Green Rice Patents for Earth Day

Rice has made clear an interest in green tech and taking part in working to avert an imminent climate disaster over the past few years. From modernizing dining to committing to becoming carbon-neutral in the near future, environmentally-minded initiatives are found across campus. 

Research and innovation are important players in this endeavor, resulting in green tech patents.

Most of the Rice inventions are focused on alleviating some problematic areas of growing concern and potential future major concern. They range from reducing waste, improving solar power, and addressing the growing demand for clean, potable water.

For Earth Day 2023, let's look at a few recent patents and patent applications for eco-friendly Rice inventions. 

First is a patent that should be familiar to anyone who frequents Fondren Library's first floor exhibition area. US Patent 11,331,627, Use of surface modified porous membranes for fluid distillation, is one of the featured inventions patented in 2022. I corresponded with the lead inventor, Dr. Qilin Li, who provided some background information and art for the exhibit. She and her team build a device that uses solar or thermal power to distill, and therefore purify or clean, fluids like water. Its relatively small size and portability and the self-contained renewable power source make for a viable solution for those in remote, water-insecure areas. 

Up second is recently-granted patent US 11,591,670, Recycling Li-ion batteries using green chemicals and processes. A team of inventors discovered a way to extract the valuable minerals from used Lithium ion batteries with a solvent made from commonly-available products that is relatively harmless. It is effective on cobalt and lithium, but cobalt was prioritized.

Photo by Jeff Fitlow for Rice News

The ability to recapture metals that may become environmental contaminants otherwise--and in the case of cobalt, scarcer and harder to obtain initially--helps reduce both waste and the need for mining and manufacturing new materials. This process was featured in a Rice News story in 2019, but it can take years to complete the examination process. The patent was just granted this February. 

Two patent applications in the process of examination promise advancements in green technology. 

Patent Application 2022/0007692, Poly-albumen based green coating to enhance shelf life of perishable foods aims to not only decrease the amount of waste we produce, but through a method that does not rely on highly manufactured products. A film coating is applied to fruits and vegetables, formed from egg-derived polymers. This coating is washable, edible, and the materials come from cheap, readily available products or even waste. It's a viable method to prevent food waste before anything becomes a meal.

A diagram of the process from the patent application

A second promising invention is behind patent Application 2023/0114948, Conductive adhesive-barrier enabling integrated photoelectrodes for solar fuels. It is for an improvement in capturing energy fuels using solar energy, by transforming abundant resources like water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. Renewable and sustainable sources of energy are integral to even partially mitigating climate change. 

A diagram of the conductive adhesive-barrier from the patent application

Check out all four of these inventions, and then get out there and make your own changes!

My AI Replacement: Coming Soon?

Given the massive amount of attention OpenAI’s new chatbot, ChatGPT, has received (especially as a harbinger of the imminent AI takeover), I thought I'd test its performance as a PTRC representative. So, I spent a recent rainy afternoon formulating questions and interrogating ChatGPT's abilities. I was relieved to find my immediate replacement is not likely, but I should still watch my back.

ChatGPT generated fairly accurate, if brief, instructions on how to search for patents on Espacenet, with or without a given topic. 

Basic steps for searching with Espacenet

However, it has not yet learned about the USPTO’s Patent Public Search. When I asked for Patent Public Search Advanced instructions, I was directed to the WIPO. Though the instructions seemed fine, PATENTSCOPE and Patent Public Search were both misidentified.

Instructions for WIPO, not USPTO

I rephrased the question to stipulate a USPTO search tool, and was extremely reassured to find ChatGPT still thought PatFT and AppFT were available. I have a year's advancement beyond the AI. Of course, I took a moment to provide feedback and inform OpenAI that the answer was incorrect.

Wrong tools, right agency

ChatGPT is completely incapable of performing a patent search. When I requested both general and more specific patent searches, it responded with an unequivocal “No!” (if in more polite terms). Even when asked to find basic information on granted patents or patent data, like how many patents were issued to Rice University in 2022 (17), it could not answer.

CharGPT cannot provide patent data

I followed up with an easier search, asking for the grocery store nearest to Rice University, which caused several errors. Later, it managed to locate a Randalls—with the exact same address as Rice.

This is gratifying. I’ve been telling people for years that the searching abilities of librarians are irreplaceable, and AI has a very long way to go before it can try.

Following that, I changed topics, and asked general and specific questions about trademarks. I was surprised when ChatGPT immediately provided instructions for obtaining a trademark in Togo, the smallest country that first came to mind. Other basic questions, such as “Does Rice University have trademarks?” were also easily answered.

How to obtain a trademark in Togo

Questions about specific entities, trademarks, searching, or data were not possible. ChatGPT could not tell me what Rice’s first trademark was, or how many trademarks Rice University’s athletics department has. I anticipated as much from roughly similar types of patent queries.

ChatGPT is also uncertain about trademark data

Lawyers may be in bigger trouble than librarians. ChatGPT generated two fairly plausible examples of a patent content, one using its own example and one using mine. They were incomplete, and included substantial warnings about relying on an AI and the advisability of seeking legal counsel, but still composed some sections. I imagine an inventor could input enough information about a real innovation and receive a fairly helpful set of claims or descriptions.

The first part of an example patent document

Warning provided for all patent document examples

Next I asked for trademark applications, first with no information beyond brand name, and then with additional details like product and business location. The more details provided, the better the application--to an extent. The content was very generic and left many blank spaces to be filled, but it managed to correctly classify the product (athletic shoes, 25).

Example trademark application with less information

Example trademark application with more information

ChatGPT noticeably didn’t make any distinctions in application content for any IP office, and definitely did not consider type of mark or mark specifications. Again, similar to patents, it produced something that could guide a person struggling to write a trademark application.

I’ll keep an eye on it, though, and let everyone know when I’m being replaced by an online, open-source AI chatbot.