UK: Could This Be The Most Important Patent Ever?

Room temperature superconductivity has been a dream for researchers and industry alike for many years, and it may have just been discovered. The ability to conduct electricity without loss of energy has the potential to revolutionise energy grids, transportation, and computing amongst many other industries. There may even be currently unknown applications which would benefit. Indeed the laser was originally created without a specific technical aim, but is now one of the most important industrial tools. A room temperature superconductor could have an even bigger impact than lasers.

On 22 July 2023, researchers Sukbae Lee, Ji-Hoon Kim, and Young-Wan Kwon from the Quantum Energy Research Centre, Inc in South Korea released a pre-print article entitled "The First Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor". As this is a pre-print, it has not been subject to peer-review and, given the remarkable title, it will no doubt be subject to extremely detailed scrutiny over the coming months. The pre-print paper describes how a modified lead-apatite structure results in a super conductor which operates at ambient pressure up to 400 K. The pre-print paper suggests that the superconductivity results from "minute structural distortion by a slight volume shrinkage (0.48%)". Labs around the world are no doubt in the process of reproducing these experiments and trying to find alternative compounds. There is also some commentary about how the authors actually released two papers, one of which had six authors and the other had three and some have suggested that this is with an eye to a Nobel prize on the basis that only teams of three are eligible.

Ahead of the release of the pre-print, at least one Korean patent application and at least one International (PCT) application (WO2023027536) were filed seeking to protect the room temperature and pressure superconducting ceramic compound. The PCT application names three inventors, namely Sukbae Lee, Ji-Hoon Kim, and Young-Wan Kwon

The International Search Report prepared by the Korean Intellectual Property Office only found documents in category "A" meaning that they define the general state of the art not considered to be of particular relevance and the KIPO acknowledged the novelty and inventive step of the claims, so things are going well so far it seems.

The main claim is quite broad and so it will be interesting to see whether patent offices around the world consider such a claim to be broader than what is taught in the application as filed and whether there is sufficient disclosure in the document to sustain such a broad claim. Only time will tell and, given the potential importance of the patent, it will likely come under the highest degree of scrutiny.

If the findings are reproduced and found to be correct, this could be one of the most fundamental discoveries and patents of recent times and will no doubt lead to a rush to optimise the materials for different uses, find alternatives and improvements. Whilst it would be possible for third parties to gain their own granted patent if they could show that their inventions are novel and inventive, their activities may still fall within the scope of the original patent and so they may still have to take a licence from the holder of the original patent. I expect a flurry of patenting activity on this topic.

Given the attention this pre-print has received to date (I have seen it on almost every social media app I have used), more news on this will follow shortly and I do hope that this ushers in a new period of superconductivity.

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