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Author Archives: mjwhitekingston
US Patent Counts, Q3 2009
The USPTO issued 47,042 patents in Q3, a decline of 3.2 percent from the previous quarter and the lowest total this year. The number of published applications was also down slightly, dropping to 76,040 from 81,288 in Q2. Despite this … Continue reading
Posted in Patent statistics
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Patent Map from FreePatentsOnline
FreePatentsOnline has launched a new patent mapping service called Local Patents. The service combines inventor and assignee city data from 3 million US patents and published applications with a map of the US generated by Google Maps. It’s very cool. … Continue reading
Posted in analytics, Patent information
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Design Patent #600,000
Design patent no. 600,000 was issued this week to Goal Zero of Spanish Fork, Utah. The patent protects the design of a battery system.
Posted in design patents
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Robotic Fish Farms
Fish farming is under attack from environmentalists who claim that it pollutes bays and inlets and spreads infectious diseases like salmon anaemia. The main problem is that cages used in most fish farms are fixed in place, which concentrates fish … Continue reading
Posted in academic patents, fish farming, MIT
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Underwater Logging
A story in the Globe and Mail this week reported on a project to harvest dead trees, including valuable teak and mahogany, from a man-made lake in Ghana. The total value of the wood is estimated at up to $3 … Continue reading
Posted in logging
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New Leadership at the USPTO
The USPTO has a new leader. On Thursday, August 13, David Kappos was sworn in as the Undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He’s the 52nd person to hold that position … Continue reading
Posted in Kappos, USPTO
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"Investing in patents is no country for old men."
… That’s the message one pundit sees in this week’s patent infringement ruling against Microsoft. The article makes some interesting points about the cost of litigating a patent lawsuit and speculates on why Microsoft (or any high tech company) might … Continue reading
Posted in i4i, infringement, Microsoft
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Les Paul, 1915-2009
World-renowned musician Les Paul, whose invention of the solid-body electric guitar transformed popular music in the 1950s and 60s, died on Aug. 12 at the age of 94. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Patent Ruling Against Microsoft
The big news today is the patent dispute between software leviathan Microsoft and i4i, a small (30 employees) Toronto-based software developer. Two years ago i4i sued Microsoft for using its patented technology in Microsoft Word. Yesterday, a judge in Texas … Continue reading
Posted in i4i, Microsoft, software
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US Assignment Data in espacenet
The June issue of Patent Information News states that the EPO is in the process of reloading US assignment records into its legal status database. When the project is finished US patents in esp@cenet will be linked to more than … Continue reading
Posted in Assignments, USPTO
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Patent Librarian's Notebook 