Scaled & Burt Rutan

Scaled is Burt Rutan's company (founded in 1982, based in Mojave, CA), and the firm has four patents.

Consider Fabrication of structure having structural layers and layers of controllable electrical or magnetic properties from 2001--

A structure having layers of controllable electrical properties is prepared by furnishing a sheet of a substrate material, patterning a pattern of recesses into a surface of the sheet of the substrate material, filling the pattern of recesses with a mixture of an active phase and a matrix, and laminating the sheet to a base structure. The filled recesses may be of any desired shape, depth, and orientation. The active phase is particles of a material such as an electrical conductor or semiconductor, or magnetic particles.

Scaled is working with Virgin Galactic on private spaceflight.

---

On Twitter, we're inventionsofman. And check out our University Patent Portfolios here.

Monsanto: Patents for Seeds

St. Louis-based Monsanto has a lot of seed patents, to the growing chagrin of some farmers.

How many U.S. patents & patent apps in total?

14,183.

See them here.

Consider their most recent patent, #7,622,660 titled Plants and seeds of hybrid corn variety CH475361 from 11/24/2009--

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH475361. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH475361, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH475361 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH475361.

This article in the Winnipeg Free Press talks about Monsanto's patent enforcement, and the likely effect on farmers.

---

On Twitter, we're inventionsofman. And check out our University Patent Portfolios here.