2007 Inductees to National Inventors Hall of Fame.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, OH announced today the 2007 class of inductees. Founded in 1973 by the USPTO and the National Council of Intellectual Property Law Associations, the Hall of Fame presently honors 313 inventors. To qualify, an inventor must hold a U.S. patent, and the invention “must have contributed to the welfare of mankind and have promoted the progress of science and the useful arts.”
Invention Quotes. (No. 1)
“Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.” - Willy Wonka.
JW Note: This whimsical quote relating to the nature of invention was recently brought to our attention. Do you have any invention- or patent-related quotes you’d like to share? Submissions are welcomed.
2008 Budget Proposal for USPTO.
According to this press release, the President’s fiscal year 2008 budget request for the USPTO is $1.916 billion. The press release also heralded the USPTO’s recent achivements, such as completing 332,000 patent applications in 2006, the largest number ever, while achieving the lowest patent allowance error rate (3.5%) in over 20 years. At 54%, the patent allowance rate in 2006 was also the lowest on record.
The press release further states that, if the budget is approved, the USPTO anticipates hiring an additional 1,200 patent examiners and to continue expanding the agency’s telework and electronic processing efforts.
The Patent Prospector has some interesting comments on the 2008 budget proposal here.
Review: How To Say What Stuff Looks Like.
How to Say What Stuff Looks Like: A Compendium of Descriptive Terminology by Tom Rieder is a book recommended for anyone preparing patent applications.
Need to precisely textually describe that shape? Is it toroidal or gibbous? A frustrum or an obelisk? Undulating or boustrophedonic? Combining descriptions with common, and not-so-common, synonyms, this book may help anyone find just the right term for nearly any common 2 or 3 dimensional mathematical shape, as well as many non-mathematical objects and concepts. The book even touches briefly on sequences, progressions, and graphs.
How to Say What Stuff Looks Like is 100 pages long, including the index, and will cost around $12. Well worth the price.