UPDATED: US fast-tracks green tech under new scheme

The USPTO’s plan to fast-track green tech patents may be welcome news for innovators and the planet, but how will it work and who benefits? Sarah Speight investigates.

With the pressing need for countries to meet climate change targets, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is inviting applicants to join a scheme that promises to fast-track the examination of certain green-tech patent applications.

The aim is to accelerate the development of clean and green energy technologies. USPTO director Kathi Vidal wrote in a blog: “It’s essential to protect these transformative energy innovations with IP. Innovation is a primary driver of the US economy, and IP is the bridge between an idea and bringing that innovation to market.”

And in an address at an energy innovation summit in Colorado on May 24, Vidal said that green tech development is “booming”, with the Patent Tech Center receiving 40,000 patent applications last year, “constituting almost 7% of yearly patent applications across all fields of technology”.