Submitting your invention to Dial Corp.

Did you know that Dial Corp. (the soap and cleaning products manufacturer) has a web-site devoted to “how to submit your patented/patent pending idea to Dial Corp.“?

Q: What is the process for submitting a patented or patent pending product idea? 

A:  In order to review all of the product ideas that we receive each year, we have developed a formal process that we follow in reviewing product ideas. This web site is the only method for submitting Patented or Patent Pending Product Ideas to The Dial Corporation.

Step 1: Protect Your Product Idea - make sure you have properly protected your product idea 
Step 2: Submit Your Patented/Patent Pending Product Idea - review the submission terms and conditions and agree and accept the terms. Submit your product idea via the Web site. 
Step 3: Review and Evaluation -every submission will be reviewed and evaluated to determine if there is a good business fit between the inventor and The Dial Corporation 
Step 4: Next Steps - If there is a potential business fit, the Dial Corporation will contact you to discuss next steps.  

I wish more companies were willing to work with independent inventors like this.  Most have a “if it is not invented here, we are not interested in it” mentality.  If anyone knows of any other sites like this…let me know and I’ll generate a post.

Caution:  Always have your patent attorney review the “term and conditions” for you.  Remember, they were written by the manufacturer’s attorney and are more likely to be in their favor than in yours or neutral.

[via IPBiz blog post on “increased competitiveness adversely affecting inventors.”]

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If you like JibJab…

Flowgo with an animated political cartoon sure to offend both parties…

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Germans and gas

PatentPending Blog:  Germans didn’t have gas during WWII

Annova:  Germans invent pork, sauerkraut and beer diet

Coincidence?

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About.com with interesting article series for inventors

Lessons on Turning a New Invention Idea Into Money

• Lesson 1: Understanding Intellectual Property
• Lesson 2: What can I Patent?
• Lesson 3: How Do I Know if my Idea is Patentable? 
• Lesson 4: Conducting a Search for Prior Art
• Lesson 5: To Patent or Not to Patent
• Lesson 6: How to File for a Patent
• Lesson 7: Proving this Idea is Mine
• Lesson 8: How Do I Make Money from my New Invention? 
• Lesson 9: How Do I License my New Invention? 
• Lesson 10: How Do I Create a Business Plan? 
• Lesson 11: How Do I Raise Money? 
• Resources for New Invention Makers

[via Small Business Brief blog]

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Blawger Bowl Update

One of the things us Blawger Bowlers do every week (for our own entertainment) is take turns writing a weekly wrap up.  This week, it is my turn.

Game #1.  Invent Blog v. Patently Obvious – Battle of League Giants.  Coming off a week 6 win where the PO team raked in a whopping 148 points (winning by 71 points), PO coach Dennis Crouch decided to reward his starters by giving them the week off practice.  Sadly, his starters forgot to report for duty on Sunday, scoring a dismal (for PO) 77 points.   His bench players really shined, but alas he left them on the bench.  If PO had fielded his top scorers…he would have won, leading to demands by Crouch to change the current scoring system and to repeal the electoral college (while he is at it).  Defense wins Championships and The Invent Blog’s defense’s 27 points put TIB over the top, continuing TIB’s undefeated streak.  Invent Blog 88 | Patently Obvious 77

Game #2.   TechLawAdvisor v. Bizz Bang Buzz.  Better report him to the BBB, Heller’s team (TLA) finally puts it all together, whipping up on Bizz Bang Buzz.  It seems that BBB’s Anthony Cerminaro spent a little too much time blogging this week (he ONLY has FIVE blogs:  Bio Lex Tech, Nano Lex Tech, Robo Lex Tech, Deal Attorney, and Bizz Bang Buzz).  Rumor has it he was working on his sixth blog, Fantasy Football Law Blog and didn’t have time to prepare his team appropriately.  BBB gets to try to break TIB’s streak next week.  TechLawAdvisor 125 | Bizz Bang Buzz 89

Game #3.  Promote the Progress v. Actual Malice.  Sporting two players with zeros and a defense that raked in –2 points, Promote the Progress
had a rough week, perhaps ending his trip from worst to first (he lost his first three games, and then won his next three).  Facing PO next week…he may be on track to keep this 3 lose, 3 win, 3 lose pattern going.  Actual Malice cranks out their best performance since week 2 (when they were 2-0).  PromoteTheProgress 68 | actualmalice 87

Game #4.  ErnieAttorney v. Bye Week.  Marman decided to rename his team Bye Week with the hopes that his opponents may take the week off
too.  The only problem is…Ernie didn’t fall for it.  Unlike a rolling stone, Bye Week played a couple Mosses and generally sat like a bump on a log as Ernie’s team steamrolled him.  ErnieAttorney 76 | Bye Week 53 

Game #5.  UnbillableHours vs The Importance Of.  In a match-up sounding like a CLE put on by your local legal aid clinic (the importance of unbillable hours) the two teams who managed to tie Bizz Bang Buzz faced one another.  Luckily, led by Donovan McNabb’s 39 points, Unbillable sealed the win, denying The Importance Of his chance for another tie.  UnbillableHours 89 | The Importance Of… 52

Game #6.  Libertarians v. CRC’s Inducers.  You’ve got to hate scoring almost 100 points and still losing, but the Inducers took it in stride.  Actually, I’m not sure that Kinsella (the Libertarians) is even playing…he hasn’t added or dropped a single player and I’m not sure he has changed his team for a single game yet.  Yet he is still winning…I guess that is what Priest Holmes will do for you.  Libertarians 109 |  CRC’s Inducers 98 

Standings:

Invent Blog  7-0-0
Patently Obvious  5-2-0
Libertarians    5-2-0 
TechLawAdvisor    5-2-0
PromoteTheProgress  3-4-0
Bizz Bang Buzz   2-3-2 
ErnieAttorney   3-4-0
actualmalice   3-4-0
The Importance Of…  2-4-1
UnbillableHours  2-4-1
CRC’s Inducers   2-5-0
Bye Week   1-6-0

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iPod Design Patent

Today:  Patently Obvious Blog on: Patent Law Blog: iPod Receives Design Patent (D497,618)  

Adding to Dennis’ above post, I note Apple already has a design patent covering the first generation iPod:  D472,245.

I also found the below patent one time in a patent search for some totally unrelated technology and thought it was interesting how much it looked (generally) like an iPod / Dell DJ / etc.  USPN 2,182,084.

Anyway…I thought it was interesting…

UPDATE (November 3, 2004). An anonymous reader sent in this additional “point of novelty” prior art (USPN 5903407 - Filed June 1997):

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My only pre-election political rant

I am so dreading the next 4 weeks.  Elections are just 6 days away, but I am afraid that the results are likely to not be known for weeks thereafter.  With all of the reports of voter intimidation and counties where more people are registered to vote than live in the county, my gut tells me that this is going to a NIGHTMARE.  I’m afraid that the loser (and his party) is going drag all of us through HELL.  Reports of both sides having “teams of lawyers” already on the ground in Florida and elsewhere ready to challenge the election is enough to already make me twitch funny.

What have we come to?  Where has the civility and honesty gone?  Where will this all lead?  Is the beginning of the end?

Note to the candidates:  Which ever of you wins, please do us a big favor and crack down, to the fullest extend of the law on anyone involved in voter fraud, vote manipulation, disenfranchisement, etc.  I fully expect heads to roll.  This has got to stop.  Someone needs to take a stand or we are going to devolve into some third world country. 

Otherwise, I am going to move to …… crap, there isn’t a better place to live.  ARGH!!!!!

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EULA - Stick it to Ya

This post is a follow up to my recent post on Software Gaming Patents.  Earlier today I listened to the audio of an interesting discussion Ernest Miller had with Michael Madison (professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh) and Seth Finkelstein (an anti-censorship activist and programmer) regarding the Bnetd v. Blizzard case.  In the case, Bnetd had reverse engineered Blizzard’s Battle.net software (used to play multi-player games like Starcraft on-line).  The court found that Bnetd had violated the EULA and the DMCA in their reverse engineering, even though the EULA took away rights they would have normally had.  Miller’s post on LawMeme has the full background of the case.  InfoWorld and EFF have more information too.

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Update to Guide to Downloading Patent Copies

freePatâ„¢ 0.5 (beta) for Windows.  From blogger Peter Eliopoulos (Eliopoulous Intellectual Property Law - Canada) comes this free Windows program that “can download US, European, PCT, Canadian, French, German and UK patents to your computer as a single PDF file at no charge.”

UPDATE:  Version 0.6 is out.

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Podcasting and CLE for blogging

Denise Howell at Bag and Baggage Blog wrote this week’s IP Memes.  One of her topics was “podcasting” which is essentially (read her post for a full explanation) providing a regularly updated audio file on the Internet for people to download and play on their computer, iPod or other device.  Some of you use an RSS aggregator for pulling in blog feeds…podcasting is a similar concept except you are pulling in audio feeds to play on your computer and/or iPod.  Neat concept.

Then, I read a blog post on MyShingle talking about letting attorneys receive CLE credit for blogging and/or reading blogs.  I have to agree…I’ve learned more in 10 months of blogging about patent law than in years and years of attending CLEs.

What if we married the concepts in the two posts?  Blawgcasting?  The community could start providing blog posts via audio RSS and getting CLE credit for listening/generating them.  Or, maybe we could could take the post feeds of the Blawg Channel, the Induce Act blog, or some other group of blawgers and have the authors dictate them for central distribution.  Or, maybe the a panel in the blawging community could have some way of selecting posts that should be Blawgcasted, and then have the “service” do it (maybe in some sort of a Creative Commons arrangement). 

There would have to be a way to filter which posts to cast…remember the old 80:20 rule and apply it to what percent of any blawger’s posts are really worth reading.  Thus, maybe an editor or have the blawgers select their better, more useful posts…

I could go on and on and on…with crazy ideas. 

What do you think?  The comments are open for some brainstorming…

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