The Invent Blog®

It is sad hearing that Michael Jackson passed away.

Did you know he had a patent? See this 2004 Invent Blog post.

FT.com notes “A laboratory robot called Adam has been hailed as the first machine in history to have discovered new scientific knowledge independently of its human creators.”

Patent bar exam trivia question of the day:  can the robot be listed as an inventor on a U.S. patent application?

Video from Ignite Boise 01 is online now.  One of the videos that my readers may enjoy is my law partner Bob Shaver’s (Patent Pending Blog) FIVE MINUTE presentation on The History of Bicycle Technology (below).

By the way, Bob has a new blog:  BicyclePatents.com.

I’m jazzed by the great speakers/presentations we have on tap for IgniteBoise|01.  See the IgniteBoise blog post”:  Without further ado… « Ignite Boise | Boise’s best ideas in 5 minutes, 2 0 slides.

Included in the speaker list is my law partner Bob Shaver (aka the bicyclepatents.com blog) speaking on…bicycle technology.

LEGALZOOM.COM, INC., a Delaware corporation v. LEGALZOOM.COM, INC., a Delaware corporation

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-nvdce/case_no-2:2009cv00273/case_id-64319/

UPDATE (2/20/2009): The page now shows “Incorp Services, Inc., v. Legalzoom.com, Inc.”

It is hard to believe that this blog has been around for five years now…

[Thomas Alva Edison, 1847-1931, punching time clock on his 74th birthday anniversary, February 11, 1921, standing, rear view, source]

Very cool article on patents on electronic games (e.g., Simon, Atari 2600).  See: Patentmania: The Golden Age of Electronic Games | Technologizer.

[Via Gizmodo]

Matt Buchanan’s new blog on “Friday fun – Edison’s mark” (referring to terms and conditions Edison used on a marking plate for his Amberola Phonograph).

I have a book review up over on the What the Funny…Patents website, reviewing Scott Seegert’s book “It’s a Guy Thing: awesome real innovations from the underdeveloped male mind.” Check it out.

In case you missed it, the Golf Channel has a new show “Fore Inventors Only” directed towards inventors of golf related inventions. 

[It] will uncover the next big thing in golf. Aspiring inventors will showcase their inventions and compete for prizes as they attempt to be the last person standing in the competition. This series will give inventors the opportunity to share their designs with the world, and at the culmination, one product or idea will be selected as the top invention…

The prize package includes: shelf-space for the winning invention within a major national golf-retail outlet; a Golf Channel-produced infomercial; air time for the infomercial on Golf Channel.

More than a thousand inventors auditioned, 103 made it onto the show, and now they are in the process of narrowing the field down 39 inventions that will advance to the “field testing stage” of the competition.  It looks like the most recent episode (covering day two of the narrowing) will be reshown tonight, Saturday and Sunday.  Here’s a link to the Tivo “record this show” page.  The live finale, where the winner is announced, will be September 4. 

What interests me about this show the most is the fact that a local Boise inventor (Dean Thompson, Z Factor Sports, U.S. Patent No. 6,893,356) made the second day cuts, making it into the final 39 and the “field testing stage.”  The Golf Channel page spotlighting his invention can be found here.Additional information about his product can be found at www.perfectputtingmachine.com.  Good luck Dean!