Origin of the invention
Mr. Eckard Scholz is an enthusiastic sailor. He notes that sailing, for example, requires electricity, which is usually carried by means of batteries. Up to now, batteries have usually been charged in port, although solar cells or generators powered by the ship’s engine are also known to generate electricity outside the port.
In order to generate electricity while sailing or by sailing, Mr. Eckard Scholz constructed a hydrogenerator that is pulled through the seawater while sailing and thus generates an electrical voltage that can be used directly or to charge the batteries.
Ocean Power GbR was founded to implement the project, see: https://www.ocean-power.de/.
OfficialExamination procedure
The patent application was filed with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) on January 11, 2017 and published after approx. 18 months on July 12, 2018 as DE 10 2017 100 485 A1, see: Patent publication at Espacenet.
The first examination decision of the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) identified six documents in the patent literature as prior art, but the novelty of claim 1 of the patent application was recognized by the office. Only a lack of inventive step of the combination of features of claim 1 of the patent application was objected to, in that several documents were alternatively combined with a further document and this was considered obvious to a person skilled in the art.
In order to establish inventive step, the combination of claims 1 to 3 of the patent application was proposed by the Office.
In order to keep the scope of protection of the patent application broader, only some features of claim 3 were moved to claim 1 instead.
These amendments to the patent application led to its grant on June 10, 2021 as German patent DE 10 2017 100 485 B4:
Currentstatus and contact
The hydrogenerator according to the invention is available from Ocean Power GbR at: