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This is an article in a series reviewing Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) patents granted in approximately the last year.  In particular, the patents highlighted here relate to FCC catalyst and additive systems.  One take-away from this review is that the number of such patents as a percentage of the entirety of FCC-related patents, including those related to equipment, processes, feed treatment, environmental, etc., is down to less than a quarter.  This may reflect a shift in research dollars away from the catalyst area, or at least a shift in those research dollars directed to acquiring patentable inventions.  The second take-away is that the catalyst related patents are largely directed to integral multiple zeolite systems for increasing light olefins production, such as USY and ZSM-5.  This was already a fairly crowded area, however, in U.S. Patent No. 10,173,206 assigned to Albemarle Europe SPL, an interesting approach was to combine a Y zeolite exchanged with a non-rare earth material selected from magnesium, calcium or strontium, with a ZSM-5 zeolite, where the ratio of the two zeolites was specified.

It is typical for primary aspects of a technology to be recognized as a valuable asset; things readily perceived as inventive deviations from the conventional, technical inflection points that set processes or products apart from comparative offerings of competitors.  Organizations readily recognize such inventions as needing patent protection.  However, patentable inventions don’t always spring from multi-million-dollar R&D budgets.  Often, they result from engineers and scientists simply focusing on the best way to solve a problem, perform some function more efficiently, or getting more product out the door.  As such, they don’t necessarily relate to the central portion of a process or technology.  Nor do they always appear as something patentable, if to the untrained eye they merely resemble useful twists on things known.  For example, boilers, steam generation and their corresponding controls have long been used, however, Patent No. 10,125,973 applies a steam generation process to oil production.  Magnetic separation processes are also known; however, Patent Nos. 10,138,410 & 10,150,908 demonstrate applying a form of magnetic separation to purifying injection well water.  Everyone learns about precipitation separation of compounds from aqueous solutions in chemistry lab, however, Patent No. 10,258,920 demonstrates an application to a Kuwait oilfield.

This is an article in a series reviewing Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) patents granted in approximately the last year.  In particular, the patents highlighted here relate to fluids injected into the well to improve oil recovery: specifically, co-solvent systems and systems containing multicarboxylates.

The world’s five most valuable companies have $4.4 trillion missing from their balance sheets! While their collective value is more than $4.6 trillion, their balance sheets report just $228 billion in tangible assets. The missing 95% of value is in intangible assets – brands, software code, confidential information (including trade secrets), data and client lists.

Now that the first RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutic, ONPATTROTM (patisiran, developed by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals), recently received FDA approval, it is not surprising that such drugs are gaining considerable attention.  However, the underlying technology has been around for quite some time.  Craig Mello and Andrew Fire won the 2006 Nobel Prize in […]

This image is from a video posted by Duke University which can be found here. Typically, we think of patents as the main tool that allows for product exclusivity in the pharmaceutical industry.  However, exclusivity has a regulatory component.  For example, a new drug product cannot be marketed until it has […]

Stone Basket Innovations (SBI) sued Cook Medical LLC (Cook) for infringement of its patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,551,327 (‘327 Patent) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.[1]  Subsequently, the case was transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana (Southern District).[2]  The […]