T-H Marine Supplies, LLC has secured a major milestone in the maritime and boating industry, winning Swanson Reed’s Patent of the Month for February 2026 for an outstanding invention. This innovation focuses on their new structural design, titled ‘Jack plate assembly’. A jack plate assembly is disclosed herein. The jack plate assembly includes a unitary main frame piece. The unitary main frame includes two wings and a transom segment between the two wings for attaching to the transom of a boat. The two wings each include a channel for inserting a slider rod which is attached to each vertical side of a motor plate configured for attaching a motor. The motor plate can include two stop blocks and the two wings can each include a stop on the inside such that the stop blocks are positioned above the stops to prevent the motor plate from disengaging from the unitary main frame in a downward direction when the stop blocks contact the stops.

Meeting the U.S. R&D Tax Credit Rules

To qualify for the U.S. Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit, the development of this jack plate assembly must pass the IRS Four-Part Test. Here is how the engineering behind this invention aligns with those criteria:

• Permitted Purpose: The objective of the research was to create a new or improved business component. T-H Marine Supplies designed a jack plate that improves the reliability, performance, and safety of outboard motor attachments, specifically engineering a solution that prevents the motor plate from disengaging downward.
• Elimination of Uncertainty: At the onset of the project, designers faced technical unknowns regarding the ideal structural geometries, the friction tolerances needed for the slider rod channels, and the exact load-bearing limits of the internal stop blocks when subjected to extreme marine forces.
• Process of Experimentation: The design process required evaluating alternative frame structures, conducting digital stress simulations (CAD/FEA), building physical prototypes, and systematically subjecting the unitary main frame to trial-and-error load testing to find the optimal configuration.
• Technological in Nature: The R&D relied heavily on the hard sciences—specifically mechanical engineering, material science, and physics—to resolve structural challenges and achieve the final working mechanism.

3 Practical Applications That Could Qualify for Further R&D Credits

Taking this patented design and applying it to specific, complex use cases could generate additional R&D tax credit eligibility. Here are three practical applications:

1. Integration with Automated Hydraulic and Electronic Lift Systems: Developing customized hydraulic actuators and marine-grade electronic software to dynamically interact with the patented slider rods. Engineering a system that can smoothly adjust the motor’s vertical height under heavy throttle introduces new mechanical and computer science uncertainties that must be resolved through systematic testing.
2. Scaling for Heavy-Duty Commercial Fishing Vessels: Modifying the unitary main frame dimensions and experimenting with advanced metallurgy (such as custom marine-grade alloys) to support massive, high-horsepower commercial engines. Attempting to maintain the structural integrity of the stop blocks under significantly heavier loads would require a new phase of destructive testing and material experimentation.
3. Engineering Lightweight Composites for Competitive Racing: Attempting to manufacture the patented assembly out of advanced, lightweight materials like carbon fiber to reduce overall transom weight on high-performance racing boats. Proving that composite materials can sustain the exact same shock loads and shear forces on the internal stops without cracking requires extensive trial and error grounded in physical science.