Public Disclosures of the Borehole Battery™ Warrant Strong Legal Protection Against Infringement
Copyright © 2025 Philip C. Cruver
Innovation does not occur in isolation. As new technologies emerge, companies must balance the benefits of public engagement with the need to protect their intellectual property. Geo2Watts has intentionally pursued both objectives by publicly discussing the Borehole Battery™ Platform (BBP) while simultaneously building a comprehensive intellectual property strategy.
To support that strategy, Geo2Watts has filed numerous U.S. provisional patent applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) covering multiple aspects of the BBP, including well conversion methods, thermal energy storage architectures, power conversion systems, controls, and system integration. These filings establish early priority dates while the company continues engineering development, testing, and preparation of future non-provisional patent applications. By establishing an early priority date, these filings help preserve Geo2Watts' place in the patent timeline, provided subsequent non-provisional applications satisfy the statutory requirements for claiming priority.
Geo2Watts public disclosures, including technical articles, engineering illustrations, conference presentations, interviews, videos, and industry discussions, also create a well-documented chronology of the platform's evolution. The combination of timely patent filings and extensive public technical disclosures helps establish both an early priority position for Geo2Watts' own inventions and a public prior-art record limiting the ability of others to obtain patent protection covering the same or obvious variations of the disclosed technology.
Equally important, Geo2Watts has consistently used the Borehole Battery™ name as a source identifier for its technology. Continuous commercial use of this trademark helps strengthen common-law trademark rights, which protect the brand and reputation associated with the technology independently of any patent rights.
If issued patents are later infringed, evidence that an accused party had prior knowledge of Geo2Watts' published work may become relevant in evaluating issues such as intentional copying or, depending on the specific facts, allegations of willful infringement. However, under the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. (2016), enhanced damages require more than mere awareness of another company's technology; courts examine whether the conduct was deliberate and sufficiently egregious to justify such relief.
Likewise, if litigation becomes necessary, available remedies may include monetary damages and, in appropriate circumstances, injunctive relief. As recognized by the Supreme Court in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. (2006), injunctions are not automatic but remain available when the applicable equitable factors support that remedy.
Geo2Watts' intellectual property strategy also reflects longstanding principles recognized by the Supreme Court in Kewanee Oil Co. v. Bicron Corp. (1974), which affirmed that innovators may protect technology through complementary forms of intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets—rather than relying on any single form of protection. At the same time, Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc. (1989) reaffirmed the importance of the federal patent system in promoting innovation by balancing public disclosure with exclusive rights for qualifying inventions.
The BBP represents years of engineering, research, and commercialization efforts. Geo2Watts believes that transparent technical engagement benefits the energy industry by encouraging discussion of long-duration energy storage, while its growing portfolio of provisional patent applications and trademark rights protects the company's investment in developing the technology.
As the BBP advances from engineering development through pilot demonstrations and commercial deployment, Geo2Watts intends to continue expanding its intellectual property portfolio while collaborating with strategic partners to bring this technology to market. Public engagement and intellectual property protection are not competing objectives, they are complementary elements of a responsible innovation strategy.
