Blackhawk Project LLC, based in the WaterCooler business incubator on West Idaho Street in Boise, now has a patent for its wind turbine.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on March 16 issued Patent No. 7,677,862 B2 for the vertical-axis wind turbine with articulating rotor. The inventor is Eagle resident Bruce Boatner, principal in Blackhawk with Pat Large.
Blackhawk has field-tested and test-manufactured the turbine over the past couple of years. Receiving the patent - applied for in December 2006 - enables the company to move ahead with a plan to be sold to an entity that would step up manufacturing and marketing, company officials said.
Boatner said Blackhawk Project LLC, including all intellectual property, materials and expertise, would be sold via a nine-week, closed-bid auction. A bid package was released March 16.
Boise attorney Russell Case has been working with Blackhawk.
“It’s a huge step to get that,” he said of the patent. Many patents have been issued but never deployed, but the patent for the Blackhawk wind turbine is not one of them, he said. Well before receiving the patent, company principals improved the prototype, completed test manufacturing runs, and field-tested 10 units in more than a half dozen locations.
Boatner said the turbine supplements power generation for a home, farm or field device - it is designed to be attractive from a cost standpoint up front and in the long term - though turbines could be combined for larger applications. For example, a local power cooperative could use them to reduce dependence on a utility’s supply grid, he said.
Case said the American Wind Energy Association identifies 13 million U.S. homes with enough land to accommodate installation of small-scale wind turbines.
David Munson, an economic development consultant based in Adrian, Mich., met with Blackhawk officials in Boise recently and is evaluating the technology for future deployment. Wind power development continues in the Midwest, and small-scale wind development will be the most quickly growing segment because it enables wind turbines to be set up in places that cannot accommodate large wind farms for reasons including size and noise.
Blackhawk researchers tested the tilt-rotor, vertical-access turbine at various field sites and at the Idaho National Laboratory’s Center for Advanced Energy Studies in Idaho Falls. An INL-published story said it was an opportunity for INL and Idaho university researchers to explore collaboration opportunities in the private sector while promoting economic development. Blackhawk benefited from stepped-up data collection capabilities and greater access to universities and researchers. University students got involved in maintenance oversight and in developing manuals.
The INL story said a distinguishing characteristic of the Blackhawk turbine is that its helicopter-like wings, known as airfoils, rotate parallel to the ground. Airfoils attach to a tilt rotor in the center of the turbine; the slanted rotor allows the long-armed turbine to self-start without external devices. INL reported that this passive control system is designed to offer power generation without the noise, clutching, electronics, tower heights and heavy blades associated with many wind machines.
Boatner said the Blackhawk turbine is capable of operating in lower wind-speed areas.
Dawn Cardwell, project manager for Blackhawk, said the turbine was designed to be durable and easily maintained. It has fewer parts than most turbines, and no “exotic” parts, she said.
Stephen Nipper, a registered patent attorney in Boise, said the impact of receiving a patent depends on whether the breadth of the patent is valuable in the industry. The patent holder has the exclusive right to exclude others from making, using or selling the patented item in the U.S. unless the holder licenses the patent, he said.
Patents and patent applications can be sold, and “the benefit of having the patent is that what you’re selling can be defined,” he said. “A purchaser can look at it and determine what its value is.” A purchaser also can evaluate the patent’s coverage and determine how he or she will use it competitively.
People enter the patent process with varying goals, Nipper said.
Some companies know that they are building their business - with assets including patents and trademarks - to be sold, often to someone that can take the business to the next level, he said. “The patent can have tremendous value.”
Other businesses may wish to hold onto patents. Some of these may carry out manufacturing and marketing themselves. And some, such as many technology companies, seek patents as a competitive safeguard or to license them, Nipper said.
Patents last 20 years from the earliest filing date. In Wyeth v. Kappos on Jan. 7, a federal appeals court determined that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office erred in making patent term adjustment calculations and, in effect, denied a portion of the patent term to which a company was entitled.
The vertical-axis wind turbine patent was extended by 698 days due to delays, the March 16 patent document says.
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