A group of Detroit-area middle schoolers that Harness IP helped to secure a patent has been featured in the July/August edition of DBusiness.

The GEKOT Robotics team, also known as the East Hills Middle School Great Engineering Kids of Tomorrow, was awarded a patent for its Collision Alert Technology for Scooters (CATS). Harness IP Principal, Mike Doerr helped guide the students through the full patent application process.

“Each year the robotics project has a theme, and the year we worked on this one the theme was City Shapers,” explains Mihir Shah, an eighth grader at East Hills. “That’s where the whole e-scooter idea came from. We brainstormed ideas to make cities better and e-scooters are used a lot in Detroit.”

Doerr worked with team leader Dan Champoux to help bring the students’ idea to fruition. The team prepared an initial provisional patent application in 2019 and the more formal version, a nonprovisional patent application, was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in November 2020. The official patent notification was received this spring. 

DBusiness is a leading business journal covering Detroit Metro. The digital edition can be found here. The students are featured in the table of contents and in an article beginning on page 28.

Learn more about CATS and the GEKOT Robotics Team on its website.

 

 

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Harness IP is celebrating more than 100 years as an intellectual property law firm. Founded in 1921, the firm currently holds a No. 2 ranking from IAM Media for providing counsel to 44 companies with the largest portfolios of issued U.S. patents. The firm also ranks No. 6 for filing the most patent applications on behalf of those companies. Harness IP’s attorneys and IP professionals focus exclusively on patents, trademarks, global IP management, litigation and other IP rights. The firm has offices in metropolitan Dallas, Detroit, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. Visit www.harnessip.com for more information.