USU holds 55 patents in wide range of fields
Patents hold much importance in our business-centered society and many patents are generated through research conducted in the university setting.
Utah State University holds 55 active patents said Steve Kubisen, director of Technology Management and Services.
“These [patents] are mainly in the areas of data compression technology, apomytic reproduction of seeds, wire testing technology and degradation of soil contaminants,” Kubisen said.
He said each group holds about four to eight patents each.
Kubisen said, if in the course of a professor’s research they find a new invention or idea, they can come to the technology management department and have an internal patentability search and a commercial potential assessment conducted.
“If it looks like there will be adequate interest in the product, then we contact an outside law firm and they are able to write and file the patent with the United States Patent and Trade Work office,” Kubisen said.
Paul Israelson, assistant research professor in electrical engineering, said, many of the patents held in the engineering department have to do with vector quantization, an image compression technology.
“It is largely used with the Space Dynamics Lab and in video-telephone applications,” Israelson said.
He said new patents have also been developed for “multiplier less filters” for High-Definition Television.
David Hole, an associate professor of plant sciences, said the plant science department holds several plant variety protection certificates.
“One is for the Golden Spike, which is a hard, white, winter wheat,” Hole said. “It has been licensed to General Mills to produce outside of Utah.”
John Carmen, professor in plant genetics, has helped develop apomixis reproduction of seeds.
“This means that the plant is asexual and does not need a male counterpart to reproduce,” Carmen said.
The technology has been issued and used in Australia and New Zealand and is patent-pending in the United States.
“[With this technology] you can put it in a hybrid plant and perpetuate the hybrid vigor, which is usually lost in the second generation,” he said.
Carmen said this technology has a large humanitarian benefit. Hybrid seeds are very expensive and only rich farmers in rich countries can afford it.
“With apomixis technology, hybrid seeds that can produce high-yielding crops can be made available to third world farmers and countries,” Carmen said.
Steve Aust, professor in biochemistry, said he has studied and patented technology of biological degradation of environmental pollutants by white rot fungi.
Aust said the white rot fungus project involves lignin peroxides that the fungus produces to degrade lignin in wood.
“This system is also applicable for the biodegradation of a wide variety of otherwise very recalcitrant environmental pollutants,” he said.
This technology has already been used in several environmental clean-ups.
-kassrobison@cc.usu.edu