Due to its inventive level, its application in a technical problem and the innovation of the product, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO, granted the patent of invention to the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Cali, Colombia, for the product called ‘Ceramic Biocomposite for bone regeneration’.

This is the first international patent that is granted to the University, which initiated the process of requesting the patent before the USPTO in 2013 and finished on July 17, 2015. The product is a solution to the loss of bone tissue caused by fractures, diseases and other traumas. It was developed by Professor Sandra Arce, Professor in the Engineering faculty of the Universidad Autonoma de Occidente – UAO – in team with MD. Carlos Valencia.

The biocomposite was developed under international standards, that is to say, within all the procedures needed to test a material: tests in vitro with cells, then in animals – rabbits and rats – and finally, its application in human beings.

Since the patents have a territorial character, the University proceeded with the request in the United States, due to the country’s big and attractive market. There, the product can be used in a great number of surgeries and in treatments of fractures and other traumas.

Once the patent is granted, a code or identification is assigned in the USA which is completely independent to the one existing in Colombia and is valid for 20 years. The code for this particular case is US9,066,969 B2.

This international process to patent the Biocomposite lasted approximately two years, and was managed by the Direction of Researches and Technological Developments of the UAO.

«Among the benefits the obtention of the patent brings, is that  facilitates the protection of the acquired knowledge. In addition, it ensures that companies of the health sector or any other that obtains it, will be certain that they have in their hands a piece of knowledge that other companies do not have, and will be able to produce and market the biocomposite» affirmed Alexander García Dávalos, chief of the Direction of Researches and Technological Developments.

The Universidad Autonoma de Occidente owns four patents granted by the Superintendence of Industry and Trade in Colombia. Two of them are in process in Ecuador and Brazil. In addition, there is a request in process in order to obtain a patent for the biocomposite in China.