Victor Cardona
Victor Cardona (Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C.)
Victor A. Cardona is experienced in enforcing, and procuring protection for, all types of Intellectual Property including patents, trademarks and copyrights. Prior to joining the firm in 1999, Victor gained valuable experience as an Environmental Engineer with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation where he spent over six years evaluating the feasibility, effectiveness and implementation of environmental remediation technologies. Victor is a co-chair and co-founder of the firm's Cleantech Practice Group, and is a member of the Mechanical and International Practice groups. He also has extensive experience in procuring overseas Intellectual property protection for the firm's clients, which is enhanced by his fluency in Italian.
Victor graduated with a Juris Doctorate cum laude from Albany Law School and has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Clarkson University with a concentration in Environmental Engineering. He is admitted to the New York State Bar and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Victor is one of the developers and researchers for the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (CEPGI) an online blog that captures the trends in US cleantech patenting by quarter.
- How was the index built?
- They do a keyword search in each sector and then look at each patent to make sure that it relates to the technologies they are tracking. They are looking at energy technologies, but not energy efficiency technologies.
2. Using the PTO database. Experimented with others, but didn’t stick with them. 3. All the information is going into the blog. 4. Rather and using the IPC codes they came up with a keyword index. 5. The searches for patents in energy efficiency and LEED certification are too broad for them to find the information. 6. 2008 was the biggest year for clean energy patents, the first quarter of 2009 was the biggest quarter. 7. The lag in patents has to be taken into account. 8. Biofuels patents are climbing. 9. Many of the companies will file for a patent regardless of the value of the improvement because VCs want to see the patents as a level of value. 10. He has a paper about wind patents he can share with us 11. He is doing research on the solar industry and what types of technology are being filed for patents (thin vs. poly-silicon) 12. Many of the companies are start-ups that need patents for value to show VC folks they are worthwhile for investment. 13. Universities are getting patents, but he thinks there is a greater element of collaborative research with companies. 14. Licensing practices - a lot of big guys buying the little guys out.