The Invent Blog®

Did you know that it is really easy to stick symbols such as ©, ® and ™ into documents (word processing, blog posts, e-mails, etc.)?

The trick is to hold down the ALT key AND type a code on the number pad (it HAS to be the number pad, not the row of numbers 1–0 above your letter keys). 

Some of my favorites:

• ALT 0169 — ©
• ALT 0174 — ®
• ALT 0153 — ™
• ALT 0167 — §
• ALT 0176 — ° (the degree symbol)
• ALT 0188 — ¼
• ALT 0189 — ½
• ALT 0190 — ¾

Additional directions and more symbols can be found here.

I just noticed that Matt Buchanan just put up a post on his May 5 trip to Boise to speak on patent reform.  Check out his post for the details. 

This week’s tech tip revolves around computer security.  I don’t know how often I come across friends/family who have home computers which are completely unsecured.  I imagine that most of the worlds virus infections are spread by people too cheap to buy virus protection for their home computers.  To do a semi-competent job of protecting your home computer, you need to have a virus scanner, a spy-ware killer and a firewall.  Here are some free options:

1.  All-In-One solutions

You can help Symantec beta-test Norton Internet Security 2005 for free.  Free, I guess, until the beta ends.  [sometimes if you provide enough feedback companies give you a free copy of the software...]

2.  Anti-Virus

Grisoft has a free version of its AVG anti-virus software you can download.  It will scan e-mail and will automatically download new updates (so your anti-virus is always up to date).

3.  Spyware Killers

Microsoft AntiSpyware (free).  I run this in the background…it tries to prevent infection and also runs every night to detect infections for you to remove.  I’ve found that Microsoft’s program is pretty good, but that it does miss somethings.  Thus, I also use Ad-Aware Personal (free) and SpyBot Search&Destroy.  Yes…I think you should run MS in the background and run Ad-Aware and SpyBot once a week to be squeaky clean.

4.  Firewalls  (don’t know what a firewall is/does?  See Wikipedia.)

The latest version of Windows XP has a built in firewall.  If you don’t know if yours is running, click here.  Another highly recommended firewall is ZoneAlarm (free edition).

Conclusion…while these programs are not perfect, running all of them (at least one of each) will make your computer MUCH MUCH more secure. 

[also...when you go visit your parents/in-laws make sure you copy all of these onto your USB thumb drive so you can install them on their computer.]

The comments are open if readers have other suggestions.

UPDATE:  A reader pointed out that he’d suggest ditching Internet Explorer for FireFox.  That is a pretty good point.  I use both (I don’t know why).  What I really like about FireFox is tabbed browsing.  More details about FireFox can be found HERE.

Heath W. Hoglund (patent attorney) sent me the following via e-mail this morning:

The Court of Federal Claims has scheduled oral argument on cross-motions for summary judgment in the patent fee diversion case.  The hearing is set for May 13, at 2:00 p.m. in the National Court’s Building, 717 Madison Pl. N.W., Washington, D.C.  Pleadings in the case are available at www.hhoglund.com/fees.htm

The case (a class action lawsuit) he mentions is Figueroa v. U.S.  Heath’s site explains that the suit is over Congress’s act of diverting fees (paid by inventors) out of the USPTO’s account and then spent for all of the things they spend taxpayer dollars on (education, homeland security, national defense, pork).  As I understand it, one of the arguments being that Congress cannot be “promoting the progress” by diverting fees (Heath argues that the fee diversion is a “special tax against intellectual property owners”) and therefore Congress over-stepped their Constitutional authority in doing so.

More details about the case can be found on his web-site.

Just got off the phone with another former client victim of an invention promotion company.  The gentleman is 78 years old and just over a year ago called the promoter based on a light night TV ad.  For $9,600 they sent him a filled out provisional patent application cover sheet, four crude drawings and a note to “send this to the Patent Office with a check for $80.”  Also enclosed was a non-disclosure agreement for HIM to sign.  ARGH!!!!!

Luckily, the guy is getting good counsel…talking with

Ron Riley

and others, contacting his state attorney general, his Congressman, etc…but that doesn’t stop my disgust for how independent inventors are being scammed by these companies. 

It is time for the Justice Department, FTC, et al. to do something!

According to the USPTO site today:

USPTO Kicks Off Series of Free IP Seminars in Salt Lake City May 23-24
Protecting Small Business from Piracy and Counterfeiting Focus of Sessions

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will conduct two-day seminars in four American cities this spring and summer. The seminars are designed to help promote and educate the American small business community about intellectual property and the realities of piracy and counterfeiting. The first seminar of the series will be held in Salt Lake City on May 23-24 at the University of Utah’s Gould Auditorium.

In each of the seminars, lawyers and other professionals from the USPTO will provide attendees with specific details and useful tips about how to protect and enforce their intellectual property rights in the United States and internationally in whatever countries they intend to market their products. Each program will be tailored to the particular needs of the city hosting the seminar. In this way the topics of special interest to that city’s business community can be addressed.

“America’s small business industries are a key to this nation’s continued economic vitality,” Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property Jon Dudas, commented. “Protecting patents, trademarks and copyrights is extremely important in today’s global marketplace. These seminars will be useful to anyone with an established business as well as entrepreneurs who are just starting up enterprises.”

There is no charge for the seminars, but seating is limited. Those who should consider attending include: business owners and entrepreneurs; independent inventors; corporate general counsels; and those interested in global trade, international markets and selling products abroad. You can register online now.

It isn’t often that we see the USPTO out here in our backyard.  Of course, 5.5 hours away isn’t a “backyard” to most people.  [Most people don’t realize that Boise is so remote…Salt Lake City (5.5 hours away) is the next closest metro area.]  Thank God for HP and Micron (those two links are Google satellite maps of their campuses, for fun)…you can get a direct flight out of our local airport to about any place in the US.

Q.  Could you please tell me what is the limitation for filing the national phase via PCT in China? Is it 30 months or 32 months?  I have seen different versions of this limitation.

A.  Unless I am mistaken, China is a 30 month country.

A great resource for determining whether a country is a “30” or “31” is:  http://bpmlegal.com/pctco.html

[UPDATE:  Peter A. Chiabotti at Akerman Senterfitt sent me an "official" link:  http://www.wipo.int/pct/en/texts/pdf/time_limits.pdf.  THANKS!!!]

Links to some of the more interesting blog posts and other resources which I think inventors would find of interest…

• One of the newer blogs (to me) with awesome inventor news, tips and information is the Business Opportunities Weblog.  Definitely worth adding to your RSS aggregator.  For instance:  "Invention Contests,"  and "Join An Invention Club."
• Inventor Tutorials
  "…links to a series of Inventor tutorials created by teachers for use with students. The different levels are a rough guide as to where these could be used depending on the entry ability of the students."
• Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas
  "This summer, as an experiment, some friends and I are giving seed funding to a bunch of new startups…The deadline has now passed, and we’re sifting through 227 applications. We expected to divide them into two categories, promising and unpromising. But we quickly saw that we needed a third: promising people with unpromising ideas…"
• How to Start a Startup
  "You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible"
• FOIA used (by Ron Riley at invented.com) to obtain invention promotion complaints sent to the USPTO but not published…Riley then posted the complaints on his site.  Companies mentioned:  Advent Product Development (NISI), Davison & Associates, Invent Tech, Invention Submission Corporation (ISC) aka, "Invent Help", Lambert & Lambert, Millennium Marketing Group (MMG), Patent & Trademark Institute (PTI), and Society of American Inventors (SAI).  [Via Ambrogi]

In rethink(ip)’s third podcast [.mp3] we discussed other blogs and blawgs we like (a list can be found in the show notes). 

Another way to find new non-IP blogs to read is the recent Blawg Review #1 post at Notes from the (Legal) Underground wherein Evan profiles a selection of some of the best law blog posts from the previous week.  Next week the Likelihood of Confusion blog will be hosting Blawg Review #2, details on this (and how to submit posts for consideration) can be found on the Blawg Review website.

Next time you complain about your state government wasting money…think of this:

Idaho [Legislature] passes resolution praising Napolean Dynamite

[Via] (thanks Kevin)