Cold Fusion Now is reporting that Brillouin Energy has been awarded a patent by China for its LENR-based boiler technology, a development that will certainly be good news for the company, especially following the rejection of its patent application by the US Patent Office earlier this year.
One of the problems that any company faces that tries to patent an LENR system in the United States is a longstanding policy not to approve any cold fusion system because of skepticism that it is a viable technology.
In the March 2012 rejection letter of Brillouin’s patent application the USPO patent examiner stated:
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary claims and substantiation. The finding of lack of utility and enablement may be overcome if an independent committee of peers in the pertinent fields, such as a third peer review by the US Department of Energy, were to conclude that cold fusion or low energy nuclear reactions were shown by the basic research continued after the latest review by the US Department of Energy (December 1, 2004: see the report made of record) to be reproducible and thus have utility. Applicant could have his invention tested by such organizations as the Department of Energy or NIST. For lack of utility the test is whether there is preponderance of evidence against utility or not.
It seems now that China’s attitude towards cold fusion technology is not so stringent as that of the USPO, and it will be interesting to see what effect the Chinese action might have on future cold fusion patent applications in the United States.