Safe Pro Group has filed a patent claim with the World Intellectual Property Organization covering 47 jurisdictions for its Safe Pro Object Threat Detection technology platform. The company said Monday that the WIPO filing seeks international expansion on the first patent the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded to SPOTD.
The Aventura, Florida-based drone imagery processing company noted that its approved U.S. patent application, titled “Systems and Methods for Detecting and Identifying Explosives,” incorporates 21 claims valid up to 2043. The claims cover AI-powered drone imagery processing for autonomous explosives detection and labelling that SPOTD generates through Safe Pro’s SpotlightAI market offering. Safe Pro noted that besides national defense and demining operations, the orthomosaic images that SpotlightAI generates can also be used for reconstruction and agriculture.
Anti-Personnel Mine Use Seen Rising
Dan Erdberg, Safe Pro Group chairman and CEO, said the company’s intellectual property strategy on its demining technology is aligned with the continuing battlefield shift to AI and drone capabilities, coupled with the rising use of small, anti-personnel explosives. “Whether it is for soldier safety and force protection or humanitarian demining, innovative IP, such as our Safe Pro Object Threat Detection Technology, will be a critical element in the success of any future operation, representing a tremendous opportunity for us in the months and years ahead,” he said.
According to the company, several NATO countries are now planning to withdraw from the 1997 Landmine Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, raising the prospect of their increased use. Safe Pro’s SPOTD is designed for detecting more than 150 different types of small, anti-personnel landmines, cluster munitions and unexploded ordnance.
In early April, Safe Pro agreed to deploy its Amazon Web Services cloud-based SpotlightAI to detect and clear landmines in Ukraine.