Finding University Patents, Part II

After the conclusion of the Rice's First Patents Saga, it occurred to me that I may have made a mistake back in May when investigating other universities' patents. During the initial search for Rice's first patents, my search strategy inadvertently excluded anything prior to 1970. Unfortunately, the blog post about 12 other schools' first patents relied on the same strategy--I have potentially wronged these institutions.

Therefore, let's take a second look at when these Rice-caliber schools first earned U.S. patents.

This time around, University of Chicago is the clear leader, assigned its first patent in 1917... if design patents count. US D50337 is for the appearance of a plate (like the kind used for dinner; below). 

Narrowed to utility patents, the first school assigned a patent is Cornell University in 1931, with US 1,810,682 (another dairy-related invention).

In 1933, Dartmouth and Stanford were both assigned their first patents, US 1,908,296 and US 1,933,773, respectively. 

Next up is MIT, who was assigned patent 2,006,558 in 1935. 

University of Chicago makes a reappearance in 1936 with its first utility patent, US 2,032,829.

While Rice Institute was pursuing its first three patents, there was a lull from the remaining seven. Duke University was assigned its first patent, US 2,446,091, in the same year as Rice--1948.

Almost 20 years later in 1965, Georgetown was assigned US 3,223,083. This patent is for a "Method for adhesively securing together skin and other soft tissue and bone", somewhat similar in goal to patents recently issued to Rice (US 11,447,744/11,371,014, "Hypothermic 3D bioprinting of living tissues supported by perfusable vasculature" and US 11,246,962, "Neuronal scaffold-water soluble graphene for treatment of severed spinal cords and neuronal repair").

US 3,223,083: Method for adhesively securing together skin and other soft tissue and bone

Rather shockingly, the last five include those most highly regarded US colleges and universities, four founded before America was an independent country. The previously listed dates for Vanderbilt (1975), Princeton (1976), Harvard (1977), Yale (1977), and Brown (1984) were correct. Given the corrected information on when other institutes were pursuing patent ownership, it is even more shocking that Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Brown didn't pursue IP ownership till the 70s and 80s, centuries after they were founded.

That is not to say American universities and colleges weren't supporting researchers, and thus employees weren't inventing. For example, Stanford appears to have hosted a large number of patentees throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, before 1933. 

It is possible that earlier patents were missed again, or these inventions were assigned to a college or university but were not researched at and/or supported by them; the actual patents do not provide that information.

How to Search for Rice Patents

Have you ever wanted to find the patents assigned to Rice University? Or perhaps do a patent search of recent Rice research? It's something we do fairly often here in the PTRC. If you open Patent Public Search, click start search, all you need to do is make sure you have the right terms entered in the search query box:

"Rice University".an.

Rice patents using Patent Public Search

By enclosing Rice University in double quotation marks, you are telling the search engine that those words need to be used as a phrase in all results. This works across most search tools. In Patent Public Search, you can specify which field of a patent you want to search using a field code suffix. In this case, we used .an. to indicate assignee name. The periods preceding and following the code are extremely important; omitting either one will invalidate the strategy. Combining the two elements--quotation marks and a field code suffix--commands the search engine to look only for that exact phrase within assignee names.

Not a huge fan of Patent Public Search? It's similar on many commercial patent search sites.

If you use Free Patents Online, the search query entered would be:

AN/"Rice University"

Rice patents using Free Patents Online

Quotation marks are used the exact same way as above. The only difference is in the code used to specify assignee name. FPO places a field code first, followed by a slash, and then the term(s) to find in the specified section of a patent. 

For those who are feeling particularly advanced, you might like Lens.org. A convenient list of field codes isn't provided, but using trial and error, we learned that you can define your own, and have to use owner instead of assignee:

owner:"Rice University"

Rice patents from Lens.org

Once more, the double quotation marks ensure that whole phrase must be found together.

However, Lens.org warned that just using 'owner' wasn't sufficient for a field. It suggested expanding to encompass the whole name:

owner_all.name:"Rice University"

Suggesting better searches

Last thing to remember: for patents from early Rice days, you need to use Rice Institute instead of University.

If you want to use Google Patents, you'll have to figure that one out alone.

Pocky Day IP

Happy Pocky Day! 

Yes, evidently Nov. 11th is not only Armistice Day or Veteran's Day, it is also Pocky Day®. (If you want to learn about patents related to Armistice or Veteran's Day, just visit the current Kelley Center display, featuring rotating holiday patents.) The day dedicated to celebrating the snack was created in 1999 by Ezaki Glico, the company that owns and produces Pocky.

First released in 1966, Pocky is a Japanese snack food comprised of a small biscuit stick coated in flavored icing. Flavors include chocolate, vanilla, and matcha, among many more, some of which are unusual or regionally specific. The basic chocolate variety is readily found in America; Houstonians can usually obtain a box from the international aisle in an HEB, Kroger, or other sizable corporate grocery.

Ezaki Glico owns quite a bit of Pocky-related intellectual property. Here's a list of some highlights:

1. Pocky packaging patent: Box, US Design 520,869. It's a very short patent, just the two pages below.
   
   
   

    
   
    
   
2. Patent for the Pocky snack itself:  Stick-shaped Snack And Method For Producing The Same, US Utility 8,778,428. This slightly longer patent is for the process to create a Pocky biscuit stick. Visit this link to a PDF of the document.
   
   

   

   The perfect thin biscuits

   
   
3. Patented device to control stick length: Device For Trimming Too Long Sticks And For Eliminating Those Too Short, US Utility 5,307,940. Before Pocky was perfected, Ezaki Glico had to invent something that controlled the length of the biscuits. It's mostly technical; see the patent here.
   
4. Inventing iconic cartons: Carton With Two Covers, US Utility 3,835,989. In 1974, Ezaki Glico obtained the patent for their cartons that haven't changed much since. The most identifiable figure from the patent is below; find the documents in full here.

   

   Clever carton creation
   

   
   Unfortunately, searching pre-1970 patents for assignees is difficult in the USPTO's official database and search tool, and my efforts produced nothing that resembled Pocky prior to 1974.
   
   
   
5. Pocky®: US trademark registration no. 1249460. The name Pocky, as applied to the specific type of snack or confectionery good described, was registered with the USPTO in August 1983.

   

   Specimen photo provided for registration
   

6. Pocky Day®: US trademark registration no. 5230070; international registration no. 1331914. In 2017, Ezaki Glico received the below trademark from the USPTO; the international mark was registered slightly earlier, in July 2016.

   

   Registration symbol required
   

   
   
7. Pocky Ultra Slim® and image below: US trademark registration no. 4773595. This mark registion includes both the words "Pocky Ultra Slim" and the distinct appearance of the graphic, which includes colors, wording, font, placement of elements, Pocky snacks, etc. Of course, no exclusive claim is made to the phrase "ultra slim" or that same expressed in characters that transliterate to "Go-Ku-Bo-So". 

   

   Registered image and words

There are many more patents, trademarks, and probably trade secrets associated with Pocky. if you want to learn more about how to find the marks or patents, just let us know at the PTRC!