By Dylan Williams
As the Fall 2021 semester draws to a close, College of Law Innovation Law Center (ILC) students are starting to wrap up their client presentations. Under faculty supervision, the students have spent the semester researching the best possible methods of commercialization for new technologies and drafting presentations to the ILC clients on the technologies’ intellectual property, regulatory, and marketing landscapes.
Novel technologies the students addressed this semester cover a range of concepts in medical technology and mechanical engineering:
MindTrace is a software-based tech company with a potentially wide range of neurosurgical applications. The developers are sophisticated medical professionals and programmers who have worked together to create a product that solves a problem encountered regularly by neurosurgeons when planning surgeries.
This technology is the subject of a pending patent, and ILC research is focused on estimating both the protectability of their invention under patent and trade secret laws and the prospects for producing and selling the product without infringing on the intellectual property competitors.
Endeavos Innovations, Inc. is a mechanical and systems engineering consulting company, focusing on research innovation and product development. Specifically, Endeavos has developed a method/algorithm that calculates the precise preload necessary to optimally tighten industrial style bolts that are used in, for example, wind turbine assemblies.
The novel method allows for much greater precision when fastening components together and requires less manpower during installation, thereby resulting in higher revenues due to less field costs and/or maintenance and repairs. Endeavos’ method applies to a variety of energy and aerospace industries, including oil and gas pipeline, aerospace/mechanical, as well as wind turbines.
Endeavos is currently working with the ILC to determine the best method of IP protection: patent, trade secret, or both. ILC researchers are also examining possible strategy for commercial exploitation; for instance, whether Endeavos may potentially license its technology to third parties for enhanced market stability. Foreign regulations are also important to consider in determining whether international sales are an option.
Wolf Medic
Dr. Blake Lopez, a medical doctor at Weill Cornell in New York City, has developed a chest compression device for CPR capable of integrating enhanced biological indicators.
Prior to coming to the Innovation Law Center, Dr. Lopez filed two provisional patents with the US Patent and Trademark Office on his technology. He seeks review on the strength of his applications as well as an assessment on the relevant regulatory landscape and marketability of his device. The ILC report will aid Dr. Lopez in his goal to bring a safer, more accurate CPR device to the market.