Archive for September, 2011

Patently Obvious – Sept 2011 Update

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

A new law signed by President Obama this month could mean a speedier patent approval process for inventors across the country.

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, regarded as the most sweeping patent law in 60 years, was passed on September 16, 2011. The law awards patents to the first person to submit an application, adopting the first-to-file over the first-to-invent system. The objective is to reduce lawsuits and streamline the patent process. “Somewhere in that stack of applications could be the next technological breakthrough, the next miracle drug, the next idea that will launch the next Fortune 500 Company,” said President Obama at the signing ceremony at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia.

While in the past, the patent process has been burdened with lawsuits that stifle innovation, the America Invents Act aims to streamline the patent process in order to foster innovation that will stimulate the economy and create new jobs as well as keep the U.S. competitive globally.

Glenn Henneberger, Partner at Hoffmann & Baron LLP, advises that under the new law, the party who files first will be granted the rights over subsequent filers regardless of who invented first. This makes it more important to file an application as soon as possible. The first to file provisions go into effect on March 16, 2013.

“You can’t wait to file,” says Henneberger, “From the time an inventor presents his information, it may take a patent attorney two to three months to prepare, review and revise the papers. A provisional application can be filed more quickly to gain an earlier filing date and allows the inventor one year to file the non-provisional application.” The best tip for inventors? File early and definitely file a provisional application.

Other implications of the American Invents Act pertain to changes that will reduce lawsuits. In false marketing lawsuits, private parties must prove damages, which should reduce the number of patent litigations. Business method patents will be looked at more closely to reduce lawsuits as well.

The new act provides a fee reduction for “Micro Entities” – small inventors who have had less than 4 patents to their name and with incomes less than 3 times the median household income.

Finally, the America Invents Act gives third parties an opportunity to participate in the examination process. Third parties may submit information to the patent office that could affect the scope of the patent process.

Thanks to Glenn Henneberger, Partner at Hoffmann & Baron, LLP for his contribution.

http://www.hoffmannbaron.com/ http://www.hbiplaw.com/

Glenn Henneberger is highly experienced in all aspects of intellectual property law with an emphasis on inter partes matters including patent and trademark litigation before the federal and appellate courts as well as the Supreme Court of the United States. He is also experienced in all phases of patent and trademark prosecution before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Practice expertise includes all phases of intellectual property law including litigation, licensing, reexaminations, foreign oppositions, product clearances, opinions, and domestic and foreign patent and trademark prosecution.

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Innovation: You Know You Want It, Now How to Implement It?

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

“Successful innovation is turning ideas into money,” as Innovation expert Nic Hunt so distinctly and accurately describes. Innovation is the ability to convert ideas into value for your company, customers and shareholders. Successful innovation is not a one time deal, but a process that delivers sustained, long term profitability. Any company can develop one or two innovations over the course of time, but having a focused vision will deliver sustainable innovation – producing profitable results for your company time and time again.

Implementing innovation depends on a disciplined strategy customized to the needs, size and culture of an organization. First determine what type of innovation you hope to achieve with your organization. Innovation can be incremental, which features a new process or way of doing business, or it can be transformative, which debuts an entirely new way to deliver value. Transformative innovations are few and far in between. These true game changers open up new businesses and markets. Organizations tend to use 80% of their resources on incremental enhancements, according to a 2003 study by the London School of Business. However, be warned that companies that focus entirely on incremental innovations have difficulty keeping up with new competitors that enter the field.

Understanding what your organization needs is very important in the New Product Development process. Know your innovation status and areas for improvement by completing a short audit at www.innovationcoach.com/solutions/short-audit based on Robert’s Rules of Innovations.

Once you solidify the goals of your organization, it’s time to assemble your NPD team and begin the innovation process. Be sure to complete a few relatively easy wins with your team earlier on in the process. This will not only build equity for your  program, but also gain attention from the high-ups in the organization right away.

Each organization must create their own clearly defined stages and steps of the NPD process. Here are some tips and insights for best practices.

  •           Do we go/no go? Set specific criteria for ideas that should be continued or dropped. Stick to the agreed upon criteria so poor projects can be sent back to the idea-hopper early on.
  •          Lean, mean and scalable. During the NPD process, keep the system nimble and use flexible discretion over which activities are executed. You may want to develop multiple versions of your road map scaled to suit different types and risk levels of projects.
  •         The rear-view mirror review. Organizations are doing launch post-mortems, with performance metrics in place, to measure project performance, establish team accountability, and build in improvements for the future. An examination of your last innovation process can gain some valuable key learnings. Foster a culture of continuous improvement in the innovation process.

For more tips and guidelines on developing the right implementation strategy, see  Robert’s Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival.

 

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Should You Reward Bad Ideas?

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

Some ideas are crazy. Some are underdeveloped. Some will fail. How can you deal with them without squelching your employees’ creativity?

True or false: There’s no such thing as a bad idea.

Of course bad ideas exist. In retrospect, the AOL-Time Warner merger was not the wisest idea. Neither is photocopying your face. But ask any number of innovation experts and they’ll all give you a different answer. Of course there is such thing as a bad idea. Or:Every idea has its merit. Or: It depends…

Within the context of innovation, how to handle bad ideas is a controversial topic because statistically speaking, most ideas are bad. Ninety-three percent of successful innovations start in the wrong direction and countless more never succeed. “In entrepreneurship, most ideas fail,” explains Roy Rosin, Intuit‘s vice president of innovation. “You either scale the wrong thing or you scale in the wrong direction. And it’s hard to predict.”

With no handy algorithm to identify good ideas, innovative companies have to accept that with every great, useful, idea, there will be many more that fall away. Unused ideas are frequently off-topic, underdeveloped, or poorly timed; however, this doesn’t make them bad. So should you reject these wayward ideas, or should you reward them?

Taken literally, rewarding bad ideas sounds preposterous. In competitive climates, separating the best from the rest motivates future growth. But most entrepreneurs would agree that to foster creativity and collaboration, every voice should be listened to and every idea should be shared. If every unused idea is treated like a bad idea, don’t we run the risk of discouraging future innovation? The following six arguments for and against rewarding so-called bad ideas will help you decide what is best for your company.

Should You Reward Bad Ideas? Yes, Reward Unappealing Ideas.

Chances are, you won’t like every idea brought to the table. But hold your judgment. Successful brainstorms incorporate a diverse group of people collaborating with one another and contributing as much as possible without any arguments, debates or snap decisions on their merit.

“The worst thing you can do as a leader is to be the single determining factor of whether an idea is good or bad,” says innovation coach Robert Brands. ”If they’re good, they become the boss’s idea and if they’re bad, you lose ownership of the operation.”

Instead, Brands suggests a method where everyone (“From the maintenance man to the CEO,” he says. “Everyone!”) develop the parameters new ideas should be measured against. Common parameters include profitability, patent potential, customers service, global impact. And, if an idea doesn’t fit your parameters but your employees are passionate about it, consider rewarding their enthusiasm instead.

Read the complete article on Inc.com:

http://www.inc.com/guides/201108/how-to-reward-bad-ideas.html

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