Per this press release at the USPTO yesterday:

U.S. Commerce Department’s Patent and Trademark Office to Accelerate Review of Green Technology Patents to Speed Deployment to Marketplace 

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Commerce Department’s Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will pilot a program to accelerate the examination of certain “green” technology patent applications, Secretary Gary Locke announced today. The new initiative, coming days before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, will accelerate the development and deployment of green technology, create green jobs, and promote U.S. competitiveness in this vital sector.

“American competitiveness depends on innovation and innovation depends on creative Americans developing new technology,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said. “By ensuring that many new products will receive patent protection more quickly, we can encourage our brightest innovators to invest needed resources in developing new technologies and help bring those technologies to market more quickly.”

Locke announced the USPTO pilot program at a press conference with U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today at the Commerce Department’s headquarters. 

“Every day an important green tech innovation is hindered from coming to market is another day we harm our planet and another day lost in creating green businesses and green jobs,” Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos said. “Applications in this pilot program will see a significant savings in pendency, which will help bring green innovations to market more quickly.”

Pending patent applications in green technologies will be eligible to be accorded special status and given expedited examination, which will have the effect of reducing the time it takes to patent these technologies by an average of one year. Earlier patenting of these technologies enables inventors to secure funding, create businesses, and bring vital green technologies into use much sooner.  

Patent applications are normally taken up for examination in the order that they are filed. The average pendency time for applications in green technology areas is approximately 30 months to a first office action and 40 months to a final decision. Under the pilot program, for the first 3,000 applications related to green technologies in which a proper petition is filed, the agency will examine the applications on an accelerated basis. 

Carl Horton, Chief Intellectual Property Counsel of General Electric, hailed the new initiative. 

“We hail this initiative as an excellent incentive to fuel further innovation of clean technology and a terrific mechanism to speed the dissemination of these patented technologies throughout the world,” Horton said.

Michael Sykes, an independent inventor who has spent the last 25 years working on technology to make homes more energy efficient, commented: “ All my inventions relate to energy and energy inventions pay for themselves- so speeding up the process helps me as a businessman, and helps the end user start saving.”

Additional details on the USPTO pilot program will be available in the Federal Register and via the USPTO’s website: http://www.uspto.gov. 

If successful, the USPTO will examine ways to continue and expand the initiative.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,810:  Poultry frying apparatus.

JW Note:  Wishing you a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving 2009!

I claim:

1. A poultry frying apparatus comprising:
          a liquid retaining vessel having a bottom surface and a first diameter;
          a raised rack comprising a support base and a central rod extending upwardly from the support base to terminate in an upper end thereof;
          the support base having an overall dimension smaller than the first diameter;
          the upper end of the central rod including an attachment portion; and
          a handle for selectively engaging the attachment portion for removal and insertion of the rack from the vessel;
          the support base including a spacer portion for spacing at least part of the support base from the bottom surface of the vessel when the support base is inserted in the vessel.

2. The frying apparatus of claim 1, wherein the spacer portion comprises a plurality of feet.

3. A poultry frying apparatus, comprising:
          a liquid retaining vessel having a bottom surface and a first diameter;
          a support base having an overall dimension smaller than the first diameter;
          poultry skewering means extending from the support base to be passed through poultry by entering the poultry generally at a base portion of the poultry neck and exiting the poultry generally in the region of the poultry tail;
          the support base being formed with an outer periphery and at least one opening located inwardly of the outer periphery for allowing flow of liquid;
          the skewering means including an attachment portion at an upper end for selective engagement with a handle.

4. The frying apparatus of claim 3, wherein the attachment portion forms a loop and the handle comprises a grab hook.

5. The frying apparatus of claim 3, wherein the support base is formed with an upper surface and a lower surface and includes a plurality of feet extending from the lower surface.

6. The frying apparatus of claim 3, wherein the periphery of the support base defines a predetermined total area including a liquid flow area defined by the at least one opening, the flow area comprising at least one third of the total area.

7. The frying apparatus of claim 3, wherein the height of the liquid retaining vessel is substantially greater than the first diameter.

8. The frying apparatus of claim 3, wherein the support base includes a spacer portion defined by a depending wall for engagement with the bottom surface of the liquid containing vessel.

9. A cooking apparatus for deep frying whole poultry, comprising:
          a liquid retaining vessel having a bottom surface and a first diameter;
          a base having an overall dimension that is smaller than the first diameter;
          a poultry skewer having an elongate body portion terminating in first and second ends, the first end being attached to the base and the elongate body portion being adapted to be passed through the poultry by way of the second end entering the poultry generally at a base portion of the poultry neck and exiting the poultry generally in the region of the poultry tail, the second end having an attachment portion; and
          a removable handle for selectively engaging the attachment portion for raising and lowering the poultry relative to the vessel.

10. The cooking apparatus of claim 9, wherein the base is provided with a plurality of openings.

11. The cooking apparatus of claim 9, wherein the base has an upper surface and bottom surface, and further comprises a plurality of feet adjacent to the bottom surface of the base.

12. The cooking apparatus of claim 9, wherein the height of the liquid retaining vessel is substantially greater than the first diameter.

13. The cooking apparatus of claim 9, wherein the handle includes a hook and the attachment portion of the second end forms a loop.

14. An apparatus for frying poultry in a cooking fluid comprising:
           a liquid retaining vessel having a bottom surface; 
           a support base receivable in the vessel and configured to space the support base from the bottom surface of the vessel and to cooperate with the vessel to define at least one flow passageway for circulation of the cooking fluid around the poultry; and 
            a retainer mounted on the support base for supporting the poultry in a predetermined position relative to the support base; and
            the retainer including a lifting section thereof for inserting and removing the poultry from the vessel.

15. The poultry frying apparatus of claim 14, wherein the lifting section includes a loop disposed on the retainer.

16. The poultry flying apparatus of claim 15, wherein the lifting section further comprises a handle removably connected to the loop.

17. The poultry frying apparatus of claim 14, wherein tie lifting section includes a bent portion of the retainer.

18. The poultry frying apparatus of claim 14, wherein the lifting section includes an arcuate portion of the retainer.

19. The poultry frying apparatus of claim 14, wherein the lifting section comprises a handle having a generally triangular shape to provide easy grasping.

20. The poultry frying apparatus of claim 19, wherein the handle further includes a hook.

Annually, TIME picks the best new gadgets and breakthrough ideas of the year.  This year’s list was recently published here.  According to TIME, the top 5 inventions in 2009  include: 1) The NASA’s Ares Rockets; 2)  The Tank-Bred Tuna; 3) The $10 Million Lightbulb; 4) The Smart Thermostat; and 5) Controller-Free Gaming.

The full top-50 list, plus the 5 worst inventions of 2009, may be viewed here.

JW Note:  Hat-tips to Zura’s 271 Blog and IPBIZ.  Hilarious spoof on Youtube related to the ongoing Bilski v. Kappos case being considered at the SCOTUS.  Apparently some patent attorney has had way too much time on his hands.  Enjoy! 

An interesting op-ed article at the New York Times this week by Robert C. Pozen, the chairman of MFS Investment Management and a lecturer at Harvard Business School, on reforming the patent system in the United States.  Check it out here.