X-Message-Number: 17438
From: 
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 20:00:34 EDT
Subject: new patent by Wowk et al

U.S. Patent No. 6,274,303, dated Aug. 14, 2001, "Method for rapid cooling and 
warming of biological materials," is now available at uspto.gov

The inventors are Brian G. Wowk, Michael G. Federowicz [aka Darwin], Sandra 
R. Russell, and Steven B. Harris. 

I have not yet compared it closely with the previous patent No. 5,952,168 
dated Sep.14, 1999, but much of it is obviously identical or nearly so. 

One difference is that there is an assignee (owner) indicated on the 1999 
patent, 21CM, but no assignee appears on this one, that I could see--perhaps 
(?) because the current patent is considered an extension of the previous one.

One thing bound to strike any newcomer (about patents of all kinds) is the 
shaky set of rules and rationales for granting patents. As a prime example, 
which is more important--the idea or the implementation? And should a patent 
be granted just for suggestions, or only for working models of devices, or 
demonstrations, proving usefulness?

Obviously, circumstances alter cases. If the idea is obvious but the 
implementation difficult, then a working model or a conclusive demonstration 
is the main requirement, or should be. If on the other hand the concept is 
novel but implementation easy, then the situation is different. Probably a 
large number of cases fall in a gray area in between.

The instant patent, like many others, starts with very broad claims and then 
proceeds to more limited ones. The first claim of this patent includes 
perfusing through the vascular system with an inert fluid at controlled 
temperature. This idea is very old. Other claims cover a wide range of 
variants, which obviously have not all been actually tested by the inventors, 
or so it seems to me. 

The new patent also again refers to glycol ethers as CPAs, but does not 
appear to include any claims regarding these, unless by reference.

The relationship to previous patents and applications is given under 'RELATED 
APPLICATIONS' as follows:

"The present application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser.No. 
08/966,187 filed Nov. 7, 1997, now U.S. Patent No. 5, 952,168 which is a 
continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser.No. 08/819,317, filed Mar. 18, 
1997, now abandoned which claims the benefit of priority under 35 
U.S.C..sctn.119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/030,700 filed Nov. 
7, 1996."

As in the case of the previous patent, there are references to cryonics and 
to people writing about cryonics, including Wowk's and Darwin's book Reaching 
for Tomorrow, my book The Prospect of Immortality, Darwin and Hixon in the 
Alcor magazine, and Cryonet postings by Wowk and Skrecky. 

In the months and years to come, we at CI will be testing some of these 
approaches, among many others.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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