12 tional Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent application, or a patent application filed directly in a foreign country. A regular U.S. patent application is assigned to a USPTO patent examiner who specializes in the particular technology (art) area. The examiner considers the scope or breadth of the claims against prior patents and publications and issues an office action accepting or rejecting some or all of the claims. More often than not, the application is rejected because certain formalities need to be cleared up, or the claims are not patentable over the prior art. In the case of claim rejections, the patent attorney, with the assistance of the inventor, will begin a patent prosecution (negotiation). The written response to rebut the examiner’s arguments or respond with modifications (amendments) to the claims must be filed, usually within three to six months. Two to three iterations are typically required to obtain allowance of the patent application. During the prosecution process, input from the inventor and CMs is often needed to confirm the patent attorney’s understanding of the technical aspects of the inven- tion, the prior art cited against the application and/or which claims are important to pursue. The USPTO holds the patent applications confidential until published (18 months from the first filed patent application). The time between the initial filing of the application and the issuance of the patent is the patent pending period (usually 2-4 years). Once the USPTO agrees to issue a patent, they issue a notice that the application is allowable. Patents granted by the USPTO are only enforceable within the United States; separate applications must be submitted in all other countries to gain international protection. Dan Ginosar 2008 Highlights of commercial developments: Dan’s research has focused on developing catalysts and catalytic processes to produce low carbon-foot- print fuels. Recent projects have focused on solid acid alkylation coupled with supercritical fluid catalyst regeneration, hydrogenation of carbon oxides to produce liquid fuels, catalysts for thermochemical water splitting cycles to produce hydrogen, and the conversion of waste vegetable oils and fats using a solid catalyst/supercritical fluid process to produce biodiesel. Dan has managed more than $15 million in funding, with partners in biofuels, oil, and pharmaceutical companies as well as technology developers. His numerous honors include an R&D 100 award for technology that led to the commercialization of his team’s Supercritical Solid Catalyst biodiesel technology. He has authored more than 35 publications, six book chapters, 30 U.S. and international patents, and has given numerous technical presentations.