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Category Archives: inventors
USPTO to Remove Inventor’s Mailing Address from Patent Docs
The USPTO will no longer include the inventor’s mailing address on unassigned patents and published applications because of privacy concerns. However, correspondence information will continue to be available in Public PAIR. Patent documents will only display the city and state … Continue reading
Posted in Assignments, inventors, patent documents, Privacy, USPTO
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Canadian Inventor/Designer Robert Dickie
The Globe and Mail‘s business magazine has an interesting profile of Canadian inventor and industrial designer Robert G. Dickie. (“The Business of Brainstorms“, April 29) Dickie’s firm, Spark Innovations, is responsible for designing dozens of products ranging from electric toothbrushes … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, inventors
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Patented Gas Mask Bra Wins Ig Nobel Award
Dr. Elena Bodnar of Chicago has received an Ig Nobel Award for her design of a bra that converts into a pair of gas masks. Dr. Bodnar was granted US patent 7,255,627 B2 on Aug. 14, 2007.
Posted in Ig Nobel Award, inventors
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Inventor of Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed, 1916-2009
The inventor of the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed, John Houghtaling, died last week at the age of 92. Houghtaling patented his invention in 1962 (US 3,035,572), and founded Magic Fingers, Inc. to commercialize it. His company installed millions of units … Continue reading
Posted in Houghtaling, inventors, Magic Fingers
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Inventor of TASER stun gun dies at age 88
Jack (John) Cover, inventor of the TASER stun gun used by thousands of police departments worldwide, has died at the age of 88. According to his obituary in the Washington Post, Cover, a former NASA scientist, invented the nonlethal device … Continue reading
Posted in inventors, Jack Cover, TASER
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Top Inventor Receives 577 US Patents in 2008
The other rather surprising statistic in the Boliven Patents Top 25 Report for 2008 was number of patents secured by the top-ranked inventor, Kia Silverbrook, founder of Silverbrook Research, a private R&D firm based in Sydney, Australia that specializes in … Continue reading
Posted in Boliven, inventors, Patent statistics, Silverbrook
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PatentScope Suppresses Inventor Address Data
WIPO has announced that due to privacy concerns it will remove address data for inventors and individual applicants from its PatentScope database. The data will not be indexed or displayed in Internet search engines. This will not affect PatentScope searches … Continue reading
Posted in inventors, PatentScope, search alerts, WIPO
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Snow Bike Hits Slopes
Skiers and snowboarders may see something different on the slopes this winter… Two entrepreneurs from Vancouver Island hope to launch the next winter sports craze with their snow bike, a winter version of a mountain bike. Called the Ktrak, the … Continue reading
Posted in Canada, inventors, Ktrak, Snow Bike
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Father of Modern Denistry – G. V. Black
Whenever I go to the dentist, I’m amazed at the number of specialty instruments and gadgets used to clean and repair teeth. Many of these are patented. According to the USPTO website, 19,194 patents issued since 1790 are classified in … Continue reading
Posted in dentistry, inventors
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Advice for High-Tech Independent Inventors
As a patent librarian, it’s easy to become too comfortable with the stereotype of the independent inventor as someone who tinkers with simple inventions, such as toys and garden tools. After all, many people who seek our help are students … Continue reading
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Patent Librarian's Notebook 