Foreign Filing Licenses around the World

Awareness of Foreign Filing Requirements For Inventions Originating Outside the United States Can Prevent Adverse Consequences [pdf].  By Aaron Wininger and Marc Sockol (Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP).  [Via PLI’s Lawyer’s Toolbox Vol. 4.4, RSS feed]

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Patent Lawsuit Filing Update (2006.01.23)

One of the things I do every week (almost) for Rethink(IP) is create a list of the patent lawsuits that were recently filed.  Subscription information (if you are interested) can be found here:  http://www.rethinkip.com/archives/rss_email_patent_lawsuit_filing_notices.html

This week’s notice included an interesting case.  The USPTO being sued for patent infringement by a  pro se litigant.  Sadly, no electronic copy was available (so I can’t attach a copy of the Complaint).  If anyone has the scoop, let me know.

Ms. Grasty does appear to have a design patent:   D464,214.

The docket sheet shows:

 U.S. District Court
Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria)
CIVIL DOCKET FOR CASE #: 1:06-cv-00040-GBL-TCB

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Comment Policy for this Blog

The Invent Blog® typically opens its blog posts up to comment by its readers. If comments aren’t open for a particular post and you want to leave one, let me know and I’ll open it up for you.

While I do try to filter out all of the ads for on-line poker, pr0n, Viagra® and (fake?) Rolex® watches, I do believe in Freedom of Speech and will generally let my readers express their opinions, however right or wrong they may be. Any information/advice in the comments on The Invent Blog® should be taken at your own risk. Caveat emptor.

As a provider of an interactive content service I have the right to allow user comments and knowing that I choose to do so.

If you don’t like another user’s comment you can (1) refer to Section 230 of Title 47 of the United States Code (47 USC § 230) and take it up with your Congressional Representative or (2) leave your own comment disagreeing or pointing out the inaccuracies in the previous commenter’s statement(s).

If you have an issue, a thought, a suggestion, a complaint, a disagreement with anything I ever write, etc., please leave your own comment or send me an email (Contact Me).

NOTICE: As such, the comments on The Invent Blog® were, are and will always be solely the opinions of the individuals leaving them. In no way does The Invent Blog® , Nipper, LLC or Stephen M. Nipper endorse, condone, agree with, sponsor, etc. the comments left herein.

Update: Funny. This post is getting hammered with comment and trackback spam. Closing comments for now.

Update 2: The hammering continues. Trying the Comment Timeout plug-in for some relief (it automagically disables comments after a post has been up for x days).

[2007.10.29]

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Another Invention Promotion Company Story

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine.  He talked to me a couple weeks ago about a buddy who was about to send a $9,000 check to one of the invention promotion companies.  I referred him to my earlier post on Independent Inventors and Invention Promotion Companies for further reading regarding what the USPTO, FTC and others say about various companies.

In today’s conversation my friend revealed that the idea was taking something small (already on the market) and making it two times bigger and getting Corporation X to sell it.  The invention promotion company apparently called the inventor back, said "send us the $9,000 quickly, we have talked to Corporation X and they are hot to license it." 

The problem is that the invention is clearly not patentable.  The invention really is taking something small that is used for kids and making it bigger so adults can use it for the same thing.  There is no difference other than size.  Thus, there is no way that Corporation X (which is a major corporation) would ever have actually talked with the invention promotion company and indicated that they were "hot."  ARGH.

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Pupa, larva and other life stages of inventors

OK…so pupa and larva aren’t two of them, but Bill Meade of BasicIP has the beginnings of an excellent post series up at Rethink(IP).  Entitled "The Six Life Stages of Inventors," it (thusfar) is a fascinating read (Life Stage #1, Life Stage #2).  The series should be required reading for every corporate patent committee.  I won’t ruin the series for you, but will tease you with his six life stages: 

1. Discovery
2. Calibration
3. Status-seeking
4. Mentoring
5. Sensing
6. Senescence

Image via here.

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur, innovation, inventor, startup

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Dial Corp., independent inventors and contests

According to this press release, Dial Corp. recently announced the winners of its "Submit and Win" Sweepstakes (yes, the winning inventions were drawn from a hat). The winners:

1. E. Caelson (Disposable Glove) USPN 6,748,603? (Schmitt and Carlson)
2. Kris Colburn (Personal Smoke Repeller), USPN 6,464,468
3. Marion Taite (Scented Air Filter), US20050103880

It is neat to see Dial promoting inventorship. They even have an "Inventor FAQ" including such questions as "what is a patent," "how do I conduct a patent search," and "What is the process for submitting a patented or patent pending product idea (to Dial)?"

Other TIB post on Dial.

Technorati Tags: entrepreneur, innovation, inventor

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Tech Tip — Do Not Call List & Cell Phones

I received an email earlier regarding how cell phone companies, starting this week, can sell your cell phone numbers to telemarketers.  Turns out that it isn’t true. 

BUT, you can add your cell number to the National Do Not Call Registry.  Takes a whopping minute to do so.  Why not….

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Determining PCT Deadlines - Pipers’ solution

Pipers (www.piperpat.com) has a new (PCT Reminder service) for keeping track of all those important event dates in filing, prosecuting and Nationalizing PCT (and Patent Convention Applications).  The service is Free and has been enthusiastically received by many in the IP community." 

It includes a calculator for determining PCT deadlines:

Update:  fixed broken links.  2006.01.11 @ 03:00 pm

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The Invent Blog Turns Two

Happy Birthday to The Invent Blog.  Two years old today. 

Coming up on 800 posts.  Wow.

On with the terrible twos!

[Image source:  Birthday Cake Candle Extinguisher (U.S. Patent No. 3,150,831) via CrazyPatents.com]

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A coming collaborative discussion community for attorneys???

Something I posted over at the Rethink(IP) blog this morning that The Invent Blog readers might find interesting…

What’s Rethink(IP) Up To? 

Posting on our Rethink(IP) blog has been light.  One of us changing firms, one of us preparing to be a first time father, all of us dealing with the Holidays and work…we have lots of excuses.

One of our excuses is that we are spending more and more time working over the various side projects we have (which means less time for blogging).  Through these “projects,” we hope to build a legal community that will help us achieve our goal of bringing Web 2.0 content to Web 1.0 attorneys.

That being said, one of our “projects” is about to go live.  We are currently beta testing a forum/bulletin board which we have high hopes for.  The goal of the forum is to create an on-line, collaborative discussion community for our readers, legal bloggers and attorneys in general. 

If you are interested in helping us populate the forums with an initial set of forum topics and threads, please drop me a line (snipper@gmail.com) and I’ll get you set up.  Thanks in advance.

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