The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development just published a timely and informative report on the accelerated examination programs for green technology patent applications offered by a number of national patent offices around the world.

Antoine Dechezleprêtre, a Research Fellow at (more…)

As discussed in a previous post, the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) recently announced a Green Patent Fast Track designed to provide accelerated examination of patent applications related to “Green” technology in Brazil.

At first glance this looks like an admirable step (more…)

Earlier this week, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) of Brazil launched a pilot program to accelerate green patent applications (see the Folha news piece here).

The goal of the program is to reduce the period of examination of patent applications related to green (more…)

A recent post discussed the unduly restrictive eligibility requirements for the Korean Intellectual Property Office’s s (KIPO) expedited examination program for green tech patent applications.

While the KIPO “super speed” program boasts examination results in just one month, many (more…)

As readers of this blog are aware, there are a number of patent offices worldwide that currently offer expedited examination regimes for patent applications directed to inventions that promise to deliver environmental benefits.

As chronicled by this blog, the United Kingdom (more…)

In a move to strengthen its position in water treatment, chemical giant BASF recently announced that it will acquire German water filtration membrane developer inge watertechnologies (inge).

Inge makes ultrafiltration systems used to treat drinking water, wastewater, and seawater (more…)

In a new article, Sarah Tran, a professor at Southern Methodist University School of Law, provides the first (to my knowledge) academic review and critique of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Green Technology Pilot Program (GTPP).

Entitled “Expediting Innovation: The Quest for a New (more…)

In a previous post, I wrote about the Canadian Intellectual Property Office’s (CIPO) proposal to implement an expedited examination program for green tech patent applications.

Last month CIPO launched the program. Now applicants can have their green patent applications advanced out of turn (more…)

Neste Oil (Neste) is a Finnish oil refining company that focuses on advanced, low-emission transportation fuels.

Neste has the distinction of starting up the world’s largest biodiesel plant, which began production last month in Singapore. The plant has an annual capacity of 800,000 tons and will produce biodiesel fuel using (more…)