The 104 Year Old Patent Attorney

Article here:

This weekend, The Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H., will award C. Yardley Chittick, the nation's oldest patent attorney, with an honorary degree.

Blame Canada!

Just kidding.

But here's a blog you might want to check out:

Now, Why Didn't I Think of That? A patent, trade-mark, and copyright blog, by Sander Gelsing.

A Sticky Alternate Method

Here is an interesting article about a recent lawsuit 3M filed and lost, regarding its famous Post-it Notes patent. What's interesting about it is not the verdict (at least for this particular blog), but the covenant not to sue that 3M had agreed to in 1987, and the basis for it:

3M had promised not to sue Barton Nelson back in 1987. As long as Barton Nelson didn't change the way it put adhesive on custom-printed, semi-sticky promotional products, 3M wouldn't ask a court to decide whether Barton Nelson's products violated 3M's Post-it Note patent.

Both companies' notes can be easily unstuck from an adding machine or typewriter and restuck to a file folder, but each creates the "repositional" effect by a different method.

3M's adhesive contains microspheres that prevent Post-it Notes from sticking too firmly to a surface. Barton Nelson created its adhesive, CFO Bart Nelson said, and applies it in small globs with a textured roller.

"It was an aggressive adhesive, but the small-spaced dots and islands made it repositional," Nelson said.

Pop Quiz!

How much do you know about patents? Here's a patent pop quiz, from Brown & Michaels. It's a tough one, but the answers include lots of fun patent trivia.

Need to Find a Patent?

This is an wonderful link, which allows you to easily search for patents (and patent stuff) all over the world. Put it in your Favorites! Thanks to Bill Heinze at I/P Updates for the heads up.

"How Patents Work"

How Stuff Works is one of my favorite web sites to browse and read. For a patent geek like myself, it can be quite addicting. While browsing for some information today, I came across their article on "How Patents Work." It's quite good.