04.12.2024 –
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) hosted a Chief Technology Office (CTO) Professional Development Seminar featuring the topic “Unlocking Innovation, Patents and Intellectual Property” on March 21, 2024.
The one-hour session covered the history of patents and intellectual property, how the work of scientists and engineers at NSWCPD relates to patents, and how to generate a patent based on workforce ideas.
NSWCPD presenters included Deputy Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Dr. Steve Mastro and Patent Counsel Mark Rosen.
“Philadelphia has a long tradition of innovative thinking and securing patents. The Continental Navy needed sails and ships,” Mastro said, in kicking off the session.
The Constitution of the United States, first adopted on Sept. 17, 1787, had a provision for protecting intellectual properties. The provision, found in Article I, Section 8, states: “The Congress shall have power ... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries …,” he continued.
“As technology continues to drive innovation and address fleet needs, understanding the nuances of patents and intellectual property (IP) at NSWCPD is applicable and important to all technologists,” Mastro said.
“This innovative thinking occurs in almost every work function at the Philadelphia Division. With a renewed focus on moving technical solutions to the fleet with increased speed, patenting these ideas is even more important as it gives the Navy the right to have the idea implemented by whomever can produce it, and advertises specific needs and requirements to industry. It also benefits you individually as an inventor and our organization as a whole,” he said.
From 1995 to 2024, 139 patents were awarded to NSWCPD, with 21 awarded during the past five years. These patents have ranged from a Flow Control Device for Axial Flow Turbomachines in Series (11,946,392) to a Hammer Activated Measurement System for Testing and Evaluating Rubber and Other Materials (11,781,967) to an Acoustically Stiff Wall (10,580,396).
Mastro encouraged session attendees by noting that the patent process is a lot easier than one may think.
“In doing your daily work, ideas and inventions often occur. By patenting your idea, you put solutions into the hands of industry and advertise our need, and reserve our ability to implement it,” Mastro said, adding, “You don’t have to be an expert to come up with an invention, nor do you have to even build a working model.”
Referring to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, policies, procedures and regulations, Rosen noted that patents are not granted for all new and useful inventions and discoveries. For example, the subject matter of the invention or discovery must come within the boundaries set forth by 35 U.S.C. 101, which permits a patent to be granted only for “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof,” and that includes software, according to Rosen.
“Patents are extremely important to the Navy. Your innovative thinking fuels NSWCPD’s mission. It leads to patentable improvements in machinery systems. It leads to technology transfer to industry and academia and Patent Licensing Agreements (PLA) for commercial use. It benefits the Navy and U.S. citizens by retaining ownership of ideas and ability to have them made,” Mastro said, adding that inventions do not have to pertain to an NSWCPD branch, division or department, or even Research & Development (R&D).
During his presentation, Mastro also pointed out that the only President of the United States to hold a patent was Abraham Lincoln for a "device to buoy vessels over shoals"; it consisted of a set of retractable floats mounted on the sides of riverboats.
NSWCPD employs approximately 2,800 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel. The NSWCPD team does the research and development, test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service and logistics engineering for the non-nuclear machinery, ship machinery systems, and related equipment and material for Navy surface ships and submarines. NSWCPD is also the lead organization providing cybersecurity for all ship systems.