[permaculture] Mycoremediation of petroleum-polluted sites.

David david at h4c.org
Mon Dec 17 15:42:39 EST 2007


Lawrence,

Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
> David wrote:
>
>  > Would it be possible to offer more information, if you remember or have it?
>
>
> Maybe this will be useful...
>   
Wow... A cornucopia of information! Thank you, sir.

Based on the blogspot entry, it sounds as though Stamets is indeed the 
guy featured/mentioned in the "Bioneers episode" (remediation of diesel 
impregnated compost materials), albeit that media itself remains unknown.

For what it's worth, the link previously provided to USPTO offers images 
of Stamets' latest patent on mycoremediation. There are three primary 
means for protection of intellectual property in the US, which are 
copyright (which is of no use in protecting technology), patent (strong 
in the US), and trade secret (which means in essence that you don't tell 
anybody). Patents and trade secrets are in some ways at opposite poles, 
since patents become public knowledge after being granted. However, the 
point of a patent is not to teach other folks how to do something, but 
rather to describe enough about it so that you can act to prevent others 
from doing the same thing, or producing a product which uses the same 
technology. (Patents are "enforced" by the patent holder, not by the 
government.) As well, patents often describe processes which are not 
intended for use, simply to include them in the protection, should they 
prove useful in the future. Finally, even though the patent may disclose 
enough about the process, design (or what-have-you) so that it can be 
protected, key information may well be left out, particularly since not 
all countries have patent laws, and some of those which do have poor 
records of prosecution for patent violators (e.g. China). Leaving out 
key information can therefore provide a combination of patenting and 
trade secret protection.

As such, Stamets patent is not a step-by-step recipe for using this 
technology, etc., etc., but it does appear to have some interesting 
information. I got the actual images of the patent, which offers the 
pictures, as well as the text, and put it all in a PDF. I will send the 
to the first 10 who ask, or post it to the list if there are all that 
many interested.

d.

-- 
David William House
	503-678-5162 (home)
	503-206-1001 (cell)

	"The Complete Biogas Handbook" www.completebiogas.com

	"Make no search for water.   But find thirst,
	And water from the very ground will burst."
	   (Rumi, a Persian mystic poet, quoted in Delight of Hearts, p. 77)




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