Press Release

“Tech Valley Patent Index” Makes Huge Jump Along With National Number

ALBANY, NY (July 7, 2006)(8:00)(EST) — Hoffman, Warnick & D'Alessandro LLC (HWD), an intellectual property law firm based in Albany, NY, has released the Tech Valley Patent Index for Second Quarter 2006.  The “Patent Index” includes data for: the Capital Region (Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga and Rensselaer counties), Tech Valley, Tech Valley without IBM and GE, and the Capital Region without GE.

With regard to the First Quarter," Tech Valley and the Capital Region are up even more significantly than last quarter," stated Spencer Warnick, partner at Hoffman, Warnick & D’Alessandro.  Mr. Warnick further noted that “this is the start of what we originally anticipated as a growth trend, particularly for the Capital Region.  The research conducted at such places as Albany Nanotech, RPI, GE and other locations is beginning to result in much higher numbers of issued patents to local inventors.  The addition of AMD in the near future will further strengthen Tech Valley , and we expect the Patent Index to futher prove Tech Valley ’s prowess as the up and coming region in the United States.” 

The "Patent of the Quarter," which is chosen to illustrate firsthand the creativity of Tech Valley inventors, is US Patent No. 7029634 issued to Walter Sherwood of Starfire Systems of Malta.  The patent issued April 18, 2006 and is entitled “filter system and particulate filter unit therefor.”  The filter system includes a purifier and a muffler for heavy and light duty diesel vehicles, and includes one or more combination filter units that remove particulates and nitrogen oxides in successive passes before the gas exits. A particulate filter unit may be used that removes additional particulates. Starfire Systems is a client of Hoffman, Warnick & D’Alessandro.