Tag: Miscellaneous

The Best Part of This Job

The best part of this job, by far and away, is the opportunity to work with extremely talented and enthusiastic inventors. In general, patent law is fun because the patent agent/attorney generally deals with happy, optimistic, and creative people. I often tell people that patent law is unique in that I only deal with happy people. There is no nastiness, fighting, heated arguments, or bad feelings. I suppose that may not be true when dealing with some examiners at the USPTO, but my experience is that a vast majority of the examiners are civil, intelligent, competent, and want to find a good solution.

Over the course of a year, I may have personal contact with maybe a hundred or more inventors. In many cases, these people are solid engineers, scientists, or developers who have identified a problem and solved the problem in an elegant manner. These inventors are the bread and butter of my day to day job, and they are always pleasant and responsive and working with them is a joy.

Subtle Effects of New Patent Rules – Changes to Inventor Recognition Programs

The new patent rules will cause many ripple effects throughout the practice of patent law. One thing that should be considered is how inventor recognition programs play into the new rules.

Patentably Defined

I try to avoid discussing other blogs in my blog, mostly because I like to focus on writing content. However, I ran across Patentably Defined, a blog written by patent prosecutor Michael Kondoudis. Mike’s deep understanding of patent prosecution comes out in practical, easy to implement tidbits.

Working Effectively Means Having The Right Equipment

I have been using a multiple monitor system for about a year, but I recently upgraded. I was using a system with two 21 inch monitors that sat side by side in landscape mode. As I got used to the system, I would generally display a document that I was writing, a PDF of drawings, and a MindManager map of notes from a meeting all at the same time.

Even with two big 21 inch monitors, I had trouble trying to get everything on the screen at one time.

Two Years of Blogging

It has been about two years since I stumbled onto blogs and began my own. I can heartily attest that it has been a very rewarding experience in several ways.

The Check is in the Mail or I'm Working From Home

Which is the biggest lie? When I was working in the corporate world, with the specter of layoffs in the air and whispered sightings of tall men in hooded capes carrying scythes wondering the halls, our human resources representative sent out a widely broadcasted voicemail about the perilous situations of our jobs while she was “working from home”. The funny thing was that in the background of the voicemail, you could hear the frolic of young children and the splash of water.

New Look and Feel

After a good bit of work, I have released the new look and feel for the remainder of the website, having done the blog a little while ago.

I am using Expression Engine to do the templating and layout, as well as manage the content. I have a few more bells and whistles to add. I especially want to link the ‘static’ and ‘blog’ sides of the website, so that blog content may be integrated into the static side. I have a bunch of ideas, but not as much time as I would like to implement them. You know how it is.

New Look and Feel

For over a year, I have been wanting to launch a new look and feel for my website and blog. The website is not up and running, but I am ready to kick the blog out of the basement and get it into the light. I have not been able to post as much as I would like, since I have been tweaking little things on the new blog.

The Required End of Year Post

Reflecting on the past year, especially having read my end of year post from 2004, I have accomplished much more than I generally think I have. In the day to day grind of getting work out the door and taking care of the small things, it is easy to lose sight of the big strides of progress that are being made.

Just a Patent Examiner

The anonymous Just a Patent Examiner is back, or at least still has the blogging itch.

This blog was so rich in content, tackling some complex behind the curtains processes of the US Patent Office, that it is easy to see why the Anonymous Examiner was burned out from blogging. The posts were detailed, well explained, and long. That kind of pace cannot be kept up forever.