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A personal pot-pourri of news and views from North America...

 

August 2014

Who Loves FREEbies?

 

 

 

 

Editors Note: Compare and contrast Dragons' Den on BBC2!

Patent Buddy

You can identify inventor theft with Patent Buddy database www.PatentBuddy.com

The downside is that as the number of FREE sites increases, the scam artists increase proportionately. So Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware or in street vernacular, “You do it to me once shame on you"; but if "You do it to me twice, shame on me”

As counter weight there are rich and famous inventors whose motto is ‘More expensive the Better’.  As for example a law firm can lease an attorney billing report for a little over 12,000 dollars, but as an individual I get a special price for a pittance of U.S. $ 2495.00.  I cannot relate to it just as they cannot understand why all prospects aren't beating a path to their door.

Breaking News - Honorarium Free Speaker

UIA (United Inventors Association) – under new leadership - has just recruited John Calvert (with USPTO for nearly quarter century) as its Executive Director who has the potential of leveling the playing field, and smoothing inventor relations, because John was senior advisor for the Inventor Assistance Program, which included inventor outreach initiatives for students, inventors (micro and small)  and small businesses. Since UIA is non-profit and international in scope, this implies that you can invite him to speak at your club without honorarium as long as you cover his out of pocket expenses - I hope.  UIA can trace its history to NCIO – National Congress of Inventor Organizations, a wildly popular success initiative of now Retired George Lewett of NIST – National Institute of Science & Technology (Aka the standards organization).

John Calvert

Penn Museum of Archeology & Anthropology

At the Pennsylvania University in Philadelphia, they have rediscovered a complete 6500 year old human skeleton, among their own archives, which could shed new light into human history in Mesopotamia. This find proves that best archeological discoveries and inventions are not made in the field but in your own bedroom so to speak.

Self-Destructive Inventing

One of the organizations I belong to is “Natural Philosophy Alliance – NPA” Natural Philosophy is the name inventors like Sir Isaac Newton, Copernicus, Kepler Galileo (and many more in that era) used when they were doing physics and inventing half a millennia ago. NPA is undergoing metamorphosis from what to what, we will know only in hindsight. Marred in threat of legal battles, one member admonished another,“Stop Making Things Up” which of course is the definition of ‘Hypothesis’ in the scientific method  practiced by the main stream successfully even to this day, without any regrets or excuses. Moral to the story is that you can be too creative for your own good.

The BIG Bang

The main stream astronomers after vacillating between 40 and 10 Ga finally settled on 13.7 billion years, but lately they are again inching upwards to 13.8 Ga. However I maintain the exact time of the BIG BANG is/was   13,717,421,0015 as of January 1, 2014.Believe it or Not, at your own peril, Oh Ye of little faith. Your mission impossible is to figure out - what was before the Big Bang?  what banged?, who banged it? and why? If you figure it out, be so kind to share I will be much obliged.

Coming Up...

USPTO’s 16th annual conference for inventors Aug. 14-16, 2014. Better Hurry To register http://www.uspto.gov/inventors/events/Alexandria_Main.jsp

British Science Festival, Birmingham, Sept. 6-11. www.BritishScienceFestival.org

To find an industry trade show related to your invention, point your mouse to TSNN – Trade Shows News Network. www.TSNN.com or www.InventorTradeShows.com

Innovation-TRIZ (Pronounced TREES) also has conference in Prague Sept 4-6, 10th TRIZ symposium, Waseda University, Tokyo, Sept. 11-12. For more information on these and other Altshuller Institute conferences worldwide, please explore www.AITriz.org

I'll have to wait for longtime favorite shows like INPEX in Pittsburg, next due June 2015 (I'll keep you posted) www.INPEX.com  and IENA, in Nuremberg Germany www.IENA.de

 October 30th.  Internet of Things World Forum Lond. Nov 25-26 www.iotinternetofthingsconference.com

Salon in Geneva, Switzerland www.Inventions-Geneva.CH is held at Palexpo.

Stay tuned for their 2015 dates for these, and the rest of my favorites, frequently visited and/or fun to exhibit at. In the meantime mark the dates for World Expo 2015 for six months from May 1 – Oct. 31, Milan Italy. www.Expo2015.org

Mats Lewan

Jean-Pierre Houdin

Magazines

Inventors Digest under new management is still going strong - www.inventorsdigest.com

 

USPTO also has an e-newsletter ‘InventorsEye’ for independent inventors http://enews.uspto.gov/

Amazing Amazon’s Amazing Patent

 

Amazon received a Christmas Present from the USPTO US 8,615,473 B2 on Christmas Eve 2013.  Patent “Method and System for Anticipatory Package Shipping” which allows or would soon allow Amazon to ship merchandize before the order is placed. Of course today it could not be issued because of Alice Corp. unanimous decision. Except for Jeff Bezos, most people put this patent in same category as the “One Click” patent. Eat your heart out Jeff Bezos.

Clever These Inventors! & Their Controversial Publications

Jean Pierre Houdin of France has figured out ’how the Egyptian Pyramids at Giza (during the reign of Khufu) not far from Cairo and Suez Canal were built’ with clever combination of lower external and higher internal ramps. It is the only wonder of the seven that is still standing. Unfortunately he has not been able to resolve the controversy about the age of these pyramids at Khufu. For more information invest in a copy of his book ISBN978-977-17-3061-3 Farid Atiya Press 2006 or ISBN 978-0-06-16552-4 Collins 2008 or more easily use key words at Amazon.

Impossible Invention is the new book by Mats  Lewan - a Swedish Science and Technology  Journalist - dedicated to Fleischman/Pons because it deals with true story of an energy source E-Cat invented by Andrea  Rossi.  Method and Apparatus for Carrying out Nickel and Hydrogen Exothermal Reaction published on Jan 13, 2011 as US2011/0005506 aka E-Cat

that could change the world. It even includes an attention grabbing appendix, How to Become a Nuclear Physicist in half an hour.  Still not sure?  Read an interview with the author in the current July/Aug edition of Infinite Energy pages 12-14 and you will be convinced. This is another issue devoted primarily to cold fusion. www.Infinite-Energy.com

TED Talks of Special Interest to Inventors www.Ted.com  (i) Woody Norris -  Hypersonic Sound;

(ii) Keith Schacht & Zach Kaplan - Toys and Materials from the Future; (iii) Paul Moller – My Dream of a Flying Car; and (iv) Saul Griffith – High Altitude Wind Energy from Kites. 

Billion Dollar Jury Awards for Intellectual Property

Now that the invisible glass ceiling has been breached in design and copyright cases, they are no longer considered ‘relatively worthless’ when compared to utility patents, where such awards were expected.  But don’t expect the flood gates to open just yet, as these verdicts will be cut to size in appeals.

Gentler Gender & Smarter Sex

Mirror! Mirror! on the wall who is smartest of them all? If homos are smarter, more creative and successful than heteros throughout history on both sides of ‘the Pond’, it may well  be because of better equilibrium between their sex and gender orientation, (a bit like people who are ambidextrous or multi-taskers because of better equilibrium between left and right brains). You decide as you review the list of exceptionally successful people not in any particular order (i) Jethrow, the father-in-law of Moses (ii) King James I (iii) Socrates, (iv) Plato (v) Aristotle, (vi) Alexander the Great, (vii) Boy George, (viii) Elton John, (ix) Billy Jean King, (x) Leonardo da Vinci, (xi) Madonna, (xii) Harvey Milk, (xiii) Martina Navratilova, (xiv) Dan Savage, (xv) Pussy Tourette, (xvi) Alan Turing and, of course, this list is virtually endless...

Switzerland & Your PAL

In case you did not notice Salon in Geneva is held in April every year at venue named after me palexpo, but I don’t brag about it, nor let it get to my head, but I can’t help but notice that WIPO – World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva Switzerland – has dedicated my birthday as the WIPO Day.  At any rate I thank them with an attitude of gratitude for the compliment even if it is unintentional. I also like to think I am everybody’s PAL but especially yours.

Partial Poetic Justice?

The U.S. Supreme Court in Alice Corporation Private Ltd v/s CLS Bank International et al (Alice Corp), unanimously decided, claims to a computerized scheme for mitigating settlement risk constitute none-statutory subject matter as “Abstract Idea” {Notwithstanding all ideas are abstract, until reduced to an embodiment (actual or constructive)} which of course hurts all inventors large, small and micro-entities equally.  A side bar consequence of it is that USPTO implemented procedures to conform to this decision by withholding or withdrawing all cases in which (i) Notice of Allowance had not yet been mailed, (ii) Cancelled the Notice(s) of Allowance, which had been mailed; and (iii) even the NOA’s, in which the inventors had paid the issue fee.

The consolation prize is that they are entitled to refund of the issue fee. The U.S. Supreme Court may even accept Certiorari in ACA case in due course. (Just don’t call it ObamaCare in deference to the President)

Any HARM in HARMonization?

 

AIA (America Invents Act) also like ACA (Affordable Care Act) on western side of the Pond is controversial. We still think globally and act locally, the old fashioned way before the advent of modern times, technology and the invention of supersonic transportation. AIA was enacted in 2011. A thorny issue among small businesses and micro-entity independent inventors is the ‘First to File System’. To appease them USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) modified it to “First Inventor To File (FITF)” system based on some technical justification of availability of some residual Interference Proceedings. While this may hastily suggest to some on the eastern side of the Pond, that European system is “First Thief to File System” which of course would not be fair as unintentional byproduct of the AIA legislation. So you decide whether there is  Any HARM in HARMonization?

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Jean-Pierre Houdin

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