CONNECTICUT PATENTS HIT RECORD LEVELS
Connecticut patents spiked to record levels in 2019 as the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office awarded the state’s inventors more than 5,000 for the first time ever — and with inventions assigned to Connecticut companies also hitting a new high for a second consecutive year.
It marked the first year that intellectual property assigned to Connecticut companies topped the 3,000-patent mark for two consecutive years. The previous roundnumber milestone occurred 35 years ago at the outset of the personal computer era, when the state’s assigned patent total crossed the 2,000 threshold in both 1983 and 1984.
Since then, Connecticut companies had averaged about 2,300 patents a year, according to annual totals published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The numbers rose significantly starting in 2010 when assigned patents popped above 2,600 annually. In 2018, assigned patents jumped 19 percent in Connecticut, followed by a 16 percent boost last year to set a new record total of just over 3,800.
While patent awards are marching up nationally, in 2019 for the first time in the digital era six of every 10 patents assigned to a Connecticut business listed a member of the innovation team living within the state’s borders.
It caps a newly emerging trend in Connecticut the past four years, and one that could suggest success by the state in spurring innovation by homegrown companies or those that establish operations in Connecticut.
Patent awards can be years in the making, as illustrated by Connecticut’s record-breaking patent last year authorized in late October, which United Technologies had first filed on Jan. 2, 2015. Southington resident William Sheridan was recognized for his invention of an auxiliary oil system to ensure a continued flow of lubricant for a brief period in the
“UConn’s research efforts alone have an impact worth $485 million. I have an aggressive goal and plan to double research scholarship at UConn over the next seven-to-10 years. This will not be an easy task, but it is within our reach with the right strategy and resources.”
Thomas Katsouleas, University of Connecticut president
event of any failure in the main oil supply of an aircraft engine.
With UTC long a Connecticut patent powerhouse — it ranked 26th last year among all companies for U.S. patents according to new data published this week by New Haven-based IFI Patent Claims Service — the company
is now working to complete a $135 billion merger with Raytheon that will result in Connecticut losing UTC’s Farmington headquarters to Massachusetts, where Raytheon is based.
UTC has pledged to maintain its research and development center in East Hartford, however, where its jet engine subsidiary Pratt & Whitney has its corporate offices.
As in any year, Connecticut
inventiveness ran the gamut in 2019, between the extremes of scientific and engineering precision and plain, offbeat ideas for everyday products. As examples, Westport’s Peter Toolan received joint rights for the state’s last patent of the year, an iteration of a chew toy for dogs his startup Benebone is selling; on Jan. 1 a year ago, a trio of University of Connecticut researchers shared joint credit for a bone replacement technology.
On Tuesday in Hartford, new the University of Connecticut’s new president stressed the im- portance of the state continuing to support UConn’s efforts to bolster research and development.
“UConn’s research efforts alone have an impact worth $485 million,” said Thomas Katsouleas, who is midway through his first academic year leading
UConn. “I have an aggressive goal and plan to double research scholarship at UConn over the next seven-to-10 years. This will not be an easy task, but it is within our reach with the right strategy and resources. Growing research will ... dramatically enhance our economic impact on the state.”