Simply patenting a promising invention is not always enough to launch a successful product. You also need to consider what other existing patents might be out there that cover the same ground as yours, or...
Part of the job of a patent examiner is to be skeptical of the claims of would-be patentors and the novelty of their claims. How do you, as an inventor, convince a patent examiner that...
When Stony Brook’s Center for Biotechnology developed a patent law internship program for science PhDs in the early 1990s, they gave young scientists a chance to experience other ways to make professional use of their...
How do you go from a patent to a company? Pam Ancona, who is both a patent attorney and a chemistry PhD, has noticed that prospective entrepreneurs “underestimate all that it takes in order to...
When did academic scientists become interested in patenting their work? In 1974, Stanford and the University of California applied for a patent on the recombinant DNA process developed by Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer. The...
Plants need nitrogen to grow, but a significant portion of the nitrogen in fertilizers is not absorbed by the soil or used by the growing plants. Rather, it washes away into waterways, rivers, and the ocean. This in turn has had devastating effects on marine life. In some areas, excessive nitrogen in the oceans has caused algae blooms that kill wildlife, make it dangerous for people to consume fish or shellfish or in some cases even swim in affected waters. This problem isn’t limited to poorer countries. Nitrogen pollution is a serious problem here on Long Island. In our case, the nitrogen comes primarily from septic tanks and cesspools, although nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers also plays a role. Nitrogen pollution in the waters around Long Island has hampered fishing, made it dangerous to eat seafood from some areas, and caused environmental changes that make coastal areas more prone to flooding.
