Archive for the ‘Smart Grid Patents’ category

Korean Program Seeks to Patent Smart Grid Standards

April 18th, 2013

I saw an interesting story at SmartGridNews.com about a Korean program to support patenting of standards for smart grid technologies.  Additional reports are at Energy Korea and Power Insider.

The Korea Smart Grid Association recently launched the initiative, which will support R&D projects conducted by companies, universities and research institutes to develop core technologies and standards for smart grid applications.

The program is sponsored by the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and supervised by an organization called the Standard Patent Center.

The ultimate goal, it seems, is to generate patents that cover standards in the smart grid space.  Kim Yeon-ho, the Director General of the Electric and Electronic Burear at KIPO, was fairly blunt about Korea’s thought process on this:

The standard patent is a high value-added patent that can enjoy both market power and monopolistic strength of patent, which are advantages of standardization.

A major caveat to the monopoly power rationale is that the owners of patents covering industry standards are typically required to license the technology on terms that are fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND).

The Korea Smart Grid Association offers another explanation, claiming to be looking out for the little guy.  The Association’s Vice President, Mun Ho, said:

Given that most smart grid-related companies are small and mid-sized businesses, which are weak in coping with standard smart grid patents, the program is expected to signficantly contribute to strengthening their competitiveness.  The Association will exert continued effort to promote creation of patent standards.

In particular, the Association plans to develop flexible AC transmission systems and electric vehicle charging infrastructure technologies, create standard patents around those technologies, and then “provide results of development to small and mid-sized smart grid companies.”

At Smart Grid News, Jesse Berst’s “quick take” puts this patent program into context:

In the U.S., the smart grid has largely been about empowering customers and utilities with better information. In Korea, the smart grid is part of the country’s industrial policy and has been singled out as an important new export opportunity. [This program is] one of the steps the country is taking to make that plan into a reality.

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Posted in Green Patents, Policy & Initiatives, Smart Grid Patents

Clean Tech in Court: Green Patent Complaint Update

March 28th, 2013

In the last month several green patent complaints were filed in the fields of LEDs, advanced batteries and smart grid.

 

LEDs

Bayco Products, Inc. v. Philips Intellectual Property & Standards

Bayco Products (Bayco), a Texas company that makes lighting products including LED flashlights, brought a declaratory judgment action against Philips requesting a judgment that three Philips patents are invalid and/or not infringed.

Filed February 26, 2013 in federal court in Dallas, Texas, the complaint alleges that Philips is “seeking to exact ill-deserved royalty payments” from Bayco in connection with its XPP-5450 Series Dual Function Headlamps.

The patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent No. 6,234,648, entitled “Lighting system,” U.S. Patent No. 6,250,774, entitled “Luminaire” and U.S. Patent No. 6,692,136, entitled “LED/phosphor-LED hybrid lighting systems.”

 

Trustees of Boston University v. Seoul Semiconductor, Ltd.

Trustees of Boston University v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

In October of 2012, Boston University (BU) sued Korean LED maker Seoul Semiconductor (Seoul) in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.  The original complaint was covered here and asserted U.S. Patent No. 5,686,738 (’738 Patent). 

The ’738 Patent is entitled “Highly insulated monocrystalline gallium nitride thin films” and directed to gallium nitride semiconductor devices and methods of preparing highly insulating GaN single crystal films in a molecular beam epitaxial growth chamber.

BU’s second amended complaint, filed March 6, 2013, adds U.S. Patent No. 6,953,703, entitled “Method of making a semiconductor device with exposure of sapphire substrate to activated nitrogen.”

The accused devices include gallium nitride thin film LEDs and LEDs made by exposing a sapphire substrate to activated nitrogen and depositing Group III nitride semiconductor material.

BU also asserted the ’738 Patent against Samsung in a complaint filed in the District of Massachusetts on March 21, 2013.

 

Advanced Batteries

Celgard, LLC v. Sumitomo Chemical Company, Ltd.

Celgard is a North Carolina company that manufactures specialty membranes and separators for lithium ion batteries.  On February 22, 2013, Celgard filed a patent infringement complaint against Sumitomo Chemical Company (Sumitomo) in federal court in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The complaint alleges that Sumitomo is inducing infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,432,586 (’586 Patent) by selling lithium ion battery separators to its customers knowing that the separators will be incorporated into finished lithium ion batteries.

The ’586 Patent is entitled “Separator for a high energy rechargeable lithium battery” and directed to a separator including a ceramic composite layer and a polyolefinic microporous layer.  The ceramic layer has a matrix material and is adapted to block dendrite growth and prevent electronic shorting.

 

Smart Grid

Electric Power Group, LLC v. Alstom, S.A.

In July of 2012 Electric Power Group (EPG), a Pasadena, California, developer and distributor of electric grid monitoring solutions sued the French conglomerate Alstom and its U.S. division Alstom Grid in the Central District of California for alleged infringement of U.S. Patent No. 8,060,259 (’259 Patent).

The ’259 Patent is entitled “Wide-area, real-time monitoring and visualization system” and directed to a wide-area real-time performance monitoring system for monitoring and assessing dynamic stability of an electric power grid.

EPG filed a first amended complaint against Alstom on February 19, 2013 in which it added a claim for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,233,843, entitled “Real-time performance monitoring and management system.”  The accused products are Alstom’s “PhasorPoint” and “e-terravision” solutions alone or in combination with other wide area measurement systems-based smart grid offerings.

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Posted in Batteries and Fuel Cells, Green Patents, IP Litigation, LED Patents, Smart Grid Patents

Honeywell Smart Thermostat Patents Suffer Seven Setbacks in USPTO Reexam

November 4th, 2012

 

A previous post discussed Honeywell’s patent infringement suit against Nest Labs (Nest) asserting seven thermostat control patents.  Since then Nest has requested that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reexamine all seven of the patents-in-suit.

A reexamination proceeding allows a third party to submit prior art to the USPTO in connection with a patent and have that patent re-enter the prosecution, or examination, process with respect to the submitted prior art.  For the USPTO to grant the request, the requester must demonstrate that the prior art raises a “substantial new question of patentability.” 

Even though the reexamination fee is hefty ($17,750), it is still in most cases a cheaper way of trying to invalidate a patent than by federal court litigation.

Over the last couple of months, starting on August 17th, the USPTO has been issuing office actions rejecting the reexamined claims of Honeywell’s patents one by one.  The seventh and last Honeywell patent was rejected by an office action issued October 11th.

The list of patents and the respective office actions are provided below:

 7,634,504, entitled “Natural Language Installer Setup for Controller,” describes inventions directed at simplifying methods that use natural language to program a thermostat (’504 Patent).  Here is the office action issued in connection with the ’504 Patent.

7,142,948, entitled “Controller Interface With Dynamic Schedule Display,” describes methods for operating a thermostat including calculating the time anticipated to reach a particular set temperature (’948 Patent).  Here is the office action issued in connection with the ’948 Patent.

6,975,958, entitled “Profile Based Method for Deriving a Temperature Setpoint Using a ‘Delta’ Based On Cross-Indexing a Received Price-Point Level Signal,” describes a method for reducing energy costs by controlling a thermostat from information stored in a remote location (’958 Patent).  Here is the office action issued in connection with the ’958 Patent.

7,584,899, entitled “HVAC Controller,” describes an HVAC controller that has a rotatable part which can control one or more parameters of the HVAC system (’899 Patent).  Here is the office action issued in connection with the ’899 Patent.

7,159,789, entitled “Thermostat with Mechanical User Interface” (’789 Patent), describes an apparatus for locating a non-rotating part of a thermostat inside of a rotating part, while allowing the rotating part to set and/or control different parameters of the thermostat.  Here is the office action issued in connection with the ’789 Patent.

7,159,790 entitled “Thermostat with Offset Drive,” (’790 Patent), is related to the ’789 Patent and describes the same inventions.  Here is the office action issued in connection with the ’790 Patent.

7,476,988, entitled “Power Stealing Control Devices” (’988 Patent), describes a power stealing device, whereby a thermostat can divert, or skim, a small amount of electrical charge from a home’s electrical system.   Here is the office action issued in connection with the ’988 Patent.

The accused products are the Nest Thermostats (shown here):

Obviously, these office actions are a string of good news for Nest.  Note, however, that these are initial rejections.  Honeywell can, and certainly will, argue against the rejections and/or amend the claims to overcome them.

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Posted in Green Patents, IP Litigation, Smart Grid, Smart Grid Patents

Clean Tech in Court: Green Patent Complaint Update

August 10th, 2012

A number of green patent complaints have been filed in the last several weeks in the areas of biofuels, LEDs, gasoline recycling, and smart grid.

 

Biofuels

Butamax Advanced Biofuels v. Gevo, Inc.; Gevo, Inc. v. Butamax Advanced Biofuels

In the space of just one week, this mega-litigation grew 43% (by number of lawsuits filed) and 28.5% (by number of patents asserted), with Gevo filing another infringement complaint on July 30th, this time in the Eastern District of Texas, and Butamax adding a declaratory judgment (DJ) suit and a new infringement complaint in Delaware on July 31st and August 6th, respectively.

Gevo’s Complaint asserts U.S. Patent No. 8,232,089, entitled “Cytosolic isobutanol pathway localization for the production of isobutanol” and directed to a recombinant yeast microorganism for producing isobutanol in which the isobutanol producing metabolic pathway includes at least one isobutanol pathway enzyme - dihydroxy acid dehydratase - active in the cytosol of the microorganism (’089 Patent). 

Butamax filed a DJ Complaint the following day asserting it has not infringed the ’089 Patent and the patent is invalid. 

Butamax’s new infringement complaint alleges that Gevo infringes U.S. Patent No. 8,222,017, entitled “Ketol-acid reductoisomerase using NADH” (’017 Patent).  The ’017 Patent is directed to recombinant mutant ketol-acid reductoisomerase (KARI) enzymes for use in the biological synthesis of isobutanol.

With these latest salvos, I now count ten suits filed and nine asserted patents in this biobutanol battle.

 

LEDs

Relume Corporation Trust v. Leotek Electronics USA Corp.

Relume Corporation Trust v. GE Lighting Solutions LLC

Relume filed two patent infringement complaints on July 12, 2012, one against Leotek in the Eastern District of Michigan and the other against GE Lighting Solutions in Delaware.  Both complaints assert Reissue 42,161, entitled “Power supply for light emitting diode array” (’161 Reissue), which is a reissue of U.S. Patent No. 5,661,645.

The ’161 Reissue is directed to a power supply apparatus and system for providing power to LEDs, particularly LED array traffic signals.  The accused products are GE’s GTxLED signal modules and Leotek’s IL3 Series LED traffic signal modules.

 

Schubert v. Cree, Inc.

Schubert v. Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.

Schubert v. Osram AG

In these three suits, each filed July 18, 2012 in Delaware federal court, Professor E. Fred Schubert of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) accuses Cree, Philips, and Osram of infringing U.S. Patent No. 6,294,475 (’475 Patent).

The ’475 Patent is entitled “Crystallographic wet chemical etching of III-nitride material” and directed to method of processing a III-Nitride epitaxial layer system on a substrate, for example by etching to a selected depth or cleaving, and crystallographical etching the epitaxial layer system in order to obtain crystallographic plane surfaces.  These processes can be used to manufacture GaN-based LEDs.

According to the complaints (Schubert-Cree Complaint, Schubert-Osram Complaint, Schubert-Philips Complaint), Professor Schubert is the Founding Director of the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center at RPI and has made many significant contributions to the field of compound semiconductors.  

These cases have shades of the Gertrude Neumark Rothschild LED litigation saga (see,e.g., a previous post here), another professor and LED innovator who sued many LED makers and electronics companies for patent infringement. 

 

Bortex Industry Company Ltd. v. Fiber Optic Designs, Inc.

In this declaratory judgment complaint, filed July 25, 2012 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Bortex requests a DJ that Fiber Optic Designs’ U.S. Patent Nos. 7,220,022 (’022 Patent) and 7,934,852 (’852 Patent) are invalid, unenforceable, and not infringed.

The ’022 and ’852 Patents are related patents entitled “Jacketed LED assemblies and light strings containing same” and directed to LED strings having a transmissive cover and an integrally molded thermoplastic jacket at the opening of the cover to provide a seal at the opening against moisture and airborne contaminants.

 

Gasoline Recycling

Yellow Dog Technologies, LLC v. Fuel Recyclers, LLC

Yellow Dog filed this complaint on August 1, 2012 in federal court in Arizona accusing Fuel Recyclers of infringing U.S. Patent No. 8,165,781 (’781 Patent). 

The ’781 Patent is entitled “Fuel recovery” and directed to fuel pump controllers and software for operation of a fuel pump of a combustion engine so it pumps a predefined amount of fuel in the fuel line directly to a drain conduit.

 

Smart Grid

Electric Power Group, LLC v. Alstom, S.A.

Filed July 25, 2012 in the Central District of California, this complaint by Electric Power Group (EPG), a Pasadena, California, developer and distributor of electric grid monitoring solutions, accuses the French conglomerate Alstom and its U.S. division Alstom Grid of infringing U.S. Patent No. 8,060,259 (’259 Patent).

The ’259 Patent is entitled “Wide-area, real-time monitoring and visualization system” and directed to a wide-area real-time performance monitoring system for monitoring and assessing dynamic stability of an electric power grid.

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Posted in Biofuels & Biomaterials, Biofuels Patents, Green Patents, IP Litigation, LED Patents, Smart Grid Patents

Daintree Wireless Systems Keep Your Lights Under Control

July 31st, 2012

Daintree Networks (Daintree) is a Silicon Valley smart lighting company that provides wireless lighting controls solutions.

Daintree owns U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0112654 (’654 Application), entitled “Wireless adaptation of lighting power supply” and directed to a wireless adapter device and method for wirelessly controlling a power supply device.

The ’654 Application describes a lighting system (100) controlled by a wireless controller (108) and wireless adapters (120).  The system includes lighting power supplies, or LPS (110) connected to a wall switch (106), which provides a connection to the power source (102).

Figure 2 of the ’654 Application shows one of the wireless adapters (120) and a lighting power supply (110) in more detail.  The wireless adapter (102) includes a wireless communication device, such as a transceiver (122), that receives transmissions from the wireless controller (108).  The transmissions include control signals for the lighting power device (110), and those signals are output to a processing device (124) in the adapter (120).

The adapter processing device (124) generates the control commands from the control signals and outputs those commands to the adapter serial interface (126).  The wireless adapter (120) also includes an adapter power circuit (128) that receives regulated DC power from the power supply device (110) via a conductor (129).

The lighting power supply (110) includes a power subsystem (112) that receives AC power input and generates a regulated power supply signal for a power supply processing device (114) and a power supply for a lighting load (118).  The power supply processing device (114) communicates with a lighting power supply serial interface (116), which is connected to the adapter serial interface (126) via a conductor (132). 

In this way, the power supply processing device (114) receives the control commands from the wirelss adapter (120) so the power supply processing device (114) can control power provided to the lighting load (118) in a manner specified by the control commands.

According to the ’654 Application, the serial data communications links eliminate the need for additional specialized circuitry within the wireless adapter to generate specific control signals for the lighting power supply.  The system also leverages off existing power and conditioning circuitry in the device being controlled, thereby reducing fabrication costs.

Other Daintree patents and published applications include U.S. Patent Nos. 7,660,892, 7,792,956 and 7,962,606, all filed off the same provisional application and entitled ”Network analysis system and method” and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0172844, entitled “Wireless system commissioning.”   According to Cleantech PatentEdge™, Daintree owns at least two international patent applications as well.

Some major lighting and electronics companies have taken notice of Daintree’s technology.  This Greentech Media piece reports that Philips is working with Daintree on a commercial-scale rollout of building lighting systems.

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Posted in Energy Efficiency, Green Patents, LED Patents, Smart Grid, Smart Grid Patents