A rare plant patent was among 16 patents awarded to Utah inventors on June 26. U.S. patents are granted each Tuesday.
The plant patent, named Beauty Kim, was granted to Brian Gold of Centerville. Plant patents are the rarest of the three kinds of U.S. patents, with the other two being utility patents and design patents.
Patent laws permit patents to be granted for new varieties of asexually produced plants not produced through tuber propagation or found in an uncultivated state. Only eight plant patents have been granted to Utahns in the past five years, compared with 390 design patents and 4,118 utility patents.
The new patents include:
Earth-boring drill bits with enhanced formation cuttings removal features. William R. Trujillo, South Salt Lake; Craig H. Cooley, South Ogden. Assigned to Baker Hughes Inc., Houston. Filed Jan. 24, 2000, a divisional of Patent No. 6,125,947, filed Sept. 19, 1997. Patent No. 6,250,408.
Method and apparatus for separating fast settling particles from slow settling particles. R. Mark Golightley, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; Phillip G. Morgan, Canal Fulton, Ohio; James H. Wilhelm, Sandy; John W. College, Pittsburgh. Assigned to FirstEnergy Ventures Corp., Akron, Ohio, and to Codan Development L.L.C. Sandy, and to Dravo Lime Inc., Pittsburgh. Filed Nov. 17, 1998. Patent No. 6,250,473.
Multipurpose inventory tag device and method. Frank Gene Schneider, West Valley City. Filed March 28, 2000. Patent No. 6,250,556.
Bone canal plug, method of making and method of using. Raymond H. Pierson III, Orlando, Fla.; Daniel F. Justin, Logan. Filed Oct. 23, 1998. Patent No. 6,251,141.
Solution mining of carbonate/bicarbonate deposits to produce soda ash. Thomas H. Neuman, Salt Lake City; Richard W. Chastain, Lyman, Wyo. Assigned to Tg Soda Ash Inc., Granger, Wyo. Filed Aug. 20, 1997, a continuation of application No. 08/651,663, filed May 21, 1996. Patent No. 6,251,346.
Method for sequencing both strands of a double stranded DNA in a single sequencing reaction. Jamila Gupte, Layton; Arnold Oliphant, Erda. Assigned to Myriad Genetics Inc., Salt Lake City. Filed Sept. 18, 2000, a divisional of application No. 09/472,877, filed Dec. 28, 1999, which is a divisional application of Patent No. 6,087,099, filed Sept. 8, 1997. Patent No. 6,251,610.
Conjugates targeted to the interleukin-2 receptor. Ramesh K. Prakash and Christopher M. Clemens, both of Salt Lake City. Assigned to Watson Laboratories Inc., Salt Lake City. Filed Aug. 4, 1998, a continuation-in-part of application No. 08/914,042, filed Aug. 5, 1997. Patent No. 6,251,866.
Disk drive cartridge door. Wayne A. Sumner and Edward L. Rich, both of Ogden; Allen T. Bracken, David W. Griffith and David E. Jones, all of Layton. Assigned to Iomega Corp., Roy. Filed Feb. 18, 2000, a continuation of Patent No. 6,094,327, filed Nov. 19, 1998, which is a continuation of Patent No. 5,856,901, filed April 24, 1998, which is a continuation of Patent No. 5,768,074, filed April 15, 1997, which is a continuation of Patent No. 5,671,109, filed Oct. 31, 1995, which is a continuation-in-part of Patent No. 5,570,252, filed June 7, 1995. Patent No. 6,252,740.
Portable, temporary power hookup for use at construction sites and methods. Robert Karl Benson, Orem. Filed Dec. 13, 1999. Patent No. 6,252,764.
X-ray generating apparatus. Christopher F. Artig, Summit City. Assigned to Varian Medical Systems Inc., Palo Alto, Calif. Filed July 5, 2000, a continuation of Patent No. 6,134,299, filed Aug. 21, 1998, which is a continuation-in-part of Patent No. 5,802,140, filed Aug. 29, 1997. Patent No. 6,252,933.
Systems and methods for image conversion useful in the transformation of photographic pictures into templates for painting. Leland Kent Putnam, Murray. Assigned to Number Art LLC. Filed Dec. 1, 1998. Patent No. 6,252,996.
Method of broad band electromagnetic holographic imaging. Michael S. Zhdanov, Salt Lake City. Assigned to University of Utah Research Foundation, Salt Lake City. Filed Dec. 23, 1998, claiming priority to international (PCT) application No. PCT/US97/11217, filed June 26, 1997, which claims priority to provisional application No. 60/020,622, filed June 26, 1996. Patent No. 6,253,100.
System and method for transmitting a user's data packets concurrently over different telephone lines between two computer networks. Ragula Bhaskar and Sanchaita Datta, both of Salt Lake City. Assigned to Ragula Systems, Salt Lake City. Filed May 20, 1997, a continuation of provisional application No. 60/031,203, filed Nov. 21, 1996. Patent No. 6,253,247.
Computer partition manipulation during imaging. Andy V. Lawrence and Robert S. Raymond, both of Orem; Eric J. Ruff, Springville. Assigned to PowerQuest Corp., Orem. Filed Aug. 15, 1998, claiming priority to provisional patent application Nos. 60/056,616, filed Aug. 20, 1997, and 60/087,452, filed June 1, 1998. Patent No. 6,253,300.
The ornamental design for an outlet strip. William D. Chura, Medford, Mass.; Dale Erling, Pleasant Grove; Bryan R. Hotaling, Arlington, Mass. Assigned to Curtis Computer Products Inc., Provo. Filed Nov. 6, 2000. Design Patent No. Des. 444,126.
Maranta plant named Beauty Kim. Brian Gold, Centerville. Assigned to Oro Farms, Centerville. Filed Dec. 31, 1999. Plant Patent No. PP 11,962.
Karl R. Cannon is a partner in the law firm of Clayton, Howarth & Cannon P.C., specialists in patent, trademark and copyright law. He may be contacted at 801-255-5335 or by e-mail at kcannon@chcpat.com. Copies of patents are available by mail for $3 each from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Box 9 (Copy Sales), Washington, DC 20231; by credit card via telephone 703-308-9726 or toll free 800-972-6382; facsimile 703-305-8759; or e-mail ptcs@uspto.gov. Patents can also be viewed and printed free of charge from several Internet sites, including www.uspto.gov or www.delphion.com.