by applicants attorney, may be obtained from Patentfox. It will provide the reader with an in depth, detailed disclosure on advances in this leading edge technology that may not be fully exposed in other published literature.

PatentFox Posting No.: 7280
File size: 2 pdf file(s) totaling 2824 kb and about 75 pages.
Price: 25.00 USD

High Energy Storage Battery for the Smart Grid

webmaster — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:47:03 +0000

“Without a good way to store electricity on a large scale, solar power is useless at night. One promising storage option is a new kind of battery made with all-liquid active materials. Prototypes suggest that these liquid batteries will cost less than a third as much as today’s best batteries and could last significantly longer. ….The liquid battery has the advantage of being cheap, long-lasting, and (unlike options such as pumping water) useful in a wide range of places.” More…..

A patent application that is pending in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office relates specifically to the above published article. This patent application along with select portions of the file wrapper of the pending case may be obtained from Patentfox. It will provide the reader with an in depth, detailed disclosure on advances in this leading edge technology that would not be fully exposed in other published literature.

PatentFox Posting No.: 4725
File size: 2 pdf file(s) totaling 1467 kb and about 47 pages.
Price: 25.00 USD

Nanotube Arrays for Energy Storage

webmaster — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:31:57 +0000

“Carbon nanotube arrays could be the basis of high-density energy storage devices and efficient chip cooling systems. The performance of such devices, however, depends on the quality of the nanotubes and the precise structure of the array.” More…..

Background information on some of the basic technology addressed or referred to in this Posting is available from Wikipedia.

PatentFox Posting No.: 7648
File size: 1 pdf file(s) totaling 4402 kb and about 125 pages.
Price: FREE

Optically Controlled Photonic Switch

webmaster — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 22:57:42 +0000

This patent application relates specifically to photonic circuits. Photonic circuits in which beams of light redirect the flow of other beams of light, are a long-standing goal for developing highly integrated optical communication components. In this application fast, all optical switching of light is provided on silicon, using highly light confining structures to enhance the sensitivity of light to small changes in refractive index. A micro-ring resonator described in this application acts as an ultrafast all-optical compact silicon on chip modulator. Under optical excitation, the structure can be made to be almost completely opaque or transparent, thereby acting as an all optical gate. The device may enable a whole range of new on-chip functionalities, such as all-optical switches, modulators, routers, and tunable filters. It may form the basis for new on-chip architectures in applications involving ultrafast all-optical communication, on-chip interconnect and chip to chip interconnect. It may also provide a way of storing light on a chip. By controlling the gate, light can be trapped and released, enabling electronic free direct modulation and routing of light for fiber optic communication.

Background information on some of the basic technology addressed or referred to in this application is available from Wikipedia.

PatentFox Report No.: 3997
File size: 2 pdf files totaling 1658kb and about 41 pages.
Price: $25.00 USD

Smart Drug Delivery System

webmaster — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:35:31 +0000

This application relates generally to the field of drug delivery and more particularly to a smart drug delivery system and a method of implementation. The system includes a biological sensory component, an analytical component coupled to the biological sensory component and a drug delivery component coupled to the analytical component for delivering a drug to a host based on the biological sensory component. A power harvesting and storage system can be designed and embedded in the smart drug delivery system to store and deliver energy from multiple sources of energy harvesting devices, thus providing a constant energy source and removing the need for batteries. The advantages of the system are apparent when one considers that medications can be delivered as needed over extended periods of time. The detection component may be used to measure glucose levels for insulin injections or to deliver antidotes in military applications involving chemical or biological attacks.

Background information on some of the basic technology addressed or referred to in this application is available from Wikipedia.

PatentFox Report No.: 3465
File size: 2 pdf files totaling 941kb and about 32 pages.
Price: $295.00 USD