The Invent Blog®

A couple great resources on the use of /S/ Signatures:

• USPTO PDF Explaining Good, Bad and Ugly /S/ Signature Examples

• Patent Attorney Joy L. Bryant on "The S-Signature"

TSheets.com Online Timesheet Software — A Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application that turns any computer or mobile device in to a timeclock. Integrates with QuickBooks.  Perfect way for a small law firm to have your staff "punch in, punch out."

A Whole Lotta Nothing – ReCAPTCHA’s quality is going down?

• Matt Haughey (MetaFilter, PVRBlog) questioning MetaFilter’s use of reCAPTCHA due to impossible to read challenge words.

See also:  InventBlog – Public Pair/reCaptcha’s unintended consequences.

Hat tip Doug, Michael Neustel has a new site…PatentCalculator.com that allows you to input a patent’s filing date/issue date and determine the expiration date and maintenance fee dates.

See also “How to determine when a patent expires.”

Google has a new “product” in beta. Called the “Google Image Labeler,” it is “a feature of Google Search that allows you to label images and help improve the quality of Google’s image search results.” You are partnered with another person and are shown a series of images over a two-minute period. Both of you enter labels for a shown photo (without seeing one another’s responses) and when you both type in the same label, a new picture is shown. As a reward for your hard work, Google gives you “points.” Interesting concept…and surprisingly fun.

Now…think about the implications to trademark/copyright owners. Suddenly, a Google images search for “Nike logo” may turn up more examples of infringing uses on websites. Hmm…community policing of trademarks/copyrights.

The Monster Blog: Workdays Should Be Based on Results — Not Input

• Makes me think…is "Results-Only Work Environment" something a law firm could use? To me, ROWE would be telling an associate, I don’t care what hours you are in the office, how many days a week, whether you work from home, etc…as long as you obtain the results.
  

Question your work – (37signals)

• When was the last time your law firm questioned its work? Why you do what you do? Whether the steps you internally take add value? Whether they are worth it. This excellent article on the 37signals blog poses those questions.
  

Fire the workaholics – (37signals)

• Say what? Fire the workaholics?  For firms that stress having a life outside of the office…maybe you need to remember to fire the workaholics.  Maybe not? 
  

Workplace Experiments – (37signals)

• Thoughts from 37 Signals on some "workplace experiments" they have been running, from having shorter work weeks, to encouraging employees to find their passion. Over time, law firms have changed to better suit the partners/associates that work therein (what percent of lawyers wear three piece suits every day of the week now vs. 50 years ago?)…are "experiments" like these going to be more common in law?

I’ll be speaking in Las Vegas next month (April 11th) for Dunes, speaking at their Patent Drafting & Prosecution CLE on “Tips and Tricks for Expediting Examination of Your Clients’ Cases.”

Summary of my presentation:

Let’s face it, clients can be driven crazy by how long it takes these days to get a patent. While they are typically forced to wait their turn for examination, it doesn’t have to be that way. In Tips and Tricks for Expediting Examination of Your Client’s Cases, Mr. Nipper will discuss a number of different tips and tricks a savvy practitioner can use to expedite the examination of his/her pending cases.

Also speaking with me:

Doug Sorocco with Dunlap, Codding and Rogers, writer of the PHOSITA patent blog
Howard Sobelman of Snell & Wilmer
Robert Ryan Morishita of the Morishita Law Firm
Matt Buchanan with Dunlap, Codding and Rogers, writer of the Promote the Progress patent blog
Mark A. Litman with Mark A. Litman & Associates.

I’m always interested in “Tips and Tricks for Expediting Examination of Your Client’s Cases”…if you have some that work for you, feel free to drop me a line (nipper@inventblog.com) or leave a comment.

Some of you have probably been wondering about the “QuickLink” posts I’ve made recently…

This blog has really been a way for me to share with my readers (peers) links to stories and information I found interesting and useful in my practice/life. I suppose it works…people are still reading it. If you are only interested in serious, scholarly analysis of patent issues…there are patent blogs that do it much better than I do.

My “Tech Tip” posts (category: “tech tip”) have always been popular (as far as I could see), so, to wit, I decided to make an effort to do a little better job of sharing the “tech tips” I come across. I’m currently using the Diigolet button (diigo.com) in my browser to quickly tag pages for later inclusion in a “QuickLink” post [hat tip Tac Anderson].

Feedback is always appreciated…

LifeHacker: Create Your Own Cross-Platform Backup Server

• Walks you through how to take an old computer you don’t need and using open source software create a “box” that automatically backs up computers on your network for you.

Steve’s Tech Guide — The Ultimate Windows XP Optimization Tweak Guide

• Twenty different tweaks and optimizations to make your XP computer run faster, jump higher.
  

Google Calendar Sync: Getting Started

• New task bar program from Google that automatically syncs your Outlook calendar with your Google Calendar. Now I my wife can look at my shared (with her) Google calendar and see when I’m unavailable.