Interest in nanochemistry research and energy storage led 18-year-old Eesha Khare, a senior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif., to develop a supercapacitor that could potentially be used in flexible displays and fabrics. Her effort won her first prize at the Intel Science Fair and the Project of the Year award in the California State Science Fair’s senior division for 2013. Khare created a nanorod electrode capacitor with increased electricity density that retained a supercapacitor’s energy density.
Once again the media has credited the wrong person with inventing a technology. The inventor of this tech filed Patent applications worldwide 7 years ago on this very tech.
Although Eesha's work is commendable, the media has indeed credited the wrong person with this invention. Solaroad Technologies, a solar innovation company located in Baltimore, MD was the original inventor of the nano battery and holds patent applications worldwide on it. Their CEO (Kahrl Retti) has been in the nanostructure field for years. Directed towards the writer, please check your facts.
I would respectfully disagree. Not only is the patent application to which you refer abandoned, your recited capacitor structure (quoted in relevant part) is: "... comprising at least two conductors that are spaced apart and substantially parallel..." whereas student Khare's capacitor structure comprises "... a core-shell nanorod electrode with a hydrogenated titanium dioxide core and polyaniline shell."
Or, in non-patent terms, please pick on somebody your own size.
Umm. Patents don't, or at least shouldn't, apply to "generalized" design. In a case like this, they tend to be "specific" to the materials in use to produce the result. They pretty much have to be, since whether or not there is a patent on "capacitors" in general, this is a specific case of them, and, if different enough, "can be" given a different patent. I would go so far as to argue that it "must be", or at least "should be". But, given how screwed up the patent system is, who the frak knows...
In any case, just because someone has a patent on something, doesn't mean people can't find major improvements, and unless you can claim that the patent you are talking about included these "specific" improvements.. you are not making much sense to claim that this student didn't come up with the improvement. The article, as far as I can tell, doesn't make the claim that they "invented" this class of super-capacitor, but that they found a better way to do so.
Oh yeah!
A level head with the correct point of view!
Kudos!
What we as a society needs are people like this young lady who will find answers for the benefit of all and give the middle finger to patent money grubbing morons!
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Teenager's Power Storage Project Lights Up Science World
Posted by: Richard Adhikari May 21, 2013 05:00 AMInterest in nanochemistry research and energy storage led 18-year-old Eesha Khare, a senior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif., to develop a supercapacitor that could potentially be used in flexible displays and fabrics. Her effort won her first prize at the Intel Science Fair and the Project of the Year award in the California State Science Fair’s senior division for 2013. Khare created a nanorod electrode capacitor with increased electricity density that retained a supercapacitor’s energy density.
Or, in non-patent terms, please pick on somebody your own size.
In any case, just because someone has a patent on something, doesn't mean people can't find major improvements, and unless you can claim that the patent you are talking about included these "specific" improvements.. you are not making much sense to claim that this student didn't come up with the improvement. The article, as far as I can tell, doesn't make the claim that they "invented" this class of super-capacitor, but that they found a better way to do so.
A level head with the correct point of view!
Kudos!
What we as a society needs are people like this young lady who will find answers for the benefit of all and give the middle finger to patent money grubbing morons!