Capital Region Small Firm Patent Awards up in 2024
Designs for innovative products detailed in patents awarded to A for Ara (left) and PRIXEL Press (right)
The Capital Region’s small firms and academic institutions saw an uptick in patent awards in 2024 after dipping the previous year. And nearly a dozen local small firms – including one headed by Etsy’s founder – received their first patents, according to a Center for Economic Growth (CEG) analysis of data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Small Firm Patents
In 2024, the USPTO awarded 86 utility patents to 49 small firms (<500 employees) in the eight-county Capital Region. That marked a 19.4 percent year-over-year increase in patents assigned to local small firms. Among those assignees, 11 received their first patents.
Some of the region’s first-time small firm patent assignees included:
A for Ara: A collaboration between Robert Kalin (founder of Etsy) and William Cowan (NASA engineer) that combines “old world craftmanship with modern CNC tooling” on a 100-acre farm in Catskill. The studio’s patent is for a loudspeaker made from wood.
PRIXEL Press: A Hudson rubber stamp kit manufacturer that received prototyping and commercialization assistance from CEG. PRIXEL Press’ patent is for a “Pixel board print system with interchangeable elements and method of use.”
Epic Airway Systems: A Schenectady startup that has developed a clinically differentiated airway device. Its patent is for an “Intubation devices and methods of use.”
Eastern Blue Technologies: A Ballston Spa semiconductor startup that specializes in solutions for time-of-flight/depth sensing applications. Founded by a former GE engineer, the firm received a patent for a “Module and methods of assembly for large area flat panel detectors.”
XCA Composites in Stephentown received a patent for a “Heatable contact surface for use in medical imaging.”
Other notable patent awards for Capital Region small firms in 2024 include:
Vara Corporation, a gun storage startup in Troy, received its second patent for a “Security devices and methods for regulating access to items secured within.”
Starfire Systems, a Glenville developer of high-temperature materials and solutions, received its first patent in 10 years for the “Composition and preparation for hafnium carbide ceramic precursor”
Lux Semiconductors, a semiconductor startup in Albany, received its second patent for a “Metal substrates with structures formed therein and methods of making same.”
Pharmapotheca A, a Delmar pharmaceutical startup that specializes in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) treatments, received its second patent for a “Process for making levoamphetamine.
Academic and Large Firm Patents
In 2024, the Capital Region’s colleges and universities, including the Albany-based University of New York and Research Foundation for SUNY, received 109 patents, up 10.1 percent from the previous year. In addition to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute receiving 32 patents, the university’s Rensselaer Center for Translational Research received its first patent for “Methods of detecting and treating pulmonary hypertension.”
Overall, the USPTO assigned 1,025 patents to Capital Region firms, institutions and individuals in 2024. That was a 20.3 percent decline from the previous year. That decline was driven mostly by large firms (>500 employees), particularly GlobalFoundries and General Electric, which announced it would split into three companies in 2021 and completed that separation in 2024.
CEG INITIATIVES
CEG has launched the Venture Readiness Program, which help Capital Region entrepreneurs build investor-ready ventures. Through
- Provides one-on-one mentoring for local entrepreneurs by pairing them with expert Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs).
- Mentoring includes expert guidance on business model development, financial planning, market validation, and investor pitch preparation.
- Leverages Launch NY’s new $16 million seed fund to facilitate access to venture funding fr local startups.
Entrepreneurs interested in the Venture Readiness Program can contact CEG here.
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