Small Entity no More

Patent application fees can add up over the course of a year. One way to reduce these costs by half is to claim Small Entity Status. (Background HERE) 

Without getting too deep in the weeds, a small entity is basically an individual, a nonprofit organization, or a small business with less than 500 employees.  GreenShift has claimed this status until this last week.

SEE HERE for the changes recorded between 22-26 July 2011.

Now before we get all excited and and make a big deal about GreenShift no longer being a small business through some imagined "Big Deal" - here is another caveat.  You also cannot claim small entity status if you license your invention to someone who cannot claim small entity status (think Sunoco?) So maybe that is all it is. Some of these patent applications are an offspring of a GreenShift COES patent that has been licensed - so that seems to make sense . . .

(Scratch grey whiskers here)

But if that is true, why did GreenShift drop small entity status for prosecution of "Method of Blending Fuels and Related System?" It is not tied to the other patents that have been licensed. Also the one producing Lipids and the one using flash Desiccation . . . None of these have been licensed to a Large Entity . . . Or have they?

Here are three possible options:

1. GreenShift is no longer a Small Business?

2. We have non-COES licenses with a Large Entity we are yet unaware of?

3. (Skunk's present favorite) We changing our small entity status due to caution, for instance if you are not a small entity in one area then maybe you cannot claim the status in another?


SkunK