Hawaii inventors were awarded a record 231 patents last year, including several capitalizing on the state’s long-standing relationship with the ocean.
The 2012 total was the most since the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office began compiling state data in 1976, surpassing the previous record of 210 issued in 2010.
The University of Hawaii received four patents for its research in 2012, the most of any local entity. Oceanit Laboratories, an engineering, science and research company, was next with three patents.
The ocean theme was prominent among Hawaii inventors, with a range of patents awarded for a boat hull design, inflatable wet suit, stand-up paddle handle grip, sand anchor, surfboard fin mount and audible fishing lure, among other things.
Two of Hawaii’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, Pierre Omidyar and Henk Rogers, also made the 2012 Hawaii patent list. Local residents were named as co-inventors on dozens of patents that went to mainland companies, such as Apple Inc. and IBM Corp.
Navatek Ltd., a Honolulu-based naval architectural firm with 29 patents to its credit, received one last year for a variation of a "stabilized monohull" boat design that features a center hull and two smaller outer hulls to reduce drag and improve efficiency.
The company, which has focused mostly on research and development for military and commercial applications during its 33-year history, also has a patent pending on an even newer hull design that it said will be the foundation for its first line of boats for sale to the general public under the "Sea Blade" brand.
Navatek engineers recently finished sea trials with a prototype 19-foot Sea Blade and will begin building them this week under the company’s newly established subsidiary, Navatek Boat Builders, said Steven Loui, Navatek chairman. The new division will be headed up by Navatek engineer Gary Johnson.
"Since I was 8 years old, I’ve tried to design a general-purpose boat that would be able to handle the rough Hawaiian waters," said Loui, 61. "I don’t know how many millions we spent to get here, but everyone we take out on the boat is blown away by it. It’s gaining a reputation as the best riding boat on the market."
Navatek is a subsidiary of privately owned Pacific Marine, founded in 1944 by Loui’s father, Fred Loui. Pacific Marine, with 450 employees and annual revenues of $85 million, also owns Pacific Shipyards International LLC, the state’s largest commercial ship repair company.
Navatek Boat Builders will start out with a conservative production schedule, using existing workers from Navatek and Pacific Shipyards to build a limited number of 19-foot Sea Blades with aluminum hulls, Loui said. Production will be increased to meet demand, and additional workers will be hired as needed, he said.
The company has plans to offer the Sea Blade in five different lengths ranging from 16 1/2 feet to 36 feet. Loui said he expects the Sea Blade’s main competition in the Hawaii market will be the Boston Whaler, a Florida-built line of recreational boats. A 19-foot Boston Whaler retails for between $50,000 and $60,000, including the outboard motor.
Keeping the Sea Blade production in Hawaii will allow Navatek to customize each boat based on the buyer’s preferences, according to Loui, a graduate of Kaimuki High School and Stanford University’s engineering school. Loui said the key to Navatek’s success with the Sea Blade will be its ability to protect its unique hull design through the patent process.
"That will prevent someone from stealing the design and building it in China for half the price," he said.
One of the three patents awarded to Oceanit last year was for a fire-retardant coating designed to eliminate the toxic fumes released by traditional coatings at high temperatures. The clay coating is created by using carbon nanotube technology that is featured in other Oceanit patented products.
"We used our nanotechnology to develop a better coating," said Ian Kitajima, Oceanit marketing manager. "It’s being tested by the Navy right now. It also has commercial applications in cars, ships and structures — any place where you currently have fire-retardant coating," he said.
Oceanit has been awarded about 30 patents since its founding in 1985. It has spun off a host of science and technology companies, including Honolulu-based medical device maker Hoana Medical and Honolulu-based Nanopoint, which is developing cellular imaging products for disease research.
"Last year was another busy year for our patent issuance and patent prosecutions," said John Kuriyama, Oceanit general manager. "Currently, we have over 20 patent applications in various stages of review by the USPTO (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) covering various areas such as materials, energy, medical and communication devices," he said.
Omidyar, the billionaire founder and chairman of eBay Inc., teamed up with former eBay executive Randy Ching on a patent titled "Apparatus and method for generating groups in a social network." The right to the patent is held by Peer News LLC, publisher of the Honolulu-based website Civil Beat.
Rogers, a gaming industry icon and philanthropist credited with introducing the computer game Tetris to world markets, was awarded a patent titled "Video game systems and methods for providing software-based skill adjustment mechanisms for video game systems." The patent rights are held by Tetris Holding LLC.
Despite the banner year for Hawaii inventors, the state still ranks relatively low in terms of patents awarded per capita at one-third the national average, said Honolulu patent attorney Leighton Chong. The relatively low patent rate in Hawaii is a reflection of the state’s weak high-tech sector, he said.
The decision by the Legislature to let a high-tech tax credit expire at the end of 2010 dealt a significant blow to innovation in Hawaii, said Chong, a Hawaii native who practiced patent law in New York City for 22 years before moving back to Honolulu in 1997.
"Until we get serious, we should not expect that Hawaii will foster a high-tech sector," Chong said. And one of Hawaii’s few bright spots, defense research spending, may slip in future years after the death in December of Daniel Inouye, the former U.S. senator, he said.
Chong led an unsuccessful attempt last year to have the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office open a satellite office in Honolulu. The USPTO added satellite offices in Denver, Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas.
"We were bypassed because we didn’t have enough to offer. But that doesn’t preclude them from selecting Hawaii in the future, especially with the argument that Hawaii is the nation’s far west position in the Asia-Pacific region."
