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 Newsletter - September 2013
  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.   

Perseverance Pays Off for BBS

 

Its a great privilege to celebrate the success of a client who refuses to give up through a very long and and difficult patent prosecution.

 

Our friends at Brooklyn Bagel Slicer BBS] began the patent process on their two Bagel Knives many years ago.   In the process they went through at least four patent applications , two different patent attorneys and at least one expert witness.

 

The Brooklyn Bagel slicers are unique Bagel knives with which you can  cut a bagel while holding it in your hand.   The team at BBS has never had much problem convincing the market of the value of their invention.   Convincing the patent office has been quite another matter.

 

I began helping BBS after they had already filed three patent applications and were near the end of their relationship with the patent attorney that wrote them.

 

To say that they drew a difficult patent examiner would be an understatement.  Even after the prior art arguments  that he had cited against BBS were defeated by their attorneys he was always able to find a previously uncited patent to use against their newest response to his office actions.

 

I'm glad I didn't do the initial patent search for BBS.  If I had I hope I might have turned up many of those prior art patents that the examiner continued to draw from his bottomless sack.  But one can never predict what an examiner will do, so I might have missed some of them but maybe there would have been fewer.

 

It was BBS that caused me to create the "Second Opinion" process of supporting inventors in patent prosecution.  I helped them  find a new patent attorney  and I even helped them find a "Subject Matter Expert"-- A cutlery expert chef, despite my knowing absolutely nothing about how to do that.

 

Despite all the obstacles and the many times that BBS considered giving up on the patent process, they persevered.  

 

We have recently heard from their patent attorney that their latest patent application has been accepted and barring unforeseen events,  a patent will soon issue on their inventions.

 

Kudos and congratulations to the "Little Engine that Could". They thought they could get a patent and they did.

 

To all my inventor clients, I hope that your trip through the patent jungle will be less arduous than theirs,  but if you would like help from a guide who has been there, just contact us.  If you are in patent prosecution, ask about "Second Opinion" or click on the link earlier in this article.

 

 

To contact us,  just send an email to rblazey@businessmetamorphosis.com or  give us a call at  (585) 520-3539  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Closing the Deal

 
ITTr Logo 
At ITTr we spend most of our time trying to find licensees for a patent and connecting  them to our clients.   When we finally succeed in doing that we begin the arduous facilitation process which hopefully  is the culmination of our efforts.
 
Its in this phase of the process that any mistakes we made along the way show up.   The better job we and the client have done in determining what the prospective buyer really wants (and what he is willing to pay for it),  the easier the process is.

We have talked about Facilitation before in this space.  One of the most important steps,  I've found,  is what  we call "Questions and Answers".  This process is actually similar to what I learned in a course on "Strategic Alliances"  and was there called "Tire Kicking".
 
You have to know not only what the buyers motivation is but what kinds of special incentives, issues,  internal problems and other landmines are out there that need to be dealt with before a deal can be closed,
 
It in Facilitation that the attorneys are brought in to put the deal into the form of a contract.   Contract Negotiation is an art in itself and beyond the scope of what we do at ITTr.   Our goals is to make sure the attorneys have at hand all the necessary information they need to turn the deal ( which initially exists in the minds of the parties and is dispersed throughout the files of both sides) into a legal agreement that both sides are willing to sign.
 
Its very important to understand the motivation of the other side and how they view the same issues that both are looking at.  You usually know what you want and why,  but its much harder to both understand the what and why of the other side and also to communicate your views to them without having the conversation degenerate into an argument.  This is the phase where endless emails and calls fly back and forth.
 
When that happens at the contract drafting stage, things can get very difficult and expensive, which is why the "tire kicking" is so important.
 
So do the Q&A segment well and hopefully the contract negotiation will be easier (and less costly as well).
 
If you would like  to learn how we can help just send an email to rblazey@ittrifecta.com  or  phone me at (585) 520-3539

OA As Pieces of a Puzzle

 

OA Logo 

The Opportunity Portfolio process taught and practiced by Opportunity Associates is a process.  That  process consists of a set of 4 modules,  yet it is very unusual for a prospective client to have the vision to see how all 4 modules work together to help them solve their problems.
 
Usually prospective OA clients only see the problems that they are facing.   They know that business in their industry is declining due to technological changes,  competition,  the activities of government or any other number of sources.
 
They know they can't go on just dong the same old thing and hope for success,  yet any other path seems fraught with risk.  Its unfamiliar, unknown and they are not prepared to deal with it.  It is for those reasons that many companies continue to follow the same old pathways long after they have ceased to be productive.
 
At OA our job is to offer our clients options that they didn't know they had.   To help them tease out of their activities and experience new directions that they could go in that might prove profitable and the solution to thier declining business.
 
However, as we teach in OA,  the best time to start developing these other alternatives is before you find yourself in a crisis of declining business headed into a death spiral.   By then it may be too late for us to help you.
 
If we think of "Opportunity Portfolio" as a puzzle,  one key piece is the opportunity inventory.   Even though this is the second module in the OP process, its a clear place for many businesses to start because it quickly shows them other directions that they might go in. 
 
But just to create that first list of options doesn't solve the problem.   Its necessary to fill in the details and constructively rank the options that you come up with in the inventory before deciding which ones to take action on.  And even then you have no immediate results,  just some hopefully well thought out ideas.
 
In the next stage of OP those ideas are turned into plans.    Its only when those plans are acted upon and start to produce results that the client can see any returns on their efforts.
 
While it would be nice to simply click a switch and change from a declining business to a growing one,  we all know that's impractical.   Our goal at OA is to help the clients through the process and keep their spirits up until their efforts start to show returns 
 
 

 

    

 

 ,  email me at rblazey@businessmetamorphosis.com or                             call (585) 520-3539

 

 
We appreciate your responses to our newsletters.  Please send us your comments.  We are always interested in what you want to know.
 
Sincerely,
 

Richard Blazey
Business Metamorphosis LLC
Disclaimers 

 
Please realize that this newsletter contains only our opinions on patent matters.  We are not authorized to give legal advice.  If you are seeking such advice please contact an attorney.
 

 

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