The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the AutoHarvest Foundation today. The MOU outlined the department’s goal to spur innovation and generate jobs in advanced manufacturing. USPTO and AutoHarvest will collaborate on the creation of an online environment for manufacturing innovators to exchange information, facilitate technical discussion, and encourage the growth of entrepreneurial activity in the industry. This MOU comes as a part of USPTO’s increasing outreach efforts to the community.
The MOU and entrepreneurs and corporate executives will be able to access a centralized online collection of databases including information resources as well as analytical and software tools to help investors better understand how to obtain, maintain, and commercialize their intellectual property. The databases will allow these innovators to enter into business transactions to commercialize their intellectual property.
The USTPO-Autoharvest MOU marks another step to help businesses develop and distribute their intellectual property by partnering with regional economic development commissions. The USTPO also recently opened its first satellite office in Detroit this past summer to facilitate intellectual property development in the area.
At the announcement of the MOU AutoHarvest CEO Jayson Pankin said that “AutoHarvest members will benefit from information and databases sourced and potentially co-developed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that will help inventors better understand the process of obtaining, maintaining and commercializing intellectual property, leading to real economic impact.”
The AutoHarvest Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation which is directed by major leaders in the automotive industry. AutoHarvest is designing a market driven online collaboration system to accelerate technological innovation in advanced manufacturing.
You can view the press release here.