PARTEQ Innovations enjoyed a successful year in 2011-12 as 20 patents were issued for innovations being commercialized by the Queen’s University technology transfer office. The patents included 10 US, four Canadian and six international. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted to an inventor in exchange for the disclosure of an invention.

Stephen Harrison earned his eighth and ninth patents for solar technologies developed at Queen’s. Dr. Harrison has a total of 20 patents for two solar technologies, including a solar-thermal hot water heating system and a self-limiting solar collector which is equipped with a venting system to let out excess heat. His system is now in use in thousands of installations across North America.

“What is striking about these patents is that 16 of them represent technologies that have been or are being developed by commercial partners,” says John Molloy, president and CEO of PARTEQ Innovations. “They demonstrate the significant role that universities and their partners play in creating innovations with potentially far-reaching impacts.”

A Polanyi Award-winning research discovery that is already being commercialized by a new Ontario startup company received its first US patent. This green technology, discovered by Philip Jessop (Canada Research Chair in Green Chemistry), has potential as a non-toxic, reusable alternative for an array of chemical processes.

Other discoveries earning patents included power-saving technologies invented by Yan-Fei Liu (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and new treatments for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease invented by Walter Szarek (Chemistry), Jason Vlahakis (Chemistry) and Kanji Nakatsu (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences). A new treatment for prostate cancer conceived by Robert Charles Graham and Michael Adams (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences) received its 14^th patent in 2011-12.