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This newsletter is for the benefit of: our customers both current and past, our workers , board members and friends including those of you we haven't talked to recently. Please feel free to forward to others who might be interested in our activities
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Why Applying for a Patent is like being a defendant in a trial
On April 20, Dick Blazey of BML will discuss the topic above at the Breakfast Seminar series held at the Radisson Inn and sponsored by the Independent Entrepreneurs Council (www.intentcouncil.org) . The seminar includes a continental breakfast which is included for a donation of $10 which may be waved for BML customers. Signup information and directions to the Radisson are on the IEC website a flyer will also be sent to our mailing list.
The topic of the talk is Patent Prosecution. Many of our clients have found themselves dismayed by what happens when they first encounter the patent examination process where the examiner is prosecutor, judge and jury. In this talk you will learn how to be prepared for what is coming and what to do when those office actions arrive. You will learn how not to be completely at the mercy of your patent attorney but will better understand what is going on and what you should be asking your attorney to do, such as which claims you want to defend and which you want to abandon. You will learn what is meant by "Three Strikes" and what your options are if you strikeout.
You will learn about "obvious combinations". Why the inventions that the examiner cites against you often look nothing like what you invented, and how the examiner can put together a Rube Goldberg arrangement of other patents and defy you to prove that those other inventors haven't already described your invention. This talk is a shortened version of a lengthy article on my blog. Come and listen to the talk and ask questions. If you can't attend you can always read the blog article on Bizmorph Blog
BML also offers a support service called "Second Opinion" for customers who need help with responding to Office Actions. Give us a call and we'll tell you all about it. |
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How saleable is your patent?
ITTr Offers free ROTH Scoring
For some time ITTr has used a system of 10 questions called a "ROTH" analysis to determine how far an invention is along the path to commercialization. When answered honestly the score on a 100 point scale gives a good indication of how saleable a patent is since in general the more commercialized a patent is , the easier it is to sell because costly uncertainties have been resolved in the development process. The table below indicates what a particular ROTH score might indicate.
One caveat, inventors who have no patent or a provisional patent should leave question 1 blank. We score such inventions as a percentage of 90 points (with question 1 excluded) instead of 100 points.
ROTH Analysis is free to anyone who fills out the form on ITTr website (scroll down the page to find the form). The score is returned by email and those inventors who are interested in exploring marketing their invention through ITTr will have a better idea of how easy it will be to sell their invention and will find things go smoother when they contact ITTr. Generally ITTr prefers to work with inventions with a ROTH score of 65 or higher.
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Market-Sonar is
Voice of the Customer Calling 
Market-Sonar is Penguin's Voice of the Customer calling product. Many marketing guru's recommend VOC over such other tactics as surveys, questionnaires and focus groups and for good reason.
The other tactics by drawing on preselected questions and known preferences often give an incomplete picture of a markets real preferences and issues. They are somewhat like a multiple choice test and hence constrict the answers that a subject can use.
VOC is open ended . With Market-Sonar while we prompt the customer with questions vetted by our client, we record everything they say including information they volunteer that was not anticipated in the questions list we provide. Often this is the most useful information we collect.
For example, One MS customer was sure that his product would appeal to computer service technicians. They uniformly disliked it. The reason, was not that they disliked the product, but that they felt they could do the same work themselves . This was an answer that was never anticipated by Penguin or by our client. Similarly auto parts companies loved the product and again it was for an unanticipated reason.
One never knows what is really in the customers mind. Our Voice of the Customer product, Market-Sonar uncovers that and that is what makes it so valuable
To learn more about Market-Sonar. Go to the Penguin Group website and download our brochure or flyer. If you want more information please contact us.
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