Rethink(IP) - Eavesdrop

Peer to Peer - Revenge of the Sith

Another reader asks:

I was wondering why downloading a copy of the Revenge of the Sith (or any
movie) is illegal when I have paid to go see it in the first place? I paid
to see it, I have it in my mind of what happens, why can't I just "increase
the resolution" of the mental picture by having an electronic copy?

So, what do you guys think?

-- Douglas

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re: Peer to Peer - Revenge of the Sith

Being that most of our readers are lawyers and law students...this
question makes me shake my head.

I shall answer your question with a question: If you pay once, can
you keep going back to the theater to see it again and again for
free? Why can't you???? That's not fair!!!

It reminds me of a TechnoLawyer question a few months ago wherein an
attorney asked other attorneys whether or not downloading .mp3s from
a Russian site for $0.01 per song was "legit."

-- Steve

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Corp. Blogging Policies and IP

A reader inquired:

With all the talk about blogging policies going on in the blogosphere,
what does the rethink(ip) team think about the issue? For example,
should technology companies how a more stringent blogging policy
relating to intellectual property? What about academic institutions
where professors tend to collaborate and "self-publish" research
results. Should larger research companies and institutions create
"blogging compliance" officers to monitor blogs of employees to see if
they are sharing employer owned intellectual property?

-- Douglas

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RE: Corp. Blogging Policies and IP

I personally don't see it any worse than the risk of disclosure via e-
mail, chat programs, Internet forums, etc. A company should make it
clear that regardless of the forum...confidential information is not
talked about AND other concerns should be addressed (speaking about
competitors, comments on how the company operates, etc.).
Ultimately, blogging is no worse of a risk than anything else.

--Steve

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RE: Corp. Blogging Policies and IP

Wow. Great question. Employee blogs create many tough issues, intellectual
property being only one of them. But, that's what we're here for so let's
tackle that one.

Release of company intellectual property, intentionally or inadvertently, by
employees is an old problem. Blogs are simply a new technology that provide
a new mechanism for the release to be made. In that sense, existing
policies can be applied to this new technology - business organizations
should take appropriate action when releases occur. Because blogs make it
so easy to publish information to the public at large, I think that special
controls are in order for some organizations. Once it is known that one or
more employees are running relevant blogs, I would be sure to make it
someone's job to monitor the content of the blog. Ideally, the responsible
person would have knowledge of the organization's intellectual property and
would be a part of a group that understands the rights and duties involved.
The legal group seems like the best candidate.

I would not, however, establish a "blog compliance" system of manuals and
officers, seeing that as having potential to be restrictive on the
employee's rights.

-- Matt

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Patent Course Study Aids

Hey guys, we got this question to RTIP:

"For those of us that are attempting to become patent agents/attorneys, it
would be helpful to hear what study aids are considered to be worth the
money, and which are the best value. I intend to take the test in about six
months, so I need to pick something and start studying."

For me, the best money spent is on Professor Kayton's Patent Bar
review course - it is the only course that our associates attend and
consistently has the highest pass rankings. I would suppose that one
could spend the time and effort to simply study the MPEP on your own
and look at the materials the Patent Office makes available (old exams
etc.) - but I think it is worth the added investment to spend the
money and take Kayton's class.

What do you guys think?

-- Douglas

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Re: Patent Course Study Aids

I almost passed the exam while in law school and then retook it after
I started working (using my old West study course). Honestly, the
test is 500% easier after you have some experience
(apprentice)...suddenly the real stupid answers jump out at you. If
you can eliminate the stupid answers...the test is considerably easier.

The other thing you have to remember is that none of the three of us
took the current exam (electronic). We were all able to bring in
summaries, outlines, indexes, etc. I wouldn't have wanted to take
the exam without them.

-- Steve

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Re: Patent Course Study Aids

I agree with both of my cohorts. Experience not only helps, but I
think increases your odds of passing exponentially. Kayton's course
is the best. Unfortunately, its also the most expensive (funny how
that works out, eh?). My advice -- don't cut corners here. Take the
Kayton course...it will help you pass and will also give you valuable
information that actually applies to the practice. Not many bar
review courses (of any kind) can say that.

-- Matt

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Meow - Should We?

Ok guys - I got the Meow up and running. Basically it is a process by which we can let people look at our email messages back and forth and see what we talk about - basically they can eavesdrop in on our conversations.

What do y'all think?

-- Douglas

re: Meow - Should We?

I'm not sure I "get" it. Why would we use it? When?

Are you sure anyone cares?

Won't the Between Lawyers crowd be annoyed...

Convince me...'cause I don't get it.

-- Steve

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re: Meow - Should We?

Bizarre. Now we have to take a leap of faith and believe that people
actually want to read our e-mail. Is it reality blogging?

-- Matt

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re: Meow - Should We?

I'm still clueless, but that's nothing new. I don't see why people
bought pet rocks either.

Let's give it a whirl.

Could we create seperate e-mail addresses for this? Then we could flip the switch on a topic by just starting a thread there, instead of pulling in all of the hot air.

Say someone sends us a Q, and we decide to rethink it for them. Flip
the switch by sending a "Ok boys, time to rethink" e-mail out to the
MEOW-enabled addresses. Then, we tackle the Q within those
addresses...all of it captured by the kitty behind the curtain (I',
assuming Toonces is running the show on the MEOW thing...).

-- Matt

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Patent Searching

Rethink'rs - we received this email message - any thoughts?

********

I am not a patent lawyer by trade but find the topic interesting and try
to keep informed. I became curious about this issue after seeing a few
of the websites that offer this type of service and comparing that to
what my colleagues have told me the typical fee is for a physical patent
search that so many of the "big" firms still use. Is it the norm in IP
practice to still physically send a person down to the USPTO or is that
a practice that has fallen largely by the wayside. My suspicion is that
much like other areas of the practice of law, the use of physical
searches is somewhat of a vestige and tool of older attorneys who don't
really think about efficiency or cost effectiveness for their clients.
This stems also ties in to the discussion on your other website
(rethink(ip)) about the billable hour and the evils that concept
entails.

Posted using Meow

RE: Patent Searching

I've never seen a review of patent searching services.

I can't opine on what the industry does...only on what I do (for simple mechanical searches). I use a patent searcher in DC who does the physical side (determines appropriate classification and then digs through the PTO paper files...old school). He does it very economically (again, simple mechanical applications) and sends me the results (usually the 5-10 best patents he finds) by email within a couple weeks. If he doesn't knock it out I usually spend at least a little while doing my own keyword search supplementing his results.

I guess we still use old school for simple mechanical 'cause it is so economical (and we can pass the savings on to our clients).

-- Steve

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RE: Patent Searching

Interesting questions -

I started in Chicago, so we would fly out at 6am, do searches all day,
and fly back that night. Can't do that from Oklahoma.

We also hire a searcher in Washington DC to do our searches -- for
mechanical inventions where the applicant can use any number of terms,
searching electronically by keyword is almost useless. Chemical, bio
and electrical - we can do most of that over the Internet and do keyword
searching.

My practice differs from Steve somewhat - most of my inventors are the
experts in their fields (bio and chem) and they are usually the best
folks to be doing searching and review. As a consequence, I don't do
much searching prior to filing anymore -- they would know if there was
anything out there and we err on the side of filing an application and
seeing what will come out of it. I try not to foreclose the option of
protection on the front end of things.

The PTO has available on-site in Virginia an electronic database of
images where you can "flip" through the mechanical drawings of patents
one page at a time. If they ever make this available online -- it will
be a breeze to search classes of mechanical patents and look for prior
art. Until that time, there really isn't a better way to do a thorough
search online.

A couple of my clients have done the electronic route - they got crap
back. I have received some interesting emails from search firms in
India and the Canary Islands - offering to do electronic searching for
prior art. I haven't used them yet -- but I am thinking about giving
them a whirl just to see what they come up with.

-- Douglas

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