The Nevada INVENTOR
Official newsletter of and by the Nevada Inventor's Association
Volume: XVI No. 8 -Education, Assistance, and Networking for the Inventor- August 2005
Next Meeting: August 27, 2005 9:00 AM Washoe Medical Center Room cr101
Our web site is 'www.nevadainventors.org' Founded in 1988
We are a 501(c)6 group under IRS rules.
The purpose of NIA is to educate inventors and potential inventors through whatever means available, including regular meeting, classes, seminars, workshops, and evaluations, within NIA or in cooperation with other persons or organizations. The education of inventors, or potential inventors, may also include the publishing of written materials, such as a regularly published newsletter, flyers, notices, or letters.
Additional goals of NIA are to inform its members of private, civic, governmental, and public resources which may be of assistance to inventors; to promote a positive public image of inventors; to provide for its members a referral/resource directory; and to furnish assistance to its members, whenever possible, by directing their efforts toward the successful development of their inventions.
News flash from CNN's Spark
TV- B- Gone
If the kids are glued to the tube when they should be working on homework, you can now do something about it. Cornfield Electronics has just solved the problem with their new Universal Remote Control. It turns off any television set within 17 meters. Just push the button and what's that....silence... no TV. The inventor of the Universal Remote is Mitch Altman, CEO of Conrnfield Electronics. 3987 17th St. San Francisco, CA 94114
Another Remote Access Magic wand: A new remote control form Logitech holds the key to un-cluttering the living room from the multitude of remotes laying around. It's the "Harmony" remote and it solves the problem of having to use one remote for the DVD another for the Cable, Satellite, VCR, TV or cable through USB cable,
It's a couch potatoes dream come true. The Harmony is a universal Internetbased device that can control all of the above devices. For more information go to www.logictech.com
The board meeting will be at the picnic unless otherwise notified.
It's that time of year! The NIA annual potluck picnic held at the PARK BY THE RIVER ON SPICE ISLAND Drive.
Everyone is asked to bring vittles and good humor. The NIA will provide beverages, ice, cups, paper plates and a canopy for shade. Members will bring their favorite picnic foods and recipes.
The sun will be bright, the river only a few steps away and the promise of a good time is in the air.
Along with your good food, everyone is also asked to bring a blind gift (priced under $10.00). we will auction off the gifts and the proceeds will go to the NIA to defray costs. The meeting will convene at the park and we are asking all members to bring inventions to share. The time will be the usual a.m. We look forward to seeing everyone and having a great summer annual event.
Directions to the park are: Go I block east on Gregg St. Turn night onto Spice Island and go 9/lOths of a mile. Be park is on the right had side. Should there be any Changes in this plan there will be notification
For many years, inventors have tried to prove "inventorship" or at least a date of creation by sealing a written description of the invention (including drawings, schematics, photographs and the like) in an envelope, self-addressing and mailing it to themselves by US Postal Service Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested. The inventor would then sign for the envelope and have in his/her possession a sealed envelope with the Return Receipt as a possible proof of conception and invention. However, this informal procedure may have limitations. One limitation is that should the envelope ever be opened to prove its contents inside, this action could drastically reduce the value of the envelope as potential evidence of original inventorship.
To assist inventors, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has the Document Disclosure program as set forth in section 1706 of the Manual of Patent Preparation. Here, the USPTO will accept and store for to (2) years Disclosure Documents (e.g., those documents disclosing an invention) when said documents are accompanied by proper cover letter and filing fee ($10.00 USD).
If during those two (2) years, the Document Disclosure is then referenced in a (e.g., the inventor's) patent application, the Document Disclosure would then be placed with the referring patent application for possible use to show when the invention was created, if such a showing becomes necessary. If the Document Disclosure is not referenced in that manner, then after the expiration of the two (2) year period, the USPTO destroys the disclosed document.
To file such a Disclosure Document, the inventor should set forth a written description of making and using the invention with sufficient detail to allow a person having ordinary knowledge in the field of the invention to make and use the invention. When the nature of the invention permits, drawings or sketches (worth a thousand words) should be included. The use, utility or functionality of the invention should be included as well (especially for chemical inventions). When the invention pertains to a design (rather than to functionality) then the appearance of the invention should be described (e.g. use a lot of drawings).
The Document Disclosure must be written down on white letter sized (8 1/2 X l l-inch) paper, written only on one side, with each page numbered. Oversized pages, even if folded will be rejected and returned. Additional items such as videotapes, CD, models and the like will be similarly rejected and returned.
The Document Disclosure must be submitted with a S10.00 filing Fee and two (2) copies of the cover letter. A cover letter must state the author is the inventor, he/she is requesting the material being submitted be received into the Document Disclosure Program and it must be signed. The request may include the following language: "The undersigned, being the inventor of the disclosed invention, requests that the enclosed papers be accepted under the Document Disclosure Program, and that they be preserved for a period of two years "
The USPTO has the form PTO/SB/95 (www.uspto.gov/web/forms/sbO095.pdf) which can also be used as a cover letter.
Two copies of the cover letter, the filing fee, and the Document Disclosure, are to be mailed to MAIL STOP DD; Commissioner for Patents; P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450. Upon receipt of the above documents, the USPTO will send the inventor a Document Disclosure Receipt Notice and a copy of the cover letter, which now bears the receipt time stamp and a Document Disclosure identification number.
If so desired during the two (2) year period, the inventor may request a copy of their filed Document Disclosure from the USPTO by mailing a written request for same along with a S25.00 fee. The request should reference the Document Disclosure by title, identification number and date of receipt of the disclosure document by the USPTO.
Should the inventor file a patent application within the two (2) year period, then the inventor and applicant should submit a written letter to the examiner requesting that the Document Disclosure should be placed in the application file. The letter should reference Document Disclosure by title, identification number and date of receipt of the disclosure document by the USPTO.
The USPTO stresses to the inventor that the Document Disclosure is not a patent application and its receipt date is not a patent application filing date, which stops the one-year statutory bar. The statutory bar can be seen as statute of limitations for patent applications: if the invention is disclosed to the public or the public becomes aware of the benefits of the invention, then the inventor has one ( I ) year to file a patent application for the invention. Failure to timely file the patent application in such circumstances will prevent the applicant from receiving a patent on the invention. Please note for foreign patent filing, many countries have an absolute bar, wherein no time is given to file a patent application if the invention is disclosed to the public-the inventor may be banned from receiving patent if any disclosure occurs before the filing of patent application. Further, the Document Disclosure does not give the right to use "patent pending" as does the filed patent application.
Finally, a patent application document for establishing a priority date (first to invent date) that references the Document Disclosure may have to explain how the inventor was diligently pursuing his or her invention from the time the Document Disclosure was made through time when the patent application was ultimately filed. The USPTO warns that in many instances it is more prudent to file at least provisional patent application rather than a Document Disclosure.
John D. Long, Esq. is a Patent Counsel in Reno, Nevada. He can be contacted at: LONG & CHYBIK, Meadow Wood Crown Plaza 1575 Delucchi Lane, Suite 32, Reno, Nevada 89502 United States of America Voice: (01) 775/827-8767 PST Fax: (01) 775/827-0363 E: renopatents@aol.com W: www.renopatents.com
The inventor has been characterized in all manners of ways, some of which might well be more appropriately attributed to the individual, who is in need of professional help.
The observer of this troubling and apparent abnormal behavior has his own compliment of attributes for the problematic "inventor." Characterizations aside, to persevere is seldom, if ever, a misrepresentation of the inventor. And so, those who did not persevere and did not attend the June 25,2005 NIA meeting missed a good one.
Patent Attorney, Mark Holmes captivated the membership with the many options, the strategies and decisions the inventor must address, if he/she hopes to achieve a win/win result in licensing the new product with a company otherwise known for getting products into the market place successfully.
If l heard correctly to get-rich-quickly was not an option the speaker stressed. Start up costs for the new product mount up quickly and if these dollar amounts bye paid to the inventor at the outset the capital resources are many times exhausted to the inventor. Rather, there seems to be over-riding emphases to achieve more of a partnership with the company with whom you hope will produce your product
It seems to make good sense. Work out an agreement whereby the inventor will receive an income stream through the years of the contract term and thus, through this balance of capital expenditures and income flow can very well be best realized for the mutual advantage of both parties involved. Win/win is the objective and the goal.
Parenthetically, my interest was piqued when Mark Holmes mentioned that he has been associated with the San Francisco Patent Law Firm, Townsend and Townsend, the people who did the patent work for four of my patents, one of which was Canadian. And, for the record, I have no regrets.
And once again, we were happy to have Larry Udell, invention promoter par excellence, at our meeting, his hand -outs and his words always boasting of the adventure of inventing! Thank you Larry for whatever behind the scenes you share for bringing Mark Holmes to raise our awareness in areas we best not be blind to.
Giving away your product? King Gillette led the way with marketing premiums
In January Proctor & Gamble announced the intent to buy Gillette for $57 billion dollars. If your great grandfather had bought a share of Gillette Safety Razor co. at its 1903 price, his $2 investment would be worth $1 .14 million today.
Who knew the first 40 years of Gillette's marketing innovation would redefine the advertising and promotional industry? ? At first many of those innovations were driven by one man, - King Camp Gillette.
Born in Fond du Lac, WI in 1855 King Gillette came from a privileged family. Mom a graduate from Albion College was a best selling cookbook author and how to guide to young housewives. Dad was a hardware merchant and sometimes inventor who encouraged his sons to be entrepreneurs.
Gillette was a frustrated salesman until he met William Painter, the inventor of the modern bottle cap. Painter encouraged Gillette to invent something small and had a repurchase rate. "But how many things are there like corks, pins and needles?" he wondered.
One morning he was shaving with a dull straight razor. He pondered, "why not a razor with a handle and a thin blade that the user could throw away?" Eureka!
He approached MIT for advice on how to manufacture the blade. The academicians told him it couldn't be done. "If I had been technically trained, I would have quit, or probably never have begun," he admitted. Friends would meet him on the street with "well, Gillette how's the razor?" and walk away roaring at the folly of his obsession.
Fortunately, Gillette met MIT engineer graduate Emery Nickerson. Nickerson brought his knowledge to bear on the problem and Gillette's dream came true.
Gillette's razors were an instant hit, despite the cost. The "handle" or razor sold for the huge price at the time of $5. Retailers were getting $10 for a blade that cost the company $.01 to make, and was replaced every five days.
Eventually the board of directors of Gillette realized they were in the blade business and not the razor business. With that, an early tie in occurred with Wm. Wrigley, Jr. Co. The gum firm wanted to introduce a new flavor, so they bought 1 million razors at $.15 each. The offered the razors free by mail with proof from gum pack.
Wrigley joked to a Gillette executive that he should have gotten the razors for free considering all the publicity it generated. The Gillette executive answered, "PK gum could only have been introduced by the Gillette razor." Later, all kinds of companies clamored to tie-in with the razor that delivered an upscale male audience. Some of these deals generated 10 times the sales of the Wriggley offer.
Advertising was enormously important to sales for Gillette. In 1910, Gillette used baseball great Honus Wagner to extol the benefits of the razors. The company's association with Major League Baseball ranks as the longest continuous sponsorship of any sport. The first sponsorship was the 1938 world Series for $100,000. Gillette was the exclusive radio sponsor for the series for years and in the late 1 950's it carried over to television.
However, its greatest sponsorship invention was the "Gillette Cavalcade of Sports," first heard on radio in 1941. Oriented toward boxing, the weekly series embraced a host of other sports.
Once again, Gillette was showing other marketers how to capture the male audience by owning the sports events of the era and bombarding the listening audience with its commercials and. sports related promotions.
By the 1940's the company was giving away its razors with the knowledge that once consumers owned the razor, they would keep using Gillette blades. Generations grew up asking, "How can they afford to give away this razor?" Never realizing the company made its money on blade sales. At its height it owned 70% of the blade business.
Sadly, the founder King Gillette, whose images was on the wrapper of every blade sold, did not fare so well. He died in 1932 nearly bankrupt from poor investments and taxes. The company gave the near penniless widow, Atlanta, a $200 per month pension in 1939.
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