Allergen-Free Peanuts Lead USDA Report Highlighting New Innovations in Ag

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a new report on discoveries by USDA researchers that have led to new patents and inventions with the potential for commercial application and potential economic growth. USDA innovations included in this annual report range from USDA supported research that could offer solutions for millions who suffer allergies from peanuts and wheat to safe mosquito control that can help halt the transmission of diseases they spread, and others.

"USDA has a proven track record of performing research that has tangible benefits for the American public, and studies have found every dollar invested in agricultural research returns $20 to our economy,"  said Secretary Vilsack. "USDA is now accelerating the commercialization of federal research, and government researchers are working closely with the private sector to develop new technology and transfer it to the marketplace."

USDA received 83 patents in Fiscal Year 2014, up from 51 patents in 2013. USDA filed 119 patent applications and disclosed another 117 new inventions, which may lead to future patents and are detailed in the Department's 2014 Annual Report on Technology Transfer release. Helping drive these innovations, USDA has 267 active Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with outside partners, which includes Universities, and other organizations, and more than 100 small businesses. The USDA's technology transfer program is administered by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency.

The Patent, Used as Sword

The New York Times, Sunday, October 7, 2012

Thousands of executives and companies are caught in a software patent system that federal judges, economists, policy makers and technology executives say is so flawed that it often stymies innovation.

Alongside the impressive technological advances of the last two decades, some argue, a pall has descended: the marketplace for new ideas has been corrupted by software patents used as destructive weapons.

This article is Part 7 of the iEconomy series, which examines the challenges posed by increasingly globalized high-tech industries.

Nifty intellectual property links

In addition to the US Copyright Office and the US Patent and Trademark Office, check out:

Intellectual Property Infringement and Other Unfair Acts. Section 337 investigations conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission most often involve claims regarding intellectual property rights, including allegations of patent infringement and trademark infringement by imported goods

A list of Who’s Who in the U.S. Gov’t involved in IP

Copyright:
Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright (for students and teachers)
The Copyright Society of the USA
The Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center
Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States [Chart]
Crash Course in Copyright from the University of Texas
Copyright Navigator by Lionel S. Sobel

Search for Patents

Inventors are encouraged to search the USPTO’s patent database to see if a patent has already been filed or granted that is similar to your patent. Patents may be searched in the USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image Database (PatFT). The USPTO houses full text for patents issued from 1976 to the present and TIFF images for all patents from 1790 to the present.

Patents databases

A nifty wiki of patent databases.

Patent search sites

Two patent searching sites for any lists of science, law or business resources:

SumoBrain
FreePatentsOnline

Both of the sites are totally free, with powerful search engines, large document collections, and many features that other sites lack, including PDF downloading.