Patent attorney and trademark lawyer, Andrew P. Lahser, near Scottsdale, Arizona. » invention

Live Auction of 81 Patents

Andrew P. Lahser, Scottsdale Patent Attorney — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 06:01:01 +0000

Ocean Tomo is starting its 4th year of patent auctions. A catalog of 81 patents for the spring auction is available for review at their website. The spring auction will be held at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, CA on March 26-27, 2009. While I have not attended any of these auctions, I have spoke with a few that have. All of these stories are interesting — there is no other forum quiet like this patent auction. More event information is available at their re-branded PR site. If you attend the auction, we would love to hear about your experience.

Kid Invents Suction Tires

Andrew P. Lahser, Scottsdale Patent Attorney — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:25:30 +0000

It’s hilarious, inspiring and makes you want to play with your bike. Maybe you saw this on TV last year, but I don’t watch TV with any regularity. It’s a 30 second TV commercial to inspire kids to invent.

This is part of a TV campaign to inspire children. If you need to inspire our youth to invent, try visiting InventNow.org, with is a joint venture of the USPTO and the Ad Council.

Kid, you got a killer video game you want to share?

Andrew P. Lahser, Scottsdale Patent Attorney — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:57:37 +0000

Trade your video game idea for a chance to win $10,000 or a chance to have Electronic Arts (EA) build your game! As cool as this contest sounds, great care should be taken before entering any contest with an idea, artwork, manuscript, poem or other intellectual property. Why? Most contest rules will claim ownership or broad license of anything submitted to the contest. In other words, your only payment for use of the idea is the chance to with the prize.

So, if you have a killer video game idea, be sure to read the rules of the contest. These rules are more complex than most. There are four documents:

If you keep reading through to the “Submitted Materials” you will see that you grant BKFK a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and fully sub-licensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such materials (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such materials into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

This is not unusual, most contests either claim ownership or provide for broad licensing rights. So if you think up a killer video game, think twice before you submit it to a contest. Or, at least, carefully read the rules so you can know what to expect. Good luck with your video game idea for kids 13 to 19.