Flash of Genius
L8 nuz
before, but didn’t know what to believe. So I’ve just seen one of the
no-nonsense horror movies: “Flash of Genius.” While mediocre from an
aesthetic perspective, the idea of the little genius being screwed by
the big balls is decently well highlighted.
Now I can understand that someone with only one invention (on the
market) can get paranoid, even more so when he thought he got a multi-
million $$ deal from Ford. The invention wasn’t great (from an
academic POV), but timely. I didn’t read the patent, but I can design
that mechanism in less than a day. It’s not about the Big Bang or the
Theory of Relativity – the Tokyo Drift. It’s about a guy making some
sense about driving on a rainy day. Indeed: it rains with different
intensities, so it’d make sense to have intermittent wipers (doing the
job at different speeds).
What actually bothers me is that the lil’ genius (“genius” my ass in
this movie/circumstances, but there are tons of genuine bright fellas
out there) couldn’t handle it: a professor didn’t have the brains to
HANDLE IT!
As I see it: have the common sense to not make a big deal of your
first invention/script and attempt to sell it. I know it’s a tough
request, but it worked for me: get drunk and at the next morning
coffee you’ll have another (and brighter?) idea. BUT if your FIRST
Intellectual Property is indeed a knockout and you are well educated/
read/cultivated and therefore YOU KNOW you have “a knockout” never let
the fuckers do you! NEVER!
With a wife and 6 kids I would have taken the Ford’s offer.
Without “a wife and 6 kids” I can afford to have a backbone, one of my
numerous examples being, in this movie circumstances of attacking the
big guys: www.sCCAmmed.com
He declined $30M (only to end up with $10.1M in the court, as the
movie goes) just to be recognized. Recognized by who/m? 99.9999999999%
of this planet’s inhabitants are plain imbeciles! The “invention” was
no big deal: it was just one rain away for any driver that would agree
that 2 + 2 = 4.
danger...@gmail.com
> What is the real story? Not rumors, myths, BS. I’ve read some stuff
> before, but didn’t know what to believe. So I’ve just seen one of the
> no-nonsense horror movies: “Flash of Genius.” While mediocre from an
> aesthetic perspective, the idea of the little genius being screwed by
> the big balls is decently well highlighted.
The actual story is well documented, though my recall of it has faded.
The guy was an obsessive type who hung in long after most people would
have given up or settled. But it made a great David vs Goliath tale,
the sort that everyone loves.
In most cases, patents are used by large companies to do battle with
one another, or to crush smaller players. The cost of intellectual
property litigation is so high and the outcomes so risky, ordinary
folks like you and me do best to stay out of the invention business
altogether. The patent system is totally corrupt and no longer
functions as originally conceived. For example, a device that we
patented in 1987 has been repatented no fewer than three times.
Once in a while, a stubborn idiot like Wiper Man or Laser Guy rises up
from the gray masses and fights. Most of the time, they're driven to
poverty by legal costs, but once in a while, someone wins...
'Flash of Genius' is the name of legal doctrine in which a true
inventor gets his idea in a lightning flash from Heaven, not as the
result of day to day slogging in the normal course of his work. This
doctrine is now obsolete, what with people re-patenting old inventions
and silly things like pie charts and training manuals.
Dangerous Bill
L8 nuz
“The patent system is totally corrupt and no longer functions as
originally conceived.”
Not to mention that: A. the patent search costs you a ton of $$ or
time (if you do it yourself) or both; B. once you have the patent,
most of the big businesses won’t review it due to the NIH syndrome; C.
the working prototype (if you have the means to build one) will
collect dust instead of glory, like mine did. Here’s the story:
I met some business advisors to present my idea. They asked: “What, no
working prototype?” But they liked the idea so much that they went out
of the standard protocol and set up an appointment for me with a multi-
millionaire venture capitalist (who also happened to be a bank owner).
So I built the damn prototype in a rush and, a few days later, I went
to the banker: five other inventors there and a university professor
looking for money for some research; I was the third one to present my
stuff.
The first inventor had no working prototype: he briefly explained his
idea and went on with a solid business plan. It was all about money:
how much you invest and what’s the return in the first, second … tenth
year. Obviously I had no business plan, just my stupid prototype that
the business advisors asked me about.
The university professor was next with a knockout Power Point
presentation. Gorgeous graphics and numbers, numbers, numbers
explaining why the banker will have a handsome return (and how soon)
if he’ll invest in that research. Not to mention that the research lab
will bear the banker’s name.
Needless to say that my presentation was a total fiasco: the banker
couldn’t care less about my glorious working prototype. He only cared
about numbers and the $ sign. And I had no business plan or flashy
Power Point. I instantly called my supervisor and asked him to
disregard my resignation …
“For example, a device that we patented in 1987 has been repatented no
fewer than three times.”
Keep yer eyes opened and if the product will hit the market make sure
you hit the Jackpot. The date of a patent application DOES matter and
if your patent application has the right claims you can’t end up but a
winner. As I see it it’s a good thing that 3 other entities are
advertising YOUR product/invention. Let them spend their $$ and energy
and just be ready to cash in (money for infringement included).
danger...@gmail.com
> The first inventor had no working prototype: he briefly explained his
> idea and went on with a solid business plan. It was all about money:
> how much you invest and what’s the return in the first, second … tenth
> year. Obviously I had no business plan, just my stupid prototype that
> the business advisors asked me about.
That's what venture capital is all about. You were lucky to get a
hearing with them at all. The idea is not as important as the business
plan, which includes, above all, the 'exit strategy', or how the money
men get to cash it all in for money at the end of three, five, seven
years. They're not in it to be a charity.
This experience will make it easier to do next time, if you still have
the heart.
> “For example, a device that we patented in 1987 has been repatented no
> fewer than three times.”
>
> Keep yer eyes opened and if the product will hit the market make sure
> you hit the Jackpot.
The patent has expired. The device has been built all over the world
by a half dozen companies but never achieved commercial success. The
patent is in the list of citations "Sensor Array for Toxic Gas
Detection" U.S. Patent 4,670,405, 1987. This is an article on it.
http://electrochem.cwru.edu/encycl/art-n01-nose.htm
DB
L8 nuz
I checked it out and it’s interesting. Just outta curiosity: how did
you try to market/sell it? Your electronic nose/micronose (that won
the European Korber Prize for Science in 1998*??!!) might have been of
interest for the military (assuming that they didn’t already have a
better toy). Now in that field you don’t deal with Abdul that can’t
understand your English, so what was your strategy?
* in 1998 your 1987 patent wasn’t expired (don’t they last 17 years?).
So how come you didn’t do anything about that “European Korber Prize
for Science”? Was the patent for US only?
I was out of the inventing business for the past 5 years: it sucks! I
ventured my hand in the scriptwriting bullshit and guess what: it
sucks even worse. But at least you don’t have to do the patent search
and pay thousands for a patent: a copyright or a WGA is way cheaper.
danger...@gmail.com
> I checked it out and it’s interesting. Just outta curiosity: how did
> you try to market/sell it? Your electronic nose/micronose (that won
> the European Korber Prize for Science in 1998*??!!) might have been of
> interest for the military (assuming that they didn’t already have a
> better toy).
We actually built the thing for the Coast Guard, to identify chemical
vapors found in ships about to enter US harbors and rivers. It was
years later we discovered its value as a substitute for the human
nose. It could discriminate Coke from Pepsi, Diet Coke from Diet
Pepsi, and fresh, frozen and reconstituted orange juice. The USDA gave
us money to build a version for grading moldy or sour grain.
Almost every company that's tried to market this device has failed. We
sold just four units by 1993, but our business didn't depend on that
product. Word is, some wineries and cosmetic companies in Europe are
using versions of it, but they are very secretive about everything
they do, so there's no way to be sure.
> * in 1998 your 1987 patent wasn’t expired (don’t they last 17 years?).
> So how come you didn’t do anything about that “European Korber Prize
> for Science”? Was the patent for US only?
Note the 'European' part. In the US, we won three awards for it, but
there's hundreds of awards around, some to be had just by applying. In
addition to my truly generous salary, I got $33.33 (less withheld tax)
as my share of an Inventor's Award at the establishment where I
worked.
Patents now have a 20 year life, but you have to pay maintenance fees
at 8 years and a couple more times during the life of the patent. We
didn't bother, since we realized that the value of the patent was
minimal. Anyway, we didn't own the patent, the lab did.
Most of the time, a patent is a bad idea. It costs a lot, and you
*must* defend it if infringed, or you lose the right to defend it
later. And a patent suit can bankrupt you, even as plaintiff. Patents
are toys for rich corporations.
I market four products now, none of which are patented.
DB
The Starmaker
you can find out which patents are being infringe upon, then buy those
patents and sue the infringer.
if you want to make money with scripts, find out what scripts have just
been sold,
re-arrange the words, and sell it to a competing studio.
(for a fee...i'll break in the WGA office at night..put your stolen
script in their computers registerd with an earlier date.)
Mark
> (for a fee...i'll break in the WGA office at night..put your stolen
> script in their computers registerd with an earlier date.)-
That's illegal.
danger...@gmail.com
> you can find out which patents are being infringe upon, then buy those
> patents and sue the infringer.
Not a joke. There are holding companies whose entire business is to
buy patents likely to be infringed. Once a lawsuit is filed, the
defendant compares the costs and risks of litigation against the cost
of settling, and generally pays up.
Often, the patents are just repatenting of an old idea. Many of them
are 'submarine' patents, worded in such a way that they are unlikely
to be found in ordinary patent searches. If you see a patent with a
vaguely worded title, or a title that doesn't match the contents, it's
probably a submarine.
The patent office will pass anything these days, the idea being to let
the courts sort it out. Everybody wins. Almost everybody.
DB
The Starmaker
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
beano
<danger...@gmail.com> wrote:
---SNIP--------------
>
>Patents now have a 20 year life, but you have to pay maintenance fees
>at 8 years and a couple more times during the life of the patent. We
>didn't bother, since we realized that the value of the patent was
>minimal. Anyway, we didn't own the patent, the lab did.
>
>Most of the time, a patent is a bad idea. It costs a lot, and you
>*must* defend it if infringed, or you lose the right to defend it
>later. And a patent suit can bankrupt you, even as plaintiff. Patents
>are toys for rich corporations.
>
>I market four products now, none of which are patented.
>
>DB
So have I got this right, don't bother patenting unless you are a big
player or rich because all you are doing is handing a great idea or
product to thieves all over the world?
Just market your product yourself for as long as you can before the
burglars overtake your sales? The better your idea the sooner that'll
happen?
I really didn't want to abandon my "great" ideas, so what's the middle
ground?
danger...@gmail.com
> I really didn't want to abandon my "great" ideas, so what's the middle
> ground?
The ideal product is something for a niche market that's too small to
interest a big player.
Put a 'patent pending' sticker on it somewhere. Not as effective as it
once was, because the patent office now files patent applications. It
used to be that a patent was hidden from the public for the 1-5 years
it took to go through the process.
Make the product and market the hell out of it before the knockoff
artists can move on it.
DB
danger...@gmail.com
<dangerousb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Put a 'patent pending' sticker on it somewhere. Not as effective as it
> once was, because the patent office now files patent applications.
I meant, they publish applications so anyone can see them.
DB