Overview

In the early stages of this project, our team completed a rather extensive patent search, attempting to identify any design challenges that we could have encountered. In total, we looked at five possible patents that could relate to our project.

Floating Solar Panel Array with One Axis Tracking System

Floating Solar Panel System

Water Connector

Marine Anchor

Helical Anchor and Piling System

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Analysis

All in all, our team did very well in terms of avoiding patent infringements. For the solar panel array patent listed in our research document, we avoided any issues by only using one solar panel. For the floating panel system patent, we avoided infringement by having a floating buoy support the panel instead of having the panel itself float. For the water connector patent, we avoided this by leaving the attachment and connection of the sensing equipment entirely up to the researcher so that he or she can adapt it to best meet his or her needs. With our current design, we are under the belief that we have satisfied the metric stating that the buoy infringes no patents.