Patents Don’t Come From Brainstorming Sessions
In 2023, Jason Goins Air Force officer received a U.S. patent for a cargo ramp design. That sentence is easy to read and easy to forget. But a patent represents years of work: identifying a specific problem, testing solutions, documenting results, and surviving the scrutiny of the U.S. Patent Office, which rejects more applications than it approves.
The cargo ramp problem was practical. Military cargo operations depend on ramps that work under field conditions — meaning rough terrain, variable weather, and loads that shift during transport. Existing designs had limitations that caused delays and safety concerns during loading and unloading.
A Scientist’s Approach to Hardware
Jason Goins of Washington DC didn’t come to this problem as a mechanical engineer. He came to it as a scientist trained in chemistry at Creighton University with a master’s from the Colorado School of Mines. That background gave him a particular way of thinking about materials, stress loads, and failure modes that differed from conventional engineering approaches.
Sometimes the best solutions come from people who weren’t trained to think inside the existing framework. They ask different questions. They notice constraints that specialists have learned to accept as fixed. The cargo ramp patent came from asking whether a particular limitation was actually necessary or just assumed.
From Concept to Issued Patent
A patent application requires more than a good idea. It requires proof that the idea is novel, useful, and non-obvious. Jason Goins Air Force experience included peer-reviewed research, which built the skills needed to survive that level of documentation and review. Writing for peer review and writing for patent examiners share the same core requirement: precision.
Every claim in the application had to be supported. Every feature had to be distinguished from prior art. The process took time, and the fact that it resulted in an issued patent says something about the rigor behind it.
What a Patent Signals
For Jason Goins Air Force career, the patent sits alongside peer-reviewed publications and an NPR report aired in 2017 as evidence of work that crossed the boundary between operational service and intellectual contribution. Most military officers don’t file patents. Most don’t publish research. Doing both while managing operational commands suggests a career where curiosity ran alongside duty, and where solving problems mattered as much as executing orders.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are the author’s own and do not constitute endorsement by the Department of War, Department of the Air Force, or the U.S. Government.