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In This Issue
Featured Article
What Should be Patented?
Voicemail Jail
Skyminder+
Letters to the Editor
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Breakfast Seminar 

Our 4/19 Breakfast seminar was well attended with lots of good questions. See our new Facebook page for more information.  If you attended (or missed it) and want a copy of the PowerPoint, Please email me.

New Website
Checkout our brand new website. Just    Log on to www.bmllc.net. Also please tell us what you think.  We are always looking to make it better.

Expedited Patent Examination for Seniors

I have just learned that the US patent office will offer their expedited service, which reduces the examination time from 18 months to as little as 3 months is free to those 65 and older. See Section IIIB of this link.



Letters to the Editor

Section at the End of this Newsletter

 

 

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 Newsletter - May 2016
 
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What Should be Patented 
(as opposed to what can be patented)

Every once in a while I hear from a customer or read about some invention that received a patent that the customer or reader thinks should not have.  Often these patents conflict with the economic interest of the reader.  For example many software people are of the opinion that "everything should be free"  and are particularly opposed to patents on software tools that they may use , arguing that those tools should have been "open source". 

 Other times their arguments are a bit less self serving, in arguing that a particular invention should not have been patented because it has been known and used by experts in the field for years. This latter argument holds more weight because it aligns with the obviousness rule for patentablity.  Anything which was known in the public domain (prior art)  at he time a patent was filed is not patentable. 

 
Also,  many inventors do not know this, but it is possible for someone to contest the issuance of a patent and request a re-examination.  So if you encounter a patent which truly inhibits what you want to do and you are sufficiently motivated to spend money to try to overturn it, you do have the re-examination option.

 
You may not even have to invoke re-examination.  As a result of the America Invents Act a post grant review
has been added after the issuance of a patent during which time anyone can contest its issuance.

 Under the new Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, any third party can challenge the validity of an issued patent using either post-grant review under 35 U.S.C. § 321 orinter partes review under 35 U.S.C. § 311. Both proceedings are effective September 16, 2012.[2]-- Wikipedia

  
One of the more famous ridiculous inventions to be granted a patent is "Swinging Side to Side"-  I recently learned that patent had been voided owing to re-examination (see below).  Since this patent had been laughing stock for years my guess is the patent office decided to rid itself of this embarrassment.

Method for swinging on a swing

"U.S. Patent 6,368,227 entitled "Method of swinging on a swing" was issued in 2002 to applicant Steven Olson, the young son of a patent attorney who applied for the patent to teach his son about the patent system.

 This patent was filed shortly after business method patents became allowable under the US patent law due to the 1998 State Street decision; it was not, however, a business method, but rather simply a method or process patent. The patent claimed an improved method for a child to swing on a swing.

The PTO director ordered a reexamination, and the claims were subsequently rejected. The patent owner elected not to appeal. A reexamination certificate was issued canceling all the claims."

So if you are troubled by a patent that you feel may inhibit your operations and you think it should not have been granted, you do have options ranging from Post Grant Review,  to Re-Examination.  Contact us and we will  help you decide what to do .


email  rblazey@businessmetamorphosis.com 
or  give us a call at  (585) 520-3539  

ITTr Logo 
Voicemail Jail

As someone  who does a lot of calling I frequently encounter Voicemail Jail.  You know the story.  You call a company and instead of getting a helpful human you get an unhelpful computer who asks you to type in the extension of the party you are trying to reach (when of course you have no idea of what their extension is, and may not even know the name of the party but only their title. 

Or you are asked to select numbers from a menu, none of which fit and each number then sends you to another voicemail.
Of course sometimes you do get a human who will then forward your call to someone who may or may not be the right person to talk to.  A great deal of the time this person never calls you back.

In this article I will draw   for advice on Sales Coach Jeffrey Gitomer.  He has an audio program on Voicemail that I strongly recommend.

Here are some teachings from that audio:
  • Leave a message - the question is not whether to leave a message  but what to say-
    • Example: "Mr Jones the question is-What is the ad headline that get the best response"
  • The format is ask a question and offer an answer or the reverse the key is the question has to be about the customer
  • The Most effective method: - Have something of value for the other person-
    • Such as: 3 ways to keep employees on the job. Give out 2. Then say "sorry no time left", call me for the third way.
    • Critical Facts-about their business- 
  • Practice-- Use some humor
  • Voicemails   must be interesting, compelling and have value and a valid reason to respond to it.  Else it will not get returned.
To follow Jeffrey's method you need to gather information that the prospect will find valuable.  That could be information about their company, their industry or anything else that has the potential to make their company more productive and profitable. Jeffrey suggests collecting a number of these "bullet points" and dispensing them in successive voicemails.  Ideally the points you share will both help the prospect and also enhance their chances of connecting with you.   It will take some work but it should pay off in an increasing number of returned voicemails and with that an increase in your business.  Properly done the time you commit to this reasearch should pay for itself.

If you would like some help from ITTr in contacting potential buyers or licensees for your technology,  give us a call or send us an email.  We are always glad to help.

For information write to rblazey@ittrifecta.com or call (585) 520-3539

Penguin Logo
Skyminder+

For some time, Penguin has offered a product called First Look. First Look allows the purchaser to collect up to 80% of the material which would be contained in a Due Diligence report without the very high cost that these searches usually entail.

Part of the report is a review of the credit history of the subject company. Credit histories have been the main business of Skyminder, which is provided by C3 Business Information.  ( http://www.skyminder.com/ and http://www.c3bizinfo.com/)

In the past, Penguin and C3 created an arrangement where C3 would supply the credit history for Penguin's First Look reports. 

Now Penguin and C3 are in discussions about renewing that relationship. The relationship offers benefits to both sides. Penguin's First Look customers get the benefit of the high quality credit reports that C3 has been providing for years.

C3 customers are able to obtain the additional content supplied by Penguin. Penguin's reports include such items as:

  • Company Background
  • Company Organization
  • Company Numbers
  • Financial Numbers
  • Product Service Lines
  • News Articles/Publicity
  • Legal/Regulatory
  • Intellectual Property
  • Competitors
First Look information is available at three different depths. The least expensive, Bronze, offers a selection of the most popular categories from the above list. Silver allows customers to select up to a given number of categories. Gold provides access to all levels. See this link for more information

Each one of those categories is divided into many subcategories so there is a great deal of choice. Penguin can customize clients' selections.

If you would like to evaluate a company or group of companies at a fraction of what you might otherwise pay, give us a call at the Rochester Penguin Group
We appreciate your responses to our newsletters.  Please send us your comments.  We are always interested in what you want to know.  See the New Letters to the Editor link in the block below
 
Sincerely,
 

Richard Blazey
Business Metamorphosis LLC

Comments and Letters to the Editor

 

To Readers of the BML Newsletter:

 

Many of you have wished to comment on articles in the newsletter and up until now there has been no mechanism to do so.  Now if you wish to comment you can just reply to this article.  Please mention the issue of the Newsletter (Month, Yr) and the title of the article you are commenting on.  Add your name if you wish

 

Best Regards,

 

Dick Blazey

 




 

Disclaimers 

 
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