Category: Technology

Need to do a Patent Search?

Marine mammal communication device patent You’ve got a great idea. It is, or involves, an invention that you believe is new and unique. Sounds like you’ll need to do a patent search!

Those don’t have to be the only reasons to do a patent search, however. According to the McKinney Engineering Library at the University of Texas, there are other benefits:

  • getting a general idea of how an application and patent is structured to help in the preparation or your own application
  • learning more about a new field
  • for market information
  • competitor tracking
  • technology tracking

Searching for a patent in that humongous sea of complicated patents can be daunting. Fortunately, the William and John Schreyer Business Library of Penn State University offers a patent searching tutorial.

How daunting can this process be?

For example, patent examiners at the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) spend about twelve hours investigating each patent application to determine whether the invention it describes is patentable. During that time, the examiner consults an average of thirty-eight databases containing patent and non-patent literature to determine whether the invention has ever before been described.

Daunting. It’s worth checking out that tutorial if you’re going to do a patent search yourself. If not, you can hire a patent attorney.

But what if you’re bootstrapping? According to Inc. Magazine’s article “Can You Get a Patent without a Lawyer?“, the answer is YES. “Patent searching is confusing at first, but can be mastered with practice,” writes the author. “It is a research rather than a legal skill.”

Where can you begin your bootstrapped patent search operation? Why, online, of course! Here are some handy online patent search engines:

Good luck with your patent search!

The Value of Software Engineers

dshen.com Dave Shen just wrote an entry that made me laugh. Not in a Haha What a Funny Joke! way. More in a Hells Yea That’s Sure True way.

He wrote, “It Sucks to Not Be an Engineer…“, and talks about the difficulty of trying to start up a Web-based business without knowing how to programming or having software engineers by your side.

For non-engineers, it’s a tough to build a Web 2.0 company without being an engineer, or having one as a partner. You could hire an outsourced engineering firm but that could run your costs up to $30k to $100k per month for many months. You could raise that but you’d need 6-12 months to build something.
…
Best bet: Find an engineer or two and bring them on board with your concept.
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Second best bet: buy Ruby on Rails for Dummies and start programming.

True, too true. I know of a bunch of entrepreneurs who are searching endlessly for software engineers as well. Even those with growing businesses need more engineers.

Which means it’s a damn good time to be a software engineer. Hehe.

Biz Idea: Green Vehicle Service Stations

Toyota Prius Here’s a great idea. As green vehicles (like hybrid and electric vehicles) become more popular, there’s going to be a need for service stations that specialize in them.

These could be fueling/recharging stations. Or maintenance and general service stations. Or both.

Since green vehicles have different internal systems and parts than traditional gas-and-oil vehicles, they’re going to need specially-trained mechanics. Green vehicle owners will probably trust a service station that specializes in their cars, over a general-purpose service station too.

The stations could be outfitted with environmentally-friendly facilities. Like solar panels and energy-conservation equipment at the very least. Since a significant portion of green vehicles are within California, the first few pilot stations could start here.

Some of the challenges include still a relatively small (but growing) number of consumers, rapidly changing and advancing technology (which, operationally, would be a huge hurdle), a lack of parts suppliers, and a lack of trained mechanics. The break-even point may not be for a few years and would require significant capital. There’s also the real estate to worry about.

However, if you were to establish a presence and brand right now, by the time this trend hits the mainstream, you’ll have secured a strong position in the market.

I’d love to do this if I could, but don’t have the know-how or capital. But if you do, I’d love to put up some capital and help out in any way that I can!

Annoyancetech

Trend Hunter Magazine Over the weekend, a friend told me about a device that scrambles mobile phone signals. That means that no calls can be picked up by the mobile phones within this device’s range.

He knows a guy who regularly carries such a device into movie theaters and restaurants, so that he can enjoy a nice, quiet, mobile-phone-less evening.

Before you rush out to buy one, I should let you know that this device is illegal in the United States (sorry).

But don’t lose heart. There’s a new trend of devices called “annoyancetech” that basically provide relief from annoyances, according to Trend Hunter Magazine.

A slew of gadgets have been invented recently with a range of social applications, from a jacket that zaps gropers on the subway to a harmless device that gets dogs to stop barking, to the Xcuse box, a contraption that produces background noise for phone conversations to let you fool other (sic) about your actual whereabouts.

Think of all the great social applications! The next time someone tailgates you on the highway, there’ll be a device that starts flashing bright red warning lights saying “Back Off!” Or, the next time someone farts, there’ll be a device that emits the gentle counter-balancing scent of flowers. Or, gosh, the possibilities are endless!

VMware’s IPO

VMware You may have heard: VMware just had their IPO. They’re now listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VMW.

I’m going long on this company. I like their leadership and the fact that the President and CEO, Diane Greene, is a co-founder with previous CEO experience. She was the CEO of VXtreme, a streaming media technology company that was acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) in 1997.

I also love their products and have actually used their software before. As a front-end engineer trying to build web applications, you have to test your code across a large variety of web browser and operating system combinations. It’s a very tedious task. And it can be very costly if you go out and buy a separate computer for each use case.

Fortunately, VMware’s Desktop Virtualization Products can lower the financial burden considerably. Instead of five machines, you now only need one. Multiple that across an organization of hundreds of front-end engineers and you have mega moolah savings. I heart VMware.

There is a lot of buzz over VMware though, with the media calling it “the hottest tech IPO since Google (GOOG).” It’s easy to fall prey to the buzz and believe all the hype.

So if you’re thinking about buying some VMW yourself, don’t take my word for it. Here are two great articles pro and con their IPO for your enlightenment:

Books for Great Programmers

Code Complete Want to be a great programmer?

Here are a list of books that are must-reads for any great programmer, whether you work on the web, on mobile devices, for desktop software, or for NASA. They are language-independent and focus on the craft of programming, as drawn from real-world experience.

When I was a software engineering manager, I’d either have my team read these books, or cover chapters of them collaboratively during team meetings. The engineers who really read and applied these books were always noticeably better programmers.

Yea, it’s a short list. I don’t want my programmers to spend all of their time reading, right? Heh.

What other books do you think are must-reads for great programmers?

iPhones Sold Out – Not

Apple iPhone I know a few people who waited on line for the new iPhone. I’m sure you do too. The buzz & excitement has been huge. For the last few weeks, you couldn’t read a tech blog anywhere without reading about the new iPhone.

I even remember hearing that a scuffle broke out at the Palo Alto Apple (AAPL) Store. It’s like the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii all over again.

Except that this time, the iPhones… haven’t sold out?

Ars Technica just reported that there are still plenty of iPhones left.

24 hours ago, few thought it would be like this. Mad people were lining up in New York City days in advance of the sales. People camping out, people trying to sell their place in line for hundreds of dollars. And then there’s “Mike,” who I met at the North Shore Mall (just north of Boston), who walked in and bought his iPhone and accessories this morning, without so much as waiting in line 5 minutes. …

We’ve heard from readers who were standing in lines all over the country; those same readers are reporting that there are loads of iPhones left in NYC, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Indianapolis, and everywhere else.

Want one? No need to rush. Just mosey on over to your local Apple Store and I’m sure you’ll find one.

In Apple’s defense, it’s not that iPhones aren’t selling. They are. Perhaps they just stocked their inventory well. There are reports of sales volumes being in the thousands. Blackfriars’ Marketing predicts that 500,000 iPhones will be sold this weekend alone.

Damn!

If that happens, then I predict services like Cellswapper.com are going to explode. They’re going to get a ton of swappers soon, with new iPhone owners unloading their old phones.

And even better, if you’re in the market for a new cell phone, perhaps you can find a good deal here! I mean, think about it—there will soon be 500,000 iPhone owners desperately trying to give you their old phones & contracts. It’s a cell phone buyer’s market!