ThorEA - Towards an Alternative Nuclear Future.pdf

Chapter 4: Value Capture and IP: from ADSRs to Medicine and beyond continued
4.4 IP Management
The patent landscape analysis clearly shows that thorium has
been seriously considered as a nuclear fuel for 50 years and
there is a considerable quantity of IP in the public domain.
Many of the fundamental scientific and engineering principals
have been previously explored. This is a huge advantage to
the project, as the IP is free to be exploited without fear of
litigation. Recent activity in India, Sweden, Canada, US and EU
has resulted in publications, designs, processes, procedures,
knowledge and methods and patents much of which will
contribute to this programme.
This is not to say that there are not challenges and problems,
to be solved. Appendix VII provides a clear illustration of
where the technological advancements in the project are yet
to be made. It is here that valuable IP can be protected to
advocate the UK’s position as a strong global player in this
new market.
A patent’s life is 20 years; it may well be at least 8 years before
the research stage is complete and the research exception
permitting the use of patents for research without risk of
infringement is no longer valid. It may then be at least a
further 5 years to complete the development stage and the
technology be considered ‘commercial’. Thus the risks of
infringing existing patents will diminish with time.
To ensure that an organised, cost effective IP strategy is
implemented, it is proposed that a central IP coordination
function should be responsible for monitoring scientific and
technical developments across the project, ensuring that
suitable measures are in place to guarantee confidentiality
of new developments, to maintain a balance between secrecy
and academic publication, and to supervise the preparation
and review of invention disclosures. The same coordination
function will manage the patent process including the
preparation of patent searches and specifications, filing
and prosecution formalities.
Timing is crucial in deciding what and when to protect IP.
The optimum time to patent is when a feasible engineering
solution presents itself and has been consolidated in detailed
engineering drawings. Regular IP reviews should be integral
to the design process when detailed designs have been drawn
up and the build has started or is imminent. It is proposed
that the ThorEA project is to run to industry standards and
will incorporate industrial partners in the collaboration.
A project plan for the whole project is taking shape (see
Chapter 4: ‘ThorEA Proposal’). Prior to commencing the
programme detailed project plans with milestones, review
points and costing for each phase will be pulled together
by the Programme Manager. Regular IP reviews should be
tasked at the appropriate times.
34 Towards an Alternative Nuclear Future
A plan to capture IP emanating from the programme through
regular audits and due diligence will be defined, providing both
knowledge of existing IP that may impact on the projects in
the programme and auditing innovations, designs, copyright
and know how etc. that are being produced. These two tasks
are key to the capture, evaluation and protection of relevant
legally sound IP. It should however be recognised that in the
nuclear industry, where time horizons are often in decades,
conventional IP protection is not the sole convenor of
commercial benefits. At times it can be a disadvantage as the
registering of a patent reveals details that could otherwise
remain hidden.
4.5 Patent strategies for the ThorEA project
It is apparent that a thorium-fuelled ADSR can be constructed
using extensive well established technology, for which most
or all relevant “basic science” patent applications will have
expired. The long development and acceptance times of
alternative nuclear reactor schemes are thereby avoided. At the
same time the project requires development of much detailed
technology, for example for proton beam generation, delivery
and spallation which will be highly protectable using the
patent system and these patents are expected to be in force
for ten or more years after the first commercial operations.
Indeed IPR associated with the project has already been filed
by ThorEA and STFC.
The ThorEA project will aim to file patent applications in
numbers commensurate with the scale of the project. Nine
detailed areas of research are outlined in the next chapter,
and over a six year time scale an appropriate number of new
patent applications across these areas would be between fifty
and one hundred. At this level, the project would represent
about one percent of the number of new patent families being
filed in the nuclear reactor field, for each of the six years. If
half of these patent applications stand up to the rigours of
patent searching and examination and are entered into ten
countries each (for example US, Japan, Russia, China, Korea,
India, France, Italy, Germany and the UK), a patent costs
budget of about £1.5m-£3m will be required.
Other aspects of Intellectual Property will be brought
into play to support ThorEA, including both registered
and unregistered design rights, copyright and trademarks
where appropriate to support the commercial objectives. The
importance of commercial secrets to protect know-how and
design aspects which are not easily protected in other ways
must not be underestimated.