USPTO is disrespecting scientific common knowledge in Soil Physics and Hydrogeology regarding fluid moving on porosity as portrayed by the following long standing historical profile:
1856 – Saturated Hydraulic Flow;
Henry Darcy in France introduced the first conceptions of fluid moving on porosity when he was studying water flow dynamics on sandy filters. He proposed a famous Darcy's Law equation for Saturated Hydraulic Flow: ' the velocity of flow is proportional to the hydraulic gradient'.
1907 – Unsaturated Hydraulic Flow:
Near a century ago in order to describe water flow through unsaturated soil which is above the water table Edgard Buckingham proposed a modification of Darcy's Law in 1907 trying to describe mathematically fluid flowing on porosity.
1958 - Evaporation from a Water Table:
An upward flow from a water table to a bare soil surface was studied by Gardner and Fireman.
2004 – Unsaturated/Saturated Hydraulic Flow: US Pat. 6,766,817 p.1 line 65 : '
A fluid that possesses a positive pressure can be generally defined in the field of hydrology as saturated fluid. Likewise, a fluid that has a negative pressure (i.e., or suction) can be generally defined as an unsaturated fluid. Fluid matric potential can be negative or positive. For example, water standing freely at an open lake, can be said to stand under a gravity pull. The top surface of the liquid of such water accounts for zero pressure known as the water table or hydraulic head. Below the water table, the water matric potential (pressure) is generally positive because the weight of the water increases according to parameters of force per unit of area. When water rises through a capillary tube or any other porosity, the water matric potential (e.g., conventionally negative pressure or suction) is negative because the solid phase attracts the water upward relieving part of its gravitational pull to the bearing weight. The suction power comes from the amount of attraction in the solid phase per unit of volume in the porosity'.
Darcy, H. 1856. Les Fontaines Publiques de la Ville de Dijon. Dulmont, Paris.
Buckingham, E. 1907. Studies of the movement of soil moisture. Bulletin 38. U.S. Department of Agriculture Bureau of Soils, Washington, DC.
Gardner, W.R. 1958. Some steady state solutions of the unsaturated moisture flow equation with application to evaporation from a water table. Soil Sci. 85:229-232.
Gardner, W.R. and M. Fireman, 1958. Laboratory studies of evaporation from soil columns in the presence of water table. Soil Sci. 85:244249.
Technological and Scientific Evolution by Quick Internet Access
Recently information technology by Internet has changed so abruptly regarding accessibility allowing information from any patent to be gathered instantly online. With a few strokes on the keyboard all patents can be screened thoroughly for trends of IP violations of technical boundaries trespassing since their functioning has to be expressed by strong core words unavoidable in the advanced technical writing. This new tool for technological survey ends up difficult for canny experts to circumvent IP limits by exploiting shallow technical expressions as well as employing borderline etymology.
There is a strong continuing IP violation trend hurting basic principles of Hydrology easy of checking online portraying dynamic features (# 29/11/06):
- Unsaturated Hydraulic Flow ....................................... 3
- Unsaturated Hydraulic Conductivity.........................17
- Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity ........................... 24
- Hydraulic Conductivity ............................................. 404
- Capillary pumping ......................................................214
- Capillary/capillarity/wick/wicking ................... 93,314
- Heat/Thermal Conductivity ................................61,033
- Wick/wicking .........................................................21,784
- Heat Pipe/Wick ........................................................1,169
Hydrology has been deeply neglected on patenting affairs since 93,314 issued patents on porosities but only 9 of them measure Unsaturated Hydraulic Flow which three of them are Tubarc patents: 6,766,817, 6,918,404, and 7,066,586
It can be observed above that the conduction of heat is mentioned in 61,033 issued patents while the conduction of fluid is mentioned only in 404 issued patents while Unsaturated Hydraulic Flow only 17.
In the process of quantification analytically it is easier to measure fluid conduction than heat conduction since it involves mass flow transport requiring less complex techniques. Then, in a long range this trend on patenting can change more favorably toward hydrology as Hydrogeologists and Soil Scientists figure out that applied hydrology of fluids moving on porosity has a huge potential for high technology regarding fluidic devices to many industries.
CONSEQUENCES OF A PERSISTENT SCIENTIFIC VIOLATION
With time fast communication technology should help to reduce such problems associated to human knowledge that deals with expanding boundaries of high technology and science. It is reasonable to assume that a fast and accessible communication is a strong allied to bring science and technology within sound functioning since cross checking become common place.
POSSIBLE CAUSES FOR THIS DISTORTING TREND IN HYDROLOGY
1. Most of hydrological studies done by Hydrologists have been carried out only with natural porosities running in the environment.2. Applied Hydrology working with artificial porosities have been carried out mainly by professionals outside Hydrological sciences.
3. Patenting affairs involving applied hydrology to fluids moving on porosity are handled by Patent Attorneys, Patent Examiners, and Inventors that are not involved with Hydrological Sciences like Hydrogeology or Soil Physics.
4. The patenting systems is allowing some subtle circumvention by employing superficial technological expressions or borderline etymology not used in common texts books or scientific literature.
5. The patenting business is seen as a strong industry that pushes toward distortion in order to protect the market sometimes trespassing boundaries of science and the Law.
6. Isolation of many sciences and poor communication having some difficulties to work more interrelated to other fields of science.
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