5/6/16

Yesterday the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published LO3 Energy Inc’s patent application 20160123620 “Use of Computationally Generated Thermal Energy.” The patent was initially filed with USPTO on November 4, 2015.

As reported by Michael del Castillo for CoinDesk, in “Ethereum Used for ‘First’ Paid Energy Trade Using Blockchain Tech” LO3 is collaborating with another industry favorite ConsenSys:

The joint effort called TransActive Grid, struck between between LO3 and decentralized applications startup ConsenSys, allowed Brooklyn resident Eric Frumin to sell excess renewable energy generated from his own solar panels directly to Bob Sauchelli, a former program manager at EnergyStar, a government-backed green energy initiative.

Lawrence Orsini and Yun Wei are listed as the inventors. While the application appears not to mention Ethereum specifically it is probably (?) because LO3 was uncertain which blockchain there were going to utilize at the time.

While I have been covering Bitcoin patent applications for quite some time this is the first Ethereum related filing that I have taken interest to report on. There are a half dozen or so other filings such as “Systems And Methods For Transferring Digital Assests Using A De-centralized Exchange” from more obscure companies such as Raistone.

While this application does not specifically mention Ethereum I think it will serve as a first in many Ethereum patent applications to come.

Below is an extract from the filing