In response to recent court cases, the USPTO has dramatically revised its approach to dealing with a wide variety of patents. Its new guidelines to patent examiners on subject matter eligibility for inventions involving natural products seem to go way beyond the legal decisions on which they are allegedly based, adding extremely high barriers to patentability. …
Excluding Natural Products from Patent Protection? Read More »
Breaking news from the Province of Shandong in northern China: A Chinese paper company, Quanlin Paper (also called “Tralin Paper”) has successfully used its portfolio of patents and trademarks to secure a huge loan of 7.9 billion RMB (about $1.3 billion). Potentially significant story for those tracking IP and innovation in China. The story was …
Chinese Company Relies on IP to Gain Giant Loan: Lessons from Quanlin (Tralin) Paper Read More »
One of the great innovation killers in the Corporate world is the traumatic change that can come with a merger and acquisition. Through rough handling and several forms of neglect, some of the brightest would-be innovators for the transformed company can be driven out or, if they remain on board, turned from enthusiastic contributors to …
Don’t Let Mergers and Acquisitions Kill Innovation Read More »
Pictured to the left is my potato peeler/fruit peeler which I purchased in Shanghai. It is dutifully based on the design of typical peelers long sold by Western companies. But I suspect this imitation object was copied and manufactured by people unacquainted with the finer points of peeling potatoes. In peeling potatoes, one frequently encounters …
Innovation and Potato Peelers: Beware Cheap Imitations Read More »
A culture that can protect trade secrets is vital for innovative companies. Such a culture becomes especially important in collaborative innovation efforts where failure to protect trade secrets can severely damage partners and the offending company’s reputation. Chinese companies are increasingly recognizing the value of what the West calls “open innovation.†In fact, forms of …
Many large companies take a tortoise approach to innovation and stay as hidden within their shells as possible, even some who advocate open innovation. Tortoise companies may have creative R&D staff, including many scientists doing good work, but they keep these inventors hidden in the shell rather than encouraging them to publish or present their …
Tortoise Innovation: The Problem with Hiding in a Shell Read More »
Prisoners of Hope: How engineers and Others Get Lift for Innovating by Larry Vincent is an unusual book on innovation that I found to be a refreshing guide to strengthening innovation with great practical value. Part of what makes this book unusual and, for some, perhaps highly challenging, is that it is written from the …
Prisoners of Hope: Valuable Innovation Guide from Lanny Vincent Read More »
The photocopier, one of the most valuable inventions in the modern world, began with the all-consuming passion of one man, Chester Carlson, who sacrificed almost everything he had for years to realize his dream of “dry printing” using electrostatic means. In the end, he became wealthy and successful, but the years of effort required should …
I had the privilege of speaking at the Global IP and Innovation Summit, Sept. 4-5, Shanghai, organized by Managing IP, an outstanding IP magazine. This was a terrific conference with about 300 participants, opened with a keynote from the Acting Director of the US Patent and Trademark Office, Teresa Stanek Rea. I got to chat …
The hysteria against software patents continues around the globe, threatening to hinder the most important aspects of the knowledge economy in favor of clinging to old industrial age paradigms. The real problem with software patents has been the large number of poor quality patents issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office due to bad …