Today we’re excited to announce that Groom Energy has been awarded US patent #7,771,083 for our GES Hybrid, the energy efficient lighting retrofit product we originally started to develop in 2006.
Our idea came when we saw newly installed HID lighting fixtures that were perfectly fine, but whose energy consumption could be cut in half just by replacing their guts – meaning their relatively inefficient HID lamp and magnetic ballast. Like all things in energy efficiency this had to be done a very low cost to make it interesting.
We literally banged out metal framed retrofit samples in Bob’s basement, then tinkered for several months to come up with a final design which could be used in a wide variety of fixture types (a universal design), generate strong light output (our reflector) and, most importantly, be fully installed for a low cost.
With the help of our legal team we learned how to document our invention for the USPTO noting absolutely everything around our design and all relevant prior art. Along the way we never stopped manufacturing and delivering and even announced our customers after our filing was made.
But we did wait around a few years just for the USPTO to pick up our application, respond with a “first office action”, and then engage us for clarifications. For a brief moment in December 2009 we thought we had a reprieve when USPTO announced its “fast track” program for cleantech patents. However it turned out we couldn’t participate as our filing had already been assigned to “an art unit that didn’t qualify.” Uh boy, back to waiting…
Of course today there’s a lot more awareness about the potential value of green patents. Most of this is not unique to green patents, but all patents – if you’re going to go through the time consuming and expensive process you need to be sure what you’re defending with the USPTO is actually worth it. And this is the entrepreneurs bet – because time and money are usually in short supply.
