The Invent Blog® » Humor

Book Review – The Way Toys Work

nipper — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:38:34 +0000

Most larger cities have a “children’s museum” where kids (and grown ups) can experience “hands on” science. Anything that teaches kids that science is cool is worth supporting!

Our local children’s museum is called the “Discovery Center of Idaho.” For about ten years now, I have provided free patent searches to the winners of the Discovery Center’s annual “Invent Idaho” science fair contest for elementary and middle school students. It has been a blast working with young kids that are so excited about inventing.

Through that participation, I have come to be a big fan of the Discovery Center’s Education Director, Woody Sobey (@twsobey). A few weeks ago, Woody mentioned that he had a book on toys called “The Way Toys Work: The Science Behind the Magic 8 Ball, Etch A Sketch, Boomerang, and More.” I immediately ordered it.

The book is amazing. In the book they take apart toys, deconstructing them for kids while explaining how they work. Additionally, most of the toys mentioned include figures from the actual patents for the toys. It is definitely something that most of my readers would enjoy reading, as well as giving away as a gift to their children/grandchildren/nieces/nephews.

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Referral request — Book Opinion A reader (who is writing a book on patents (historical/humor))...

Patently Silly is patently hilarious

nipper — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:39:56 +0000

One of the “old school” patent blogs is Daniel Wright’s Patently Silly blog where he covers the lighter side of patents. I’ve known Daniel for quite a few years (through blogging), and have been glad to have someone who would appreciate the weird patents I stumble on from time to time. Daniel is a stand up comic (and engineer) who has an uncanny knack for mocking the creative genius of the world. I consider his blog required reading for all patent attorneys.

When Daniel announced that he was writing a book (“Patently Silly“), I’m sure that many people thought “great…another book about funny patents.” I had no doubt that he’d pull it off. Daniel sent me a copy of his book recently (probably to see if the FTC would come after me for talking about his book without mentioning that he gave me a copy) and I was thrilled. He doesn’t disappoint…the book is by far my favorite “funny patent” book, even if one of the patents he pokes fun at I wrote (USPN 7066780).

The book really is the book I wanted to write…and I hate him for it.

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Seth on Shaving

nipper — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:05:11 +0000

Seth Godin’s piece today on “Bear Shaving” is, yet again, an excellent illustration of his brilliance.

Sadly, every time I hear someone with a new “patent reform” argument/plan/policy…it is almost always yet another way of shaving the bear. Heaven forbid the Courts, Administration, Congress and stake-holders should sit down and do a little differential diagnosis of the problem instead of each independently shaving the nearest bear they can find. Argh.

BTW…Seth had an earlier “Shaving” post worth reading to…”Don’t Shave that Yak“.

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Mechanically separated chicken…again

nipper — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 01:57:58 +0000

A few years ago I had a post discussing the “mechanically separated chicken” ingredient found on a package of hot dogs.

Thanks to Wikipedia, now we have a picture:

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Referral request — Book Opinion

nipper — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:30:21 +0000

A reader (who is writing a book on patents (historical/humor)) has asked me to post this:

I am looking into purchasing liability insurance and one of the things I need to submit with my application is a written opinion of an attorney regarding the book’s content and legal exposure. Do you or any of your associates have experience doing this kind of thing? Do you have any idea what this might cost? (The book is a short read–225 pages long (9″x9″) with lots of pictures and VERY entertaining!).

If anyone has a recommendation for a referral, please send me an email: nipper@inventblog.com and I’ll forward it to him.

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Book Review – The Way Toys Work Most larger cities have a “children’s museum” where kids (and...

Thomas Edison used “click wrap”?

nipper — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:44:38 +0000

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). Related posts:Rutgers University’s collection of Thomas A. Edison documents Rutgers University has an interesting collection of Thomas A. Edison... Thomas Edison and the USPTO Rule Changes….food for thought PLI – Patent Blog [...] Related posts:

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Where lawyers don’t eat

nipper — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:30:07 +0000

Above the Law has a post up on “Where the Lawyers Eat Out” which contains a list of “recommendations for restaurants in various Biglaw cities.”

Something tells me that ‘if’ Boise was a “Biglaw city” that this local restaurant would probably not make the list: The Crescent “NO LAWYERS” Bar & Grill. Not because of the food/service, but because of their “no lawyers” policy. Their menu (menu link: here) includes:

LAWYER FRIES — “You know that lawyers don’t have any!” Some people call them Rocky Mtn. Oysters or Bull Fries. We “lovingly” call them lawyer fries. Served with hot mustard. $8.95

The menu even explains that the restaurant’s name came after a legal dispute with a neighbor (attorney) over the bar owner wanting to build a swimming pool in his backyard (and the attorney fighting him over it). Only in Idaho….

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“What the Funny…Patents” blog (wtfpatents.com) goes live

nipper — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 05:08:28 +0000

For a few years we have irregularly updated one of our side projects…the patent humor site “IP Funny.” Thanks to those of you who have put up with our childish senses of humor (and provided your own funny patents for us to post) over the past couple years.

Recently, we decided it was time to finally get the project its own domain, namely www.wtfpatents.com. The “What the Funny…Patents” site is up already. As soon as I get caught up at home and work, maybe I’ll start irregularly posting again. [The RSS feed remains the same, no need to update.]

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Lawyer Themed Gifts

nipper — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 02:59:07 +0000

One of the shout-outs I’ve been meaning to give has been to the very funny Lisa Solomon at The Billable Hour Company. I met her at ABA TechShow a few months ago (on the Matt Homann Pub Crawl). After chatting about legal humor, particularly our IP Funny blog (which will soon be moving to version 2.0), she gave me one of her business cards, pulling it out of the cutest miniature briefcase/business card holder. It cracked me up.

A month ago I ordered some of their greeting cards…which I frequently send out as my “Thank You” notes to clients/friends.

Whether it is clocks/watches with six-minute increments or any other lawyer gift, their store is worth checking out.

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My wife said no

nipper — Fri, 18 May 2007 03:06:44 +0000

Apparently, the CAFC recently found that if the reason you didn’t pay your maintenance fee was that your wife refused to permit you to, that isn’t enough…

As Norm McDonald would say on SNL, “note to self…“

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