Stacking the Deck By Jack Lander When it comes to laying odds that a patent will earn more than its costs, the typical figure is 2%. This paltry percentage is rumored to have come from a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office survey of several years ago. I’ve been unable to find evidence of [...]
Archive for the ‘Inventors Digest’ Category
How to Boost Your Odds for Success
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011Win $20,000 – Touch of Genius Prize
Monday, March 21st, 2011
The National Braille Press is accepting applications for the 2011 Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation. If you are interested in applying or nominating another innovation, please read the submission requirements and download the application. Applications are due on September 1, 2011. The Touch of Genius Prize for Innovation The Touch of Genius Prize for [...]
Don’t File a Patent
Friday, March 18th, 2011. Taking Aim at the System, But Firing Blanks The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected John D. Smith’s patent application for plastic storm shutters that he fashioned from over-the-counter materials. Based on this experience, the self-proclaimed successful inventor has written a book telling you why, in his belief, you should never, ever but [...]
Tonight on Got Invention Radio
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Sheila Barry is CEO and co-founder of SC Creative Innovations, a Northern California startup whose mission is to enable the dreams of fellow inventors. Listen and chat live with her tonight at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST at www.gotinvention.com. Call host Brian Fried at 877.474.3302 or e-mail your questions to info@gotinvention.com A former nonprofit bilingual [...]
Hitting the Bogs for a TESH-Drive
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
Editor’s note: First Person is a periodic feature written for inventors by inventors. By Alexey Burdin Screw-propelled vehicles are nothing new. In fact they’ve been around for decades. But they never really took off due to the fact they are normally slow, inefficient and unable to travel over dry land without tearing it up. [...]
Inventors Digest Supports Patent Reform
Monday, March 14th, 2011
Now it was Inventors Digest’s turn to get into the ongoing debate in the U.S. Senate over patent reform, officially known as S. 23. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., cited a letter of support for patent reform from Louis Foreman, publisher of Inventors Digest, this week. Here’s his letter: February 14, 2011 The Honorable Patrick J. [...]
Exhibition to Celebrate Innovation
Monday, March 14th, 2011
USPTO Joins with Smithsonian to Showcase Inventing “The Great American Hall of Wonders” will examine the 19th-century American belief that the people of the United States shared a special genius for innovation. It will explore this belief though works of art, mechanical inventions and scientific discoveries, and will capture the excitement of citizens who defined [...]
Liver + Mouse = $30,000
Monday, March 14th, 2011
What do you get when you cross a mouse with a human liver? An award-winning college inventor. Alice Chen, a biomedical engineer and graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology (HST) and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), earned the prestigious $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for her innovative applications [...]
Deadline Extended for FIRST Contest
Monday, March 14th, 2011
The FIRST LEGO League Global Innovation Award is designed to get FLL teams excited about further developing their “Body Forward Projects.” The deadline for online voting for the teams has been extended to 5 p.m. EST, March 18. Click on the name of a FIRST LEGO League team in the shaded box on the left of [...]
Senate Passes Patent Reform Bill
Monday, March 14th, 2011
Under the leadership of Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) and Ranking Minority Member Charles Grassley (R-IA), the Senate, by a landslide vote of 95-5, approved a bill that includes adoption of a first-inventor-to-file patent system, funding for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that will bring budget predictability, and the creation of an ever more effective post-grant [...]