An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : Media : News
NEWS | Jan. 29, 2019

Carderock-based group earns patent in swift fashion

By By Benjamin McKnight III, NSWCCD Public Affairs NSWC Carderock Division

The process for attaining a patent for an invention usually takes up to two years, if not longer. Once complete, though, the feeling of accomplishment is unparalleled. A group of naval engineers from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division recently achieved this feat and did so much faster than normal.

Sasha Tsarev, Christopher Nunes and Dana Colegrove of the Maritime Systems Hydromechanics Branch (Code 881) teamed up to create a tow point adapter plate for underwater vessels. With the help of patent attorney Dave Ghatt (Code 00L), the patent was filed on May 10 and was granted less than eight months later.

According to the patent’s abstract, “the invention is directed to a towing adaption system for optimizing the pitch altitude, hydrodynamic lift and drag forces on an underwater acoustic vessel.” Traditionally, a vessel is towed by a cable that connects the device to the ship. Steady towing requires the towed device to sit at a certain depth that, when deviated from, makes the process much less efficient. The Navy was in the midst of combating towing difficulties on newer ships when Tsarev and his counterparts were approached with the task of finding a solution.

“At the same time, they were actually going to other facilities, a contractor and a university to seek other ideas,” Tsarev said. His group proved to have the most beneficial fix for the Navy in terms of both performance and cost effectiveness, so much so that they received a letter of appreciation from the U.S Navy Unmanned Maritime Systems Program Office for their work.

Throughout the design and experimentation process, the group knew that they would need to claim ownership of their invention before someone else did. Although subject-matter experts are naturally key figures in the invention process, a different type of subject-matter expert comes into play to handle the legal work.

“The inventors submitted an invention disclosure to our office, which is a usual process for obtaining a patent,” said Ghatt, who has worked in Carderock’s Office of Counsel since 2006. From there, the disclosure went on to the Invention Evaluation Board (IEB), which reviews invention disclosures submitted by other Carderock engineers and scientists and determines which of the invention disclosures are to be filed for patents.

To accurately translate the ideas from an engineered device to a written patent application, Ghatt and Tsarev worked together to ensure that both parties had all aspects of the invention covered. Patent lawyers are required to have both a law degree and an undergraduate science or engineering degree, an educational path that helps them understand the engineers’ work on a basic level.

“We don’t work as closely with the technology as the inventors do,” Ghatt said. “So even though we have a background in science, we still struggle at times to figure out what the invention is.” Both parties leaned on each other heavily to fully and properly outline the patentable features, having regular conversations about the intricacies of the plates.

Ghatt was admittedly concerned early on that attaining this specific patent would be difficult. Before coming onboard at Carderock, he worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. With years of experience on how the patent process works from inside the office, Ghatt said that the key to getting this specific invention patented was contingent on what features made it unique. Those features and elements are outlined in the “detailed description” section and set forth in the “claims” section of the patent application, the latter of which is protected by law.

“The back of the patent is the most important part legally. That’s where you distinguish your invention from whatever was done before,” Ghatt said. “I didn’t just claim a plate with holes; I claimed a plate with each hole having certain hydrodynamic characteristics that help us optimize the way we’re pulling the vessel through the water.”

When the patent was officially awarded on Dec. 18, there was a sense of surprise from everyone involved. “The last time I checked, the average time for a patent pendency from filing to when the patent is issued was almost 24 months,” Ghatt said. “That’s the quickest, in my experience, that we’ve ever gotten a patent from filing to being issued.”

Both sides were very grateful for the other in the effort to get the patent on the invention. “As an engineer you don’t necessarily have to understand how to file for a patent, because the process we have here at Carderock was really good in helping us figure that portion out,” Tsarev said. “We went back and forth reviewing it but he (Ghatt) did a lot of the legwork.”

Ghatt echoed a similar sentiment about Tsarev, Nunes and Colgrove, crediting them with breaking down the technical aspects of the adapter plates at each request. “Tsarev would send me the notes even though they submitted their disclosure, I’d start writing it up and if I had questions I’d call him. It was a routine procedure, but he was very receptive,” Ghatt said.

While the receipt of the patent was fast, the implementation of the invention was even quicker. Tsarev, who has been onboard for almost 12 years, is accustomed to a larger time gap between the design, the production and the regular use of equipment. According to Tsarev, their drawings of the tow point adapter are being used to build more devices for testing at the South Florida Ocean Management Facility, a Carderock detachment.

“A lot of times we work on designs and it takes years before they’re built or actually used somewhere in the Navy,” he said. “This is cool because I know that they’re using it right now, doing more testing with it and it’s helping them achieve the larger objective of their mission.”