Receiving a patent for the Advanced Trailer was the culmination of a long journey. How does the patent process work?

http://www.patentit4u.com/How%20the%20patent%20process%20works.htm

Essentially, once an inventor comes up with an idea, he or she can then take the idea to the US Patent Office and try and get protection for his or her design:

“Each patent application includes a specification, any necessary drawings, an oath or declaration, and U.S. Government filing fees. Each patent application is afforded a date of filing that is the date on which the specification, drawings and at least one claim is received in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (U.S. PTO). The filing date is important for establishing a date of invention with the U.S. PTO.”

The basic policy is to encourage innovators to come up with new ideas. And the way to encourage them is to preserve their investment and their idea with legal protection.

I’m honored that the Advanced Trailer now has a patent. We’ll talk more about what that means in the next couple of days.

Last week we ended by announcing that we received a U.S. patent for our Advanced Trailer. This week we’re going to explain why that’s so important and what it means.

We’ll talk about the patent process, why we received a patent and how this could potentially change the landscape of the biomass industry.

So be sure and check us out each day this week on our blog!

Advanced Trailer Awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,779,556

For Revolutionary Semi Trailer that Dries Agricultural Products

ABILENE, TEXAS—The US Patent and Trademark Office Tuesday granted a patent for the Advanced Trailer, a product of APT Advanced Trailer & Equipment LP in Abilene, Texas. The Advanced Trailer is the only semi-trailer that has a unique drying system that can dry, store and transport peanuts and other agricultural products. This patent confirms their exclusive status as the nation’s leader in agricultural crop drying.

“This patent comes at a great time of opportunity for Advanced Trailer, our intellectual property and the industries we serve,” said Randy Hill, President & CEO of APT Advanced Trailer & Equipment LP. “This will enable Advanced Trailer to further our presence in the peanut industry and agricultural crop drying. Advanced Trailer is now prepared to aggressively move forward as we expand and diversify into the renewable and bio-energy markets.”

In addition, Hill announced that his company has entered into a new financial agreement with Regions Bank in Atlanta, Georgia.

“We are proud to provide financing for Advanced Trailer because we believe this product can revolutionize America,” said Billy Cannon of Regions Bank.  “We are investing heavily in the agricultural economy and we believe that Randy will now be able to take his Advanced Trailer and transform the biomass market as well.”

APT Advanced Trailer and Equipment LP is best known for its trailers which are used to procure (dry) agricultural products. Advanced Trailer has more than 3000 drying trailers currently in service in all 10 U.S. peanut producing states across America. Recently Advanced Trailer has gained national recognition for their ongoing bio-energy research which uses their trailers to remove moisture from wood biomass products. Over the past two years Advanced Trailer has funded a number of both State University and private sector research for biomass related projects. Currently over 100 power plants in the U.S. burn biomass to create energy.  For more information about Advanced Trailer please visit www.advancedtrailer.com

Today we continue our series on education in Texas. And we do so by taking up one of the most controversial issues around: textbook curriculum.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37271857/ns/us_news-life/

As this article notes, the Texas Board of Education recently adopted new standards that have sparked controversy. But in reviewing these changes, I’m not sure I understand what all the controversy is about:

“In one of the most significant changes leading up to the vote, the board attempted to water down the rationale for the separation of church and state in a high school government class, pointing out that the words were not in the Constitution and requiring that students compare and contrast the judicial language with the wording in the First Amendment.”

Controversy? It makes sense to me that kids would be asked to compare what the Constitution says (”free expression of religion”) and the words that were later incorporated in a 20th century court case (”separation of church and state”). Then kids can judge for themselves whether the founders were trying to create freedom of religion or freedom from religion.

This week kids around Texas are getting ready to head back to school. So what better topic to cover in our blog than education.

What is the state of education in Texas? What are the challenges that will soon be facing our schools? What can we do better? These are some of the questions we’ll be discussing and trying to answer.

So check in each day this week as we go back to school on our blog!

As we continue our series on renewable energy, we focus on national security:

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2009895,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0wSBStNfY

As this article from Time points out, America needs to start getting off of foreign oil sooner rather than later:

“Moreover, lower U.S. consumption could reduce the international price of oil, which would decrease the funds flowing to the governments that depend heavily on oil revenue to finance policies unfriendly to the U.S. Foremost among those governments is Iran’s, which would have less money with which to build nuclear weapons and to support the terrorist organizations it sponsors. Another is Saudi Arabia’s, which uses its oil wealth to propagate an extreme form of Islamic fundamentalism known as Wahhabism, which has inspired many Middle Eastern terrorists, including those who attacked New York and Washington on 9/11. That means that by consuming so much oil, the U.S. is in effect fighting a war against terrorism while funding both sides.”

So renewable energy not only is good economic policy, it’s great national security policy.

Today we continue our series on renewable energy. Unfortunately, there is some bad news to report:

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/08/11/renewable-energy-backers-wince-as-congress-raids-doe-coffers/

President Obama and Congressional Democrats just passed into law new spending for teachers and government employees. And from where did the extra money come?

“The $26 billion bill President Barack Obama signed Tuesday may spell relief for teachers’ unions and other public-sector employees, but it’s the latest blow for renewable energy backers. To help pay for the aid bill, lawmakers cut $1.5 billion from the Department of Energy’s renewable energy loan guarantee program. It’s the second time in roughly a year that Congress has raided the program to fund other priorities. Last summer, lawmakers cut $2 billion from the DOE’s renewable energy loan account to extend the highly popular Cash for Clunkers program. Congress has not repaid the agency that $2 billion, despite frequent promises by its leaders to do so. Taken together, the cuts have whittled the program’s budget down to $2.5 billion, less than half the $6 billion Congress appropriated in early 2009.”

Not only is this money being wasted on salaries for civil servants, but it’s taking money out of vital renewable energy programs. We need to be spending less money on government bureaucrats and more money on renewable energy projects that will help us build the future.

Last week we ended our series on the challenges facing Texas by discussing renewable energy.  This week we’ll begin a new series by focusing exclusively on this vital issue facing our state and our nation.

With America importing more and more of its oil from overseas, it’s long past time to expand our renewable energy programs here domestically.  And the good news is we are already starting to do it.  This week, I’ll be discussing renewable energy and some important new developments that my company is involved in.

So check us out this week!

The next major challenge facing our state is how to continue growing and diversifying our economy.

Over the years, Texas’ economy has changed many times. In the 1800s, we saw a largely agricultural economy. Then in the 1900s we saw an oil economy. In the 1990s we saw the growth of a high-tech economy. What will Texas’ economy be in the 21st century.

I believe it will be a combination of all of the above. Texas will again be a leader in energy as it was in the 1900s. But rather than oil, we’ll become a leader in renewable energy. And how will we do it? By combining technology with agriculture. For example, rather than just having cattle on a farm, we are seeing more ranch owners put up wind mills that help generate energy for people in other parts of the state. I believe we’ll continue to see more of that.

And I’m personally interested in using my Advanced Trailer to produce biomass energy, perhaps by drying wood chips from Texas Mesquite trees.

But to make Texas the leader in renewable energy, we’ll need a Governor who understands these issues and can create a positive business climate. And that’s yet another reason why I believe we need Rick Perry back in office again.

Today we continue our series on the challenges facing Texas. And we focus on a topic that’s very much in the news: immigration.

http://www.dallasfed.org/research/pubs/fotexas/fotexas_petersen.html

As this report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows, the face of Texas is changing:

“This increase in immigration has brought rapid change in the state’s ethnic composition. Because of Texas’ proximity to Mexico, many of the state’s immigrants are of Hispanic origin. Hispanics are by far the fastest growing segment of the population. During the 1990s, Texas’ Hispanic population grew at a pace of 54 percent, adding more than 2.3 million people. As a result, Hispanics now make up 35 percent of the state’s population, compared with roughly 14 percent at the national level.[4] Among states, Texas has the country’s second- highest Hispanic population, behind only California.”

What does this mean for our state’s future? There is one thing it means that is almost unmentioned in today’s national debate about immigration: we need to get serious about assimilation. It used to be we welcomed immigrants and then helped them learn the customs and heritage of America. I wonder if we’re still doing that. I think legal immigration is a good thing. But I think legal immigrants should become immersed in Americana as soon as possible. Let’s stress American history, Western values and yes, the English language. And let’s make Texas one state, indivisible.

The last two weeks we looked at the candidates running for governor. This week, we’ll at the issues facing our state.

These are challenging times in Texas. We face challenges in education, health care and, of course, the economy. How we respond to each of these challenges in the next few years will determine what kind of state we will be in the coming years.

This week, we’ll look at the issues that confront our state and the choices that confront our leaders.