{"id":138,"date":"2018-10-16T21:24:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T01:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/?p=138"},"modified":"2018-11-15T00:10:04","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T04:10:04","slug":"transatomic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/2018\/10\/16\/transatomic\/","title":{"rendered":"Transatomic Power to Open Source IP Regarding Advanced Molten Salt Reactors"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Advanced nuclear reactor design firm Transatomic Power announced that it will suspend operations and open-source its intellectual property.<\/li>\n<li>Transatomic\u2019s intellectual property portfolio includes three patent applications and, presumably, reactor designs and specifications that have been held until now as trade secrets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Transatomic Power, a company that once aimed to repurpose spent nuclear fuel as an energy source for advanced reactors, announced recently that it will suspend operations and open source its intellectual property. Transatomic cited its inability to \u201cscale up the company rapidly enough to build our reactor in a reasonable timeframe\u201d as the reason for closing shop.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The \u201copen sourcing\u201d of intellectual property remains a fairly rare occurrence.[1] Although Elon Musk famously open-sourced Tesla\u2019s patent portfolio a few years ago (a move largely seen as a bid to encourage other companies to share the burden of building electrical vehicle infrastructure), most technology companies maintain a close hold on their IP assets. Even when a company declares bankruptcy, it is rare for the company\u2019s IP assets to be open-sourced; rather, those assets are typically auctioned to raise funds for creditors.[2]<\/p>\n<p>There are likely two main types of intellectual property that will be open-sourced by Transatomic: patents and trade secrets.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Patents<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Transatomic owns just three patent applications.[3] All three are generally directed to molten salt reactors:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><u>U.S. Patent Publication No. 2013\/0083878<\/u>: describes a molten salt reactor using hydrides and\/or deuterides as a moderator.<\/li>\n<li><u>U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015\/0228363<\/u>: describes fuel cladding properties for use in a molten salt reactor.<\/li>\n<li><u>U.S. Patent Publication No. 2016\/0217874<\/u>: describes a molten salt reactor using a fluoride fuel salt and a hydride moderator.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Two of Transatomic\u2019s applications (Nos. 2015\/0228363 and 2016\/0217874) were rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on the basis that the inventions described in those applications were not new and non-obvious when compared to existing MSR technology. Those applications were abandoned by Transatomic prior to the open source announcement.[4]<\/p>\n<p>Transatomic\u2019s lone remaining patent application (No. 2013\/0083878) has been rejected by the USPTO five times, also on the basis that the invention is not new and non-obvious when compared to existing MSR technology. With Transatomic\u2019s suspension of operations it is uncertain if this application will ever issue as a patent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Trade Secrets<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It is difficult to speculate on the scope of Transatomic\u2019s forthcoming public disclosure of its trade secrets because those IP assets are, well, secret. A trade secret is any commercially-valuable information subject to reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy. Common examples include technical designs and specifications, customer information, financials, and marketing strategies.<\/p>\n<p>Transatomic has announced that it will work with the Department of Energy to add its intellectual property \u2013 presumably in the form of reactor designs, specifications, and research notes \u2013 to the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) database.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In its announcement that the IP assets will be open-sourced, Transatomic expressed hope that others will use their research and design efforts to continue the development of advanced nuclear reactors.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[1] \u201cOpen sourcing\u201d of intellectual property means that the property is made available for use by others. Open sourcing may require the party using the property to agree to certain conditions or restrictions on such use.<\/p>\n<p>[2] For example, this blog previously covered the sale of SunEdison\u2019s patent portfolio in bankruptcy proceedings. See our post at <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/tag\/bankruptcy\/\">https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/tag\/bankruptcy\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[3] Transatomic\u2019s relative lack of patent activity (three applications in seven years seems low for an innovative and technology-driven company) may speak to its preference to rely on trade secret protection while developing a new reactor design, cash flow problems, or a failure to prioritize intellectual property protection.<\/p>\n<p>[4] Abandonment of a patent application relinquishes a claim over that intellectual property, with the effect that the subject matter of the application is dedicated to the public. Put another way, the subject matter of an abandoned patent application is \u201copen sourced\u201d without restriction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Advanced nuclear reactor design firm Transatomic Power announced that it will suspend operations and open-source its intellectual property. Transatomic\u2019s intellectual property portfolio includes three patent applications and, presumably, reactor designs and specifications that have been held until now as trade secrets. Transatomic Power, a company that once aimed to repurpose spent nuclear fuel as an &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/2018\/10\/16\/transatomic\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Transatomic Power to Open Source IP Regarding Advanced Molten Salt Reactors&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,100,22,98,97,6,31,96],"ppma_author":[122],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-advanced-nuclear-reactor","tag-department-of-energy","tag-justus-getty","tag-nuclear","tag-open-source","tag-patent","tag-trade-secret","tag-transatomic-power"],"authors":[{"term_id":122,"user_id":226,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jlgetty","display_name":"Justus Getty","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2017\/11\/gettyjustus-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/greenip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}