A turbine-powered hybrid vehicle, a device to boost self-control through gaming, and a telescopic wind turbine tower.
All of the above are described in over 100 patent applications that Houston-area inventors have filed in 2024 to date.
The applications reviewed by Houston Business Journal include any applications with a Houston-based inventor named, even if the company or applicant is not Houston-based. For example, Houston-based inventors with Samsung Electronics Co. filed five patent applications in 2024. The U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office does not publish provisional applications, so only published applications and patented technologies can be viewed through a search.
While some inventors filed representing themselves or a company they founded, the majority filed on behalf of corporations or universities.
The company with the most patent applications in 2024 to date was Houston-based Schlumberger Technology Corp., part of Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB), with nine. Schlumberger Technology Corp.’s applications are primarily related to its parent company’s oil field services business, but the devices with public applications range from increased cable security to methods of extracting lithium — a material that several oil and gas giants are eyeing as interest in battery technology grows.
Schlumberger said it was unable to provide comment by press time when contacted by the HBJ.
Most patent applications that Houston-area inventors filed this year are related to oil field services, ranging from well services and fracking technology to monitoring platforms for equipment used in the field. Besides SLB, Houston-area giants like Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) and Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) have filed multiple applications for similar technologies.
Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), which recently announced its plan to move its headquarters from California to Houston, also filed applications and received patents for multiple oil field services technologies, including a method to detect heat from a drill bit’s cutting action and another method to test the integrity of wells.
Patents for heart-related medical devices
Surgeons at the Texas Heart Institute made history last month when they implanted a total artificial heart into a human patient and got one step closer to replacing heart transplants entirely. The heart was designed by Houston-based startup Bivacor in collaboration with the THI.
While the total artificial heart's most recent patent application was filed in 2023 according to the US PTO, at least one other local inventor has filed for another heart pump this year. Houston-based CardioDyme Inc., formerly known as ReliantHeart Inc., filed in January for a pump to assist hearts with blood flow. Unlike the Bivacor device, CardioDyme’s pump does not replace a natural heart, but the CardioDyme pump does use a spinning rotor to help blood pressure.
Other medical devices related to heart surgery include a treatment for heart-related aneurysms filed by Matthew Kuhn and Melanie Lowther, the co-founders of life sciences startup Taurus Vascular, an alumna of the Texas Medical Center Biodesign program. The treatment connects fluid flowing from an artery to a vein using grafts and a catheter. The TMC is listed as the applicant on the patent.
Local cardiologists and health business leaders have pointed to the advancing age of the U.S. population and heart disease's status as the most common cause of death for American adults as factors behind investor interest in new technologies. Local companies that have been funded this year and are either in trials or planning trials include Procyrion, which closed $60 million in January, and VenoStent, which completed a $20 million Series A round in July.
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