Senior officials of the United State Patent and Trademark Office will be available live on-line this Thursday, February 28th, from 2 to 3 PM (EST). They will be answering questions and offering tips for independent inventors. Instructions for taking part in the on-line chat will be posted on the home page of the USPTO web site at 10 AM (EST) on Thursday, February 28, 2008. Inventors can begin logging on for the chat at 1:30 PM.

The United States Patent Office recently announced that they will be giving the Patent Bar Exam in paper format on July 23, 2008 and Jul 24, 2008.  This is a yearly ritual that began when the Patent Bar Examination went to an on-demand computer format.  Since that time the PTO has given the exam at its own facility in Alexandria, Virginia to accommodate individuals who for whatever reason do not wish to take, or cannot take, a computerized examination. 

Monday, April 21, 2008 is the deadline for filing applications to take the paper examination.  You must also submit the application along with the appropriate application fee and the $450.00 examination fee and all necessary information as required by 37 CFR § 11.7(a) and § 11.7(b).

Over the weekend both Motorola and Research In Motion sued each other.  On Saturday, February 16, 2008, Motorola sued RIM in United States Federal District Court for the District of Delaware, and also filed suit against RIM in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.  I wonder if that $432 million plaintiff’s verdict against Boston Scientific had anything to do with Motorola’s decision to file in the Eastern District of Texas?  Inquiring minds want to know!  In any event, Motorola was not the only one busy filing paper on Saturday.  RIM also filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Motorola on Saturday, chosing as their forum the United States Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas. 

Several news outlets are reporting that Dick’s Sporting Goods has acquired the Maxfli brand from Adidas’ TaylorMade golf unit.  In at least one particular news report from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review it was reported that Dick’s Sporting Goods purchased the trademark.  While this is likely descriptive enough for everyone to know what happened, I figured I would take this opportunity to explain that trademarks cannot be sold. 

Advertising System
US Patent No. 6,742,293 [ PDF ] [ HTML ]
Issued July 1, 2004

This particular invention is classified by the United States Patent Office as fitting in US Classification 40, which relates to card, pictures or signs.  Specifically, this invention is classified as a person carried sign.  How bizarre!  I suppose you could characterize this invention as a person carried sign, but how many of you would have characterized this invention in that way?  If you are raising your hand you know that you are lying.  Go ahead, be honest with yourself!  The patent classification system is extremely strange to those who are not intimately familiar with the thousands of different pigeon holes that an invention can be classified in.  This is exactly what makes conducting a patent search difficult if not impossible for those who are not trained to conduct them.  That is why so many conscientious inventors who actually try and do their own patent search come up short and do not find things that are relevant and findable.  For more information on conducting your own patent search, which is always a good first step, see Patent Searching 101.  For information about why you should do a patent search see Patent Search FAQs.

The Egyptian government is attempting to enact legislation that would seek to force royalty payments from anyone who uses an image of the pyramids or one of the other to be protected antiquity images.  I saw this story in the LA Times this weekend, but it appears to have been first reported by National Geographic about four weeks ago.  Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told National Geographic News: “We want to protect Egyptian antiquities. We want to protect our values. This is the most important thing.”

Before we get all offended by this story and the fact that Egypt also apparently wants to enforce this soon to be enacted law against those in the United States and China, there is absolutely no chance that even if enacted this law will be enforced in the United States.  In fact, I would put the chance that such a law would receive recognition in the U.S. at roughly the same chance as a snowball’s chance in that extremely warm and undesirable spot of legend, and I am not talking about Hell, Michigan, but rather about the place of eternal damnation, you know the one I am talking about.

Did you know that the first design patent issued in the United States was issued on November 9, 1842, to George Bruce of New York? The USPTO searchable online database does not have a text copy of this patent available, undoubtedly because the design patent was handwritten. It is, however, possible to obtain an image version of the first design patent by going to the Patent Search engine provided by the USPTO, searching D1 in a patent number search, and then clicking on images. The image available purports to be the best available copy of the design patent, but it is indeed very hard to read.

The IPO is reporting that momentum for patent reform has been lost in the Senate and that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will not bring S. 1145 to the floor for action until at least after the Senate returns from recess at the end of March. Notwithstanding, my sources tell me that if patent reform does not happen by the time the Senate recesses in March then it simply will not happen at all this time around, which would mean that to some extent we have all been making much ado about nothing.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the chief patent law court in the United States, today issued an Order setting In re Bilski for rehearing en banc, which means that it will be reheard by the entire court.  The original hearing in Bilski was on October 1, 2007, in front of a three judge panel, which is how all cases start out at the Federal Circuit.  Occasionally, when an extremely important point of law needs to be decided, or when the Court is considering a modification to the existing patent laws, the Federal Circuit will sit en banc, with all of the judges hearing the case and participating in the written decision.  Requests for en banc rehearing are fairly common, but are routinely rejected by the Court.  The Court deciding among the Judges themselves to rehear a case when a rehearing has not been asked for is exceptionally rare, although not unprecedented.  This should be considered to be a signal of important things to come though, which likely will include the limitation on business method patents.

Love Box
US Patent No. 4,194,629 [ PDF ] [ HTML ]
Issued March 25, 1980

While this patent is perhaps not wacky, I think it certainly qualifies as obscure. And in honor of Valentine’s Day an appropriate addition here. 

Recently Hollywood executives approached both AT&T and Verizon to seek their help in preventing piracy over their networks.  According to a New York Times article, AT&T is working with the entertainment industry to figure out how to identify illegally copied material that is being transmitted over its broadband network.  Verizon, on the other hand, said — NO — we are not going to be the police force for the entertainment industry online.

Method and system for exterminating pests
US Patent No. 6,647,661 [ PDF ] [ HTML ]
Issued November 18, 2003

This invention first locates pests, weeds, pathogens and the like through the use of a microwave scanner. Once located, said vermin are then immediately killed by what the patent calls “a lethal impact.” Being skeptical at this point you are probably expecting to see something unsophisticated like the apparatus being dropped onto the pest, like you might expect to happen to Wile E. Coyote, super genius, in one of the Roadrunner cartoons. But that is definitely not the lethal impact in question. No, this invention comes straight from Dexter’s Laboratory! The lethal impact in question is a blast of guided radiation of up to 10 Giga Hertz, with a radiation capacity of up to 100 Kilo Watts, for duration as long as 3 minutes! Not to worry though, the patent explains that the blast of radiation will be localized. Nevertheless, you might want to get one of those lead smocks from your dentist prior to use.

As I sit here eating my Burger King French Fries and McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger, (ketchup only, of course), I can’t help but think of a recent conversation I had with my very innovative 11 year old son Joey. We had just left the doctor’s office and were a bit pressed for time, so we decided to stop at Burger King for lunch on the way to our next destination. I ordered the BK Whopper Jr. with Fries and a Soda and Joey chose the Chicken Fries with Fries and a Soda as well.

While enjoying my BK fries and not so much enjoying my Whopper Jr. I said to my son “McDonald’s Burgers are so much better than Burger King’s, but Burger King makes the best fries!” I recall as early back as my first year in college, driving through the McDonald’s drive through for my Quarter Pounder with cheese and you guessed it, ketchup only. And then I’d drive up the street to the Burger King and order my fries. I have always felt this way and I am sure there are many others that feel the same.  But I digress.

After my comment, Joey looked at me and nonchalant as could be he said, “Too bad you can’t have a company that sells both. Maybe we should start our own company!” My son is always “inventing” things, from fast cars of the future to children’s games. I’ve got hundreds of his “patent drawings.” My response to Joey, which I said with a sly chuckle was, “Well if we did start a company like that, then we’d have to steal the recipes.” And so the wheels in my mind started to turn.

By now it would seem that virtually everyone knows of the enormous upset pulled off by the New York Giants against the New England Patriots (17-14) in the Super Bowl on Sunday.  As soon as I saw Bill Belichick, the Coach for the New England Patriots, who I have taken to calling Belicheat, I knew the Patriots were in trouble.  He always wears a gray hoody, but for some reason he decided to tempt fate and wear a red one for the biggest game of the year, and what could have been the biggest game of his life.  You see, the New England Patriots were trying to become only the second team to ever complete an NFL season undefeated and with a championship.  Athletes can be very superstitious, so this seemed a particularly odd thing to do.

In any event, not only did the Patriots lose, but believe it or not, more than two weeks before Super Bowl XLII the New England Patriots filed a United States Trademark Application on both “19-0″ and “19-0 The Perfect Season.”  Not to be deterred though, and just a little bit insulted that the Patriots would be so overly confident, the New York Post filed their own trademark application on “18-1.”