The Invent Blog®

I’m a HUGE fan of del.icio.us. I tag stuff every day (or so it seems). I dawned on me earlier that my old del.icio.us tags are a gold mine of great links for my readers. So…let’s start with some delicious copyright URLs:

• Internet Cases » A guide to registering the copyright in your blog
• FAQ about Derivative Works — Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
• Blog Law » 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know
• Weblog Tools Collection » Blog Archive » APAD: Feed Copyrighter (for RSS feeds)
• Info/Law » Info/Law on Super Bowl Sunday
• Legal Rights of Photographers
• The UT System Crash Course in Copyright
• The Copyright Law and Litigation Resource
• EFF: Bloggers’ FAQ: Intellectual Property

I’ve added a couple new plug-ins in the last couple weeks:

1. A plug-in for my foreign readers. If you load the website (www.inventblog.com) you will see (in the right hand sidebar) links to common language translations of this site.
[Global Translator]

2. A plug-in for my iPhone/iPod Touch using readers (makes the site easy to read). [WPtouch]

It is surprising to most people, but attorneys tend to be late adopters of technology. I think it is a result of having a “I don’t have time to learn something new, must keep working” mentality.

Proof: check out branding guru Justin Foster’s recent post on “5 technical skills a modern professional should know” and tell me what percent of the attorneys you know have all five of those skills.

Applicants and registered patent practitioners are reminded that the export of subject matter abroad pursuant to a license from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), such as a foreign filing license, is limited to purposes related to the filing of foreign patent applications. Applicants who are considering exporting subject matter abroad for the preparation of patent applications to be filed in the United States should contact the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the Department of Commerce for the appropriate clearances.

See: USPTO Notice on “Scope of Foreign Filing Licenses, Notice” (dated 23Jul2008).

Via an email most of you probably received from the Patent Office too:

As a valued United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) customer, your opinions are important and enable the USPTO to learn what is working well and where there is room for improvement. The brief questionnaire at the URL stated below, specifically addresses your experience with EFS-Web and other Patents e-Commerce initiatives.

The questionnaire will require approximately 10 minutes of your time, and all responses will be held in the strictest confidence. The 2008 USPTO Patents e-Commerce Customer Satisfaction questionnaire will close on Sunday, July 21

To participate please click the link below:
http://vovici.com/l.dll/JGs72C77072C7lnmD9U2119473J.htm

Thank you for your time and assistance,

USPTO Search and Information Resources Administration’s Office of Patent Information Resources

If you have any questions about EFS-Web, PAIR or other e-Commerce initiatives, please contact the EBC Customer Service Center at 866 217-9197 (toll-free), 571-272-4100 or by e-mail at ebc@uspto.gov.

I took the survey. You should too. They want feedback on how to improve the system…let’s give it to them (some of the questions involve PDFs, RSS, XML, so if you’d like to see that kind of data access…SPEAK UP!).

I don’t see a direct link to the survey on their website. Should the above link not work, search your old emails for “2008 USPTO Patent eCommerce Customer Satisfaction.”

Great list of changes the USPTO should make regarding web page organization and access to patent data
The Patent Librarian: Transparency in the US Patent System.

For other things that could be changed…see ReThink(IP) on “Things we hate about the USPTO.gov website.”

Via the American Library Association’s Copyright Advisory Network Digital Copyright Slider.

See also their Fair Use Checklist (pdf).

Netflix (last year?) added a service called “Watch Instantly” where they allowed subscribers to watch streamed selections on their computers for free (as part of their subscription). The titles in the “Watch Instantly” library (10,000+ of them) aren’t “New Releases,” but older movies and TV episodes. Example content available on Watch Instantly: The Office: Season 1, Dexter: Season 1, Heroes: Season 1 and 2, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Young Frankenstein.

I guess I’m too Gen X, but watching movies on my computer isn’t my thing.

Then…a company by the name of Roku teamed up with Netflix to release a $99 “Netflix Player.” The Netflix Player is a little box about the size of 5 stacked CD jewel cases that you connect to your computer network at home (via wired or wireless) and to your TV set via standard A/V connectors (A/V, S-video, Component, HDMI). It took a whopping 4 minutes for me to unbox it, plug it in and get it connected to my TV/router.

Once it boots up, the Netflix Player then gives you a unique code that you enter on the Netflix website that links your Netflix Player box to your Netflix account. As soon as you do that, every title you have in your Netflix “Watch Instantly” queue shows up in the Netflix Player’s queue.

The Netflix Player comes with little remote control that you can use to navigate the menu. When I select a title to watch, it takes 20-40 seconds for it to “spool up” and start playing near DVD quality. Very cool.

We’ve watched dozens of things in the last couple weeks, from my kids watching cartoons, to my wife and I watching old TV series episodes. If they add support for CBS or Hulu.com in the future (as rumors seem to indicate is a possibility), I would consider canceling my cable subscription…it is THAT good.

If you have Netflix…you might consider picking one up for your TV too.

Apparently, the FTC has settled its case with Davison & Associates for $10.7 million in cash, real estate and investment assets, less than half of the $26 million dollar judgment awarded in 2006. See: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – “O’Hara invention promoter, FTC settle case for $10.7 million.“

With mentions in TechCrunch, Technorati, Inc.com, and an iPhone App…..one local Idaho software company (TSheets) is making big waves! See also this Idaho Business Review post.

As a user of their product (my office uses their software for our employees), I completely understand why. It is a great product. One slick feature is that the administrator (e.g., your office manager) has to approve any computer used to log in/out. Thus, an employee can’t log in/out from home (unless you approve them to do so).

So…if you’re looking for an online time clock (that exports to QuickBooks)…you might check out TSheets.com. They even have a free trial!