PTO program on track for climate mitigation but resources are key

The US Patent and Trademark Office’s newly expanded program aimed at accelerating patents for climate mitigation technology is critical to garnering the funding necessary to advance the clean energy transition, researchers say.

The PTO’s extension of its Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program comes at a time of striking juxtaposition. While energy alternatives to fossil fuels have become more mainstream than ever—with renewable energy on track to supply 44% of American electricity by 2050—scientists warn that barriers to global adaptation persist, namely insufficient financing.

“Investors like certainty,” said intellectual property attorney Patrick Gattari of McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff. “The sooner a small company can get a patent and have certainty around their patent portfolio, the better situation they can be in with investors.”

Launched last year, the pilot program expedites applications for innovations that reduce, remove, prevent, or monitor greenhouse gas emissions. The office expanded the initiative in June, increasing the maximum number of non-provisional applications an inventor can file under the program and broadening eligibility requirements to encompass more technologies.

“We see our role as promoting and incentivizing innovation, especially in key technology areas like climate, and then working to get that innovation to impact,” PTO Director Kathi Vidal said in an interview with Bloomberg Law about the office’s recent efforts.

As government officials pursue change through legislation and executive actions, Vidal emphasized patents’ vital role. Not only do they establish intellectual property rights for inventors, she said, but they also push ideas forward.