New Mexico Optics Industry Association

By Jim Higdon, Lisa Kuuttila, Jim McNally, Stuart Schoenmann, and Ed Spivak

It might look as if the controversy over patent reform is a clash of the titans, with companies like Google, Intel, Apple and Microsoft in support and heavyweights like 3M, Caterpillar and General Electric in opposition.

Small technology companies have much more at stake, which is why the Patent Reform Act of 2007 (S. 1145) is so important in New Mexico.

We agree that the patent system could use some updating. The U.S. Patent Office is inundated with 300,000 filings a year, and new fields of technology continually unfold. In their proposed reforms, the big information technology companies are trying to strike back at nuisance patent-infringement lawsuits filed by opportunists to extort large settlements.

We sympathize, but this bill is loaded with unintended consequences.

S. 1145 would dramatically reduce the value of U.S. patents, increase the cost and time involved in filing for a patent and defending it, change the way royalty damages are calculated, and create an unending opposition process.  

To give you an idea of the consequences of proposed changes, consider the comments of Yongshun Cheng, former senior judge and deputy director of the Intellectual Property Division of the Beijing High People's Court. Recently he wrote: "It is not bad news for developing countries, which have fewer patents. Many of the Chinese companies are not patent owners in the U.S. market, and their products are often excluded from the market because of patent infringement accusations. This bill will give the companies from developing countries more freedom and flexibility to challenge the relative U.S. patent for doing business in U.S. and make it less costly to infringe."

In other words, China and other nations would find it inexpensive and easy to infringe on U.S. patents.

For example, CVI Melles Griot has for 30 years designed and developed optical components from lenses to complete assemblies. What do you think the effect would be on this Albuquerque company and its employees if foreign manufacturers can sell cheap knock-offs of CVI products with little fear of consequences? The company, even now, is involved in an infringement dispute with a foreign manufacturer.

In New Mexico we have about 70 small and large optics companies. The smaller companies have fewer than 10 employees. They budget carefully to develop products, cultivate markets, grow sales and recruit talented people. If the cost of filing and maintaining patents increases, it cramps the company’s other activities and slows its growth. Similarly, if the value of its patent decreases, it may be harder for a small company to raise money because investors always want assurance of a company’s intellectual property protections.

The proposed reform unnecessarily complicates the patent review process by adding a second year to the existing one-year review by third parties. This extended review would be costly and distracting, especially to small companies. And it requires a great deal of expensive, new documentation, which would double the cost and compromise trade secrets.

In the event of infringement, it would be much harder for smaller companies to defend their patents. The suit would be filed in the district court of the patent infringer rather than that of the patent holder, as it is now – another expense. Even if the patent holder is able to prove infringement, the compensation is far less.

The Patent Reform Act of 2007 "will inflict serious harm on small entrepreneurs… whose livelihoods depend on marketing just a handful of lifesaving inventions," wrote Sally Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, in Investor’s Business Daily.

We support a careful, balanced patent reform. Well considered recommendations have already been made by such organizations as the National Research Council, the Association of University Technology Managers, the 21^st Century Coalition and others.

A reform that could bring such profound change to American industries must weigh fairly the impacts on all industries.

Enrollment in CNM’s Manufacturing Technology and Photonics programs is down, and the administration is thinking about ending them. This is your future workforce. Faculty member Matt Pleil, who teaches microsystems and manufacturing technology, asks for your support. 

  The goal of this survey is to assess New Mexico's small-tech industrial needs for technologist education. Survey results will be used in a needs assessment to determine the viability of the Manufacturing Technology program.

The survey will also help the Southwest Center for Microsystems Education, an NSF-funded Advanced Technological Education Center of Excellence, determine whether it should continue promoting high-tech workforce development to New Mexico.

Lack of industry response to the survey will signal CNM administration that the programs aren’t needed.

For information call Matt at 224-3355 or 363-3428.

Bob Boege, executive director of the Alliance for Science and

Technology Research in America (ASTRA), recently reported that in the omnibus budget bill passed by both houses of Congress, key science budgets dropped significantly from the spending levels both chambers agreed to earlier. NSF and NIST saw meager 2.5 percent increases, and even less was expected for DOE’s Office of Science, NIH, NASA, and others.

"Reversing years of hard work, Congress and the administration have been short-sighted in their haste to get a budget agreement — and they have short-changed America in the process," said ASTRA Chair Mary Good.

Save the date! On Feb. 21^st NMOIA will hold a member meeting, time and place to be announced.

And during the second week of March, at a NMOIA member meeting, Beverlee McClure, president and CEO of the Association of Commerce and Industry, will discuss the results of the 2008 legislative session.

AMO WaveFront Sciences marked its first year since being acquired by Advanced Medical Optics (AMO).

"The main thing, from a functional perspective, is we changed customer bases. AMO was not a customer before and its competitors were. Now AMO is our primary customer," says Tim Turner, managing director of the Albuquerque operation and former WaveFront CEO. "By the same token, we’re now connected all the way to the end users – surgeons. It’s expanded our perspective."

Over the past year WaveFront has been developing the next-generation aberrometer, which will provide a new standard in diagnostic technology for laser vision correction. The company expects to introduce this technology in April at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Congress in Chicago, with the commercial launch following in the second quarter.

WaveFront has about 50 employees. As it ramps up for new production, it will hire four to six more. Because the company had expanded its building just before the acquisition, Tim doesn’t expect any other changes in operation.

The current technology, shown here, is the Wavefront COAS (Complete Ophthalmic Analysis System).

TruTouch Technologies signed an agreement with the U.S. Army to develop a more rugged version of its alcohol-testing products for use at military installations to help combat alcohol abuse problems. TruTouch makes noninvasive, touch-based products that measure alcohol concentration while verifying the user’s identity.

The agreement builds on the company’s early sales to prison work-release programs, substance abuse treatment centers, probation departments and DWI courts.

"We have this great technology platform that can be configured in many different ways," says CEO Jim McNally. "From a product configuration perspective, we have a lot of flexibility."

Also exhibiting at Photonics West are AgilOptics and Archer OpTx.

Dynatec Labs will exhibit at the MD&M West trade show in Anaheim, Calif. On Jan. 28-31.

Archer OpTx announced that new glass-molded aspheres L240 and L150 are available from stock. The company’s proprietary PerfectLens™ technology produces molds free of high-frequency surface defects that can produce troublesome diffraction effects.

Stuart Schoenmann, CEO of CVI Melles Griot, was recently elected to a three-year term on the board of Albuquerque Economic Development.

The Directed Energy Professional Society (DEPS) has called for papers for its 21st annual Solid State and Diode Laser Technology Review, to be held June 2-5 in Albuquerque.

The review brings together researchers and managers from government, contractors, and universities to exchange ideas. The event will include short courses, banquet, poster sessions, exhibits and a digest.

The society has asked for papers from all areas relevant to the development of high-power, solid-state lasers for military applications.

Contributors of public release presentations must write a paper and have it cleared for public release by April 23 so it can be published in the SSDLTR Technical Digest.

For information contact DEPS at 505-998-4917.

UNM’s Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies holds its annual Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF-2007) on Feb. 10-14.

STAIF, a major international technical forum, will feature six concurrent conferences. The meeting stimulates an exchange of information on such subjects as access to space, space commercialization, exploration, and new technologies.

This year’s theme, "Enabling Space Exploration," provides an umbrella for the six conferences: Thermophysics Applications in Microgravity, Space Resource Utilization, Space Nuclear Power Propulsion, Human-Robotic Technology and the Vision for Space Exploration, Space Colonization, and New Frontiers and Future Concepts.

NASA in December surprised scientists at New Mexico Tech’s Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MRO) by asking for detailed observations of an asteroid that might hit Mars. In December MRO researchers began tracking the asteroid, designated 2007 WD5, with the facility’s 2.4-meter telescope. On Dec. 18 MRO’s observations prompted NASA to increase the probability of impact from about 1 in 350 to 1 in 75.

If the asteroid, which measures about 160 feet across, does strike Mars, it would be a "scientific bonanza," NASA scientists said; such an asteroid impact with a planet has never been observed. And it "reinforces the point that the Near-Earth Object (NEO) risk is more than just the subject of Hollywood movies," said Eileen Ryan, MRO 2.4-meter telescope project scientist and manager.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter could be maneuvered into position to capture images of an impact, and the two rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, may also be able to take pictures from the surface of Mars.

MRO, near the summit of the 10,800-foot Magdalena Mountains, is about 26 miles west of the NMT campus in Socorro. Intended primarily for astronomical research, it has a single 2.4-meter-diameter telescope and a moveable array of up to ten 1.4-meter-diameter telescopes linked together to form a single optical interferometer.

On Feb. 23 Eileen Ryan will be the featured scientist-at-work in next month’s installment of KNME-TV’s "Science Café." Ryan has more than 20 years of experience as a scientific researcher and has spent most of that time studying various small bodies in the Solar System, particularly asteroids and comets.

Co-sponsored by KNME and New Mexico Tech, the program is scheduled for 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23. Breakfast, lunch, and transportation to the MRO facility will be provided free for all program participants by New Mexico Tech. Attendance is limited, so RSVP by Feb. 15. Call KNME’s Ed Ulman at 505-277-8296.

JETEYE, a system designed to protect civilian airlines from terrorist missiles, has recently been mounted on the first civilian aircraft. The system was tested at White Sands Missile Range’s aerial cable facility in November. JETEYE, developed by BAE Systems, will be carried by up to three American Airlines 767-200’s aircraft models.

Jim. F. Riker is the new chief scientist at AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate. He is the former technical director of the Directed Energy Directorate's Optics Division.