Jefferson Lab in the News
Inventor Helps Others Through the Process of Patening Ideas
Joy Bryant knew little about patents, or that she had invented something that could be patented, when she developed a caulking sealant while working for a chemical company more than a decade ago.
"It was very foreign to me," said Bryant, now the director of the technology transfer program at the College of William and Mary. "I never pictured myself as someone who would be capable of patenting something."
Since that invention in 1990, Bryant has become somewhat of an expert on patent applications.
She has authored a book on the subject and started the first nonprofit organization for patent agents, which now boasts more than 300 members from 13 countries.
The technology transfer program started last May at William and Mary. As the school's patent agent, Bryant gets involved very early in the application process when a William and Mary student or faculty member invents something.
She investigates an invention's novelty and determines whether the invention is patentable. Then, she works with the inventors to prepare the application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Washington, which usually reviews it up to two years. Bryant saves the inventors the leg work and helps them sell the idea commercially.
"What we're trying to do is get the infrastructure set up," said Bryant, who is attending the William and Mary School of Law full-time while working part-time as the director of the technology transfer program. "You've got to crawl before you walk. If we don't start somewhere, we are not going to ever get in the game."
The game appears to have started. Inventors with the college's applied science department recently received the first patent since Bryant came on board.
The invention, an ultraviolet lamp, was created by faculty members and graduate students at the school's applied research center in Newport News. The lamp produces an intense ultraviolet light source that creates a chemical reaction to make materials such as nylon germ free, said Michael Kelley, professor of applied science.
Bryant is currently in the process of marketing the invention for commercial use and said the college has another patent pending.
One day, Bryant hopes the college's program is as successful as patent programs at the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, where patented inventions bring in at least $1 million annually from product royalties.
"We're definitely playing catch-up," Bryant said. "Most of the universities have had a technology transfer program for at least five years, if not more."
William and Mary is currently revising its own patent policy, which details the percentages of royalties the inventor and the college receives. Bryant said right now it negotiates a percentage with the inventor, but she added it is "very generous."
At the time of her own invention, Bryant was working for a chemical company in Cleveland. Two years later, she received the patent for Tremflex, a sealant that prevents corrosion in concrete expansion joints and is used to hold together sidewalks in places such as Southern Shopping Center in Norfolk.
She didn't realize it would be a stepping stone to a new career. Patent agents have science and engineering backgrounds and must pass a patent bar exam, which had a pass rate of just 38 percent when Bryant took the test in the early '90s.
In 1996 Bryant founded the National Association of Patent Practitioners. Two years later, she wrote "Protecting Your Ideas: The Inventor's Guide to Patents." Nationally, about 1 percent of patented inventions actually makes it to commercial use, she said.
"The hardest step is the manufacturing of it," Bryant said. "To get it from the bench to the companies."