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Navy files for patent on room-temperature superconductor
A scientist working for the U.S. Navy has filed for a patent on a room-temperature superconductor, representing a potential paradigm shift in energy transmission and computer systems.
Salvatore Cezar Pais is listed as the inventor on the Navy's patent application made public by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday.
The application claims that a room-temperature superconductor can be built using a wire with an insulator core and an aluminum PZT (lead zirconate titanate) coating deposited by vacuum evaporation with a thickness of the London penetration depth and polarized after deposition.
An electromagnetic coil is circumferentially positioned around the coating such that when the coil is activated with a pulsed current, a non-linear vibration is induced, enabling room temperature superconductivity.
"This concept enables the transmission of electrical power without any losses and exhibits optimal thermal management (no heat dissipation)," according to the patent document, "which leads to the design and development of novel energy generation and harvesting devices with enormous benefits to civilization."
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday February 24 2019, @06:14PM (8 children)
I'm not sure how this works in the USA, but surely the patent should be held by the USA and not the Navy. After all, it was public money that presumably paid the wages of the scientist working for the Navy. Would the Army, Air Force or any other public organisation have to pay to use the knowledge and techniques outlined in the patent?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday February 24 2019, @06:25PM (1 child)
All its documents are in the public domain. The declassified ones anyway.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @06:33PM
The patent is OPEN and public domain. The application of it is not, you pay to use it (for ~20 years). There is a difference.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @06:31PM
https://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-9004.html [tms.org]
"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;"
The rest is case law, law, and executive orders.
What you are asking seems reasonable. Not the way it works though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @09:46PM (2 children)
I hope that filing a patent does not expose this to be stolen by say... China or Russia... or did that happen within 20 minutes of filing?
(Score: 4, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Sunday February 24 2019, @11:22PM
Say "copied", not "stolen". Unless a foreign power was somehow able to simultaneously remove all copies and other memory of the advance from the US, causing it to be lost to the US, it's not stealing. To call it stealing supports ownership propaganda.
Filing a patent on an invention absolutely does expose the invention to copying. The whole point of a patent is to encourage inventions to be shared by making a bargain. In exchange for sharing the details of an invention, the nation will use the force of law to stop copying, or at the least transfer the wealth the copiers acquired to the inventors.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday February 25 2019, @12:10AM
It's not the Russians they're worried about, the Navy is primarily worried about it being stolen by the Army or Air Force.
(Score: 1) by Stardaemon on Monday February 25 2019, @08:49AM
Nope. It's stated explicitly in the patent that they wouldn't.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday February 25 2019, @03:44PM
I wonder why the Navy would even patent this if it had national security importance, such as use in rail guns or other military systems.
I would have expected them to keep it secret for some time. Even if there were commercial applications of the technology.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.