Patents

Patents are the gold standard for inventions. Theft is prevented by patents turning ideas into intellectual property. The US Patent and Trademark Office grants an invention a 17-year monopoly. The PTO is extremely selective when granting a patent so it often takes years. 

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A patent enhances the status of an invention. The invention must be novel, useful, and unobvious to someone in a related field. I.e., the concept of a mobile solar/wind farm is not obvious, likewise for a solar/wind farm needing brakes. 

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An inventor must search previous patents to find out if their idea is unique before filing an application. Anything relevant is called prior art. A patent might be possible if there’s little or no prior art. There was minimal prior art for a railroad-based solar/wind farm. 

The PTO is very strict about following instructions and meeting deadlines. An inventor must meet certain criteria including using drawings with detailed descriptions that relate to making the invention. To allow for improvement the PTO requires that no specifications be cited. For example, railcar mounted batteries had 1 kilowatt capacity when the Provisional Patent Application was filed. By the time the patent issued, capacities of railcar mounted batteries had increased a thousand fold to 1 gigawatt which improved the invention significantly.  

The simple yet complex invention combines several existing technologies in a new way to create a hybrid solar/wind farm on freight railcars with regenerative brakes. A US patent was issued for the solar-assisted railroad-based wind farm aka the Railroad Windfarm.  

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The patent could be very financially rewarding because the Railroad Windfarm is a technological solution that addresses the climate change crisis directly. The ramifications are staggering since it can be used on any gauge of existing railroad tracks around the world. 

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Check out the virtual prototype Video to see how the technology works. To see a scale model (without airfoils) check out the Photos of the Railroad Windfarm. For other applications see More Options. Technology has additional info. Text of the solar-assisted railroad-based windfarm aka Railroad Windfarm Patent is available here.