Author Archives: mjwhitekingston

Today’s (March 4) Washington Post reports on the people who turned out for a casting call for the PBS show “Everyday Edisons“. The first show in the series will air on April 28. Inventors mentioned include Frampton Ellis III (naturally … Continue reading →

This story isn’t patent related but it’s interesting to me, since I’m from Maine.. Tartan centre of copyright lawsuit – L.L. Bean and copyright owner in fight over Maine State Tartan. The tartan was designed by a Canadian in 1964 … Continue reading →

Several years ago I created a map of the U.S. showing the ratio of issued patents to population. I’ve recently updated it with 2006 statistics and created a second map for Canada. They’re simple maps based on the most recent … Continue reading →

Two new classification orders are available on the USPTO web site. Order 1858, published last month, covers Class 348 – Television. Order 1859, published in February, affects Class 192 – Clutches and Power-Stop Control. Interestingly, Order 1859 has a USPC-ECLA … Continue reading →

If a monkey typed at random on a keyboard, how long would it take it to write the complete patents of Thomas Edison? The infinite monkey theorem inspired the name of PatentMonkey, the latest entrepreneurial start-up in an increasingly crowded … Continue reading →

Last week the CBC aired the results of its “Greatest Canadian Invention” poll. The top three picks were: 1. Insulin (1921) – Banting and Best2. Light bulb (1874) – Woodward and Evans3. Telephone (1876) – Bell Americans might be surprised … Continue reading →

The guys over at phosita(R), an IP law blog, have just announced the release of fedcirc.us. According to their Jan. 2 posting, FedCirc is… …”a website that allows patent professionals and other patent stakeholders to access, digest and manage patent … Continue reading →

2006 was a record-breaking year for patents and pre-grant publications. In the final quarter of 2006 the USPTO published 76,032 applications, an increase of 1.49 percent over the previous quarter and a new record high. The total for the calendar … Continue reading →

The WIPO has released two new reference works for PCT users: The PCT Glossary contains definitions for dozens of terms commonly used in PCT rules and documentation. Terms are linked to appropriate PCT articles, rules, administrative instructions and forms. The … Continue reading →

Here are some interesting facts from the FY 2006 USPTO annual report: # of new applications: 443,652 (up from 409,532 in FY05)# of pending applications: 1,077,042 (up from 885,002 in FY05)# of provisional applications: 121,307 (up from 111,753 in FY05)# … Continue reading →