Goodbye first-to-invent, hello first-inventor-to-file.

As you may recall, so-called “patent reform” law (The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act – or “AIA” for short) was passed on 2011-09-16 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leahy-Smith_America_Invents_Act) and has been incrementally taking effect ever since.  As such, Friday 2013-03-15 is the final day to file patent applications under the old first-to-invent system, as the first-inventor-to-file system starts 2013-03-16.

Practically, the AIA’s change to first-inventor-to-file should have little impact on startups and other small businesses.  For example, under the old first-to-file system, the first inventor was determined by an “Interference” proceeding before an administrative department of the USPTO (the BPAI).  Under the new first-inventor-to-file, whether someone “invented” or “derived” an invention will be determined by a “Derivation” proceeding before an administrative department of the USPTO (the PTAB).  Each of these proceedings is expensive, time-consuming, and (for startups and small businesses) extremely rare.

Like most new laws, the AIA has language that is ambiguous and whose meaning will only be determined over time (typically via litigation).  As such, Clocktower anticipates that the rate of new patent filings under the AIA will increase in the short term.  This should result in longer patent-pending periods and longer wait times from an initial nonprovisional patent application to a first office action on the merits.

The AIA was passed largely in the name of patent reform itself – and to satisfy a perceived need to “harmonize” US patent laws with Europe and other regions/countries.  As you know, I believe that harmonization for harmonization’s sake is silly, but it is politically popular, so there you go.

Erik J. Heels is a trademark and patent lawyer, Boston Red Sox fan, MIT engineer, and musician.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Related Posts

• Top 10 Things BigLaw Patent Lawyers Don’t Want You To Know (9/26/2012)
  And won’t tell you.  Srsly.
• Men Of Great Genius: Venetian Senate, Patent Act of 1474 (4/11/2011)
  All modern patent statutes are derived from the Venetian Patent Act of 1474.
• Patent Law 101 (1/26/2011)
  An introduction to patent law in plain English.
• A Mere Mortal’s Guide To Patents Post-Bilski (Or Why §101 Is A Red Herring) (7/9/2010)
  It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing
• Drawing That Explains Patent Costs (08/17/2007)
  How to control the cost of filing a patent.
• How To Get And Defend A Patent Without Going Broke (8/2/2004)
  It is possible for independent inventors and small businesses to acquire patents and protect their ideas without going broke in the process.

External Links

1. Prof. Jason Rantanen: In Memoriam Best Mode (2012-05-11)
2. Practically Important Elements of the America Invents Act of 2011 (2012-01-03)
3. Andrew T. Pham: Top Ten Action Items in response to AIA (2011-11-04)
4. Robert Plotkin: U.S. Enacts Historic Patent Reforms (2011-10-13)
5. Chelsea A. Loughran: America Invents Act – Patent Reform
   Is Finally Here (2011-09-30)
6. Nitin Gupta: What the Recent U.S. Patent Reform Law Means for Startups (2011-09-21)
7. Ben Popper: New Patent Law Only Makes Life Harder for Startups and Universities (2011-09-19)
8. USPTO Director David Kappos: Re-Inventing the US Patent System (2011-09-16)
9. Prof. Mark A. Lemley: Things You Should Care About in the New Patent Statute
   (2011-09-16)
10. Howard Skaist and Ted Karr: Defining Prior Art under the Leahy-Smith AIA (2011-09-13)
11. Prof. Dennis Crouch: The Court’s Future Role in the International Harmonization of Patent Laws (2011-09-13)
12. Scott M. Fulton: Patent Reform Passes the Senate with Teeth, Heart Missing (2011-09-11)
13. Kit Eaton: What The New Patent Reform Act Means For Innovation (2011-09-08)
14. Senator Maria Cantwell: This is not a patent reform bill. (2011-09-08)
15. Jason Rantanen: The Effects of the America Invents Act on Technological Disclosure (2011-09-08)

Long tail is long.

From 2007-2008, I cofounded (along with Eric McCoy) the Heels.com women’s shoe store.  One of my initial jobs was getting the blog online and writing the initial content.  Over five years later, many of the 99 blog posts that I wrote (see list below) are still generating traffic for Heels.com.  In search engine optimization (SEO) language, this is called the long tail of ecommerce.  The Heels.com store has also expanded from about 43 brands of shoes to about 144 brands of women shoes.

The lesson for law firms?  Start writing relevant content now for your blog.  Blog a little or blog a lot.  But blog regularly.  It will pay off in the long run.

Oh yeah, and disregard what the so-called “experts” say.  On the Internet, there are no experts.  There is only change, and change is constant.  (FWIW, I have blogging for ten years.)

Erik J. Heels is a trademark and patent lawyer, Boston Red Sox fan, MIT engineer, and musician.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Related Posts (on erikjheels.com)

• My New Website/Blog: Local, Social, Mobile, Good Enough (12/20/2012)
  Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
• Erik J. Heels Announces Start-Up Heels.com Shoe Store (11/12/2007)
  With the name Heels, Erik Heels was destined to be either a podiatrist or a shoe salesman.
• Heels.com Finds New Home As Web 2.0 High Heel Shoe Store (06/20/2007)
  New website coming soon.
• Heels.com Domain Sale Update (04/21/2007)
  June auction still planned.
• Heels.com Domain To Be Sold By Erik Heels (04/01/2007)
  Lawyer to sell his heels – but not his soul – to pay for kids’ college.
• Weblogs vs. Websites (2/4/2003)
  Do weblogs generate more traffic than traditional websites?  I republished my entire website with weblog software to find out.

99 Posts (on high.heels.com)

1. Designer Shoe Sale (4/22/2008)
   Great shoes, great prices, great service.
2. LinkedIn Thinks All Dot-Com People Work For Heels.com (4/18/2008)
   Great shoes, great prices, great service.  World domination is lower on the list.
3. Goodbye Zappos, Hello Heels.com (4/18/2008)
   Strive for excellence, the PR will follow.
4. Zinc Shoes (03/10/2008)
   Zinc shoes at Heels.com.
5. Vince Camuto (03/10/2008)
   Vince Camuto shoes at Heels.com.
6. Unlisted Shoes (03/09/2008)
   Unlisted shoes at Heels.com.
7. Tribeca (03/09/2008)
   Tribeca shoes at Heels.com.
8. Steven by Steve Madden (03/08/2008)
   Steven by Steve Madden shoes at Heels.com.
9. Steve Madden (03/08/2008)
   Steve Madden shoes at Heels.com.
10. Pour La Victoire (03/07/2008)
    Pour La Victoire shoes at Heels.com.
11. Sam Edelman (03/07/2008)
    Sam Edelman shoes at Heels.com.
12. Report Signature (03/07/2008)
    Report Signature shoes at Heels.com.
13. Report Shoes (03/06/2008)
    Report shoes at Heels.com.
14. Poetic Licence (03/06/2008)
    Poetic Licence shoes at Heels.com.
15. oh…DEER! (03/05/2008)
    oh…DEER! shoes at Heels.com.
16. Not Rated (03/05/2008)
    Not Rated shoes at Heels.com.
17. Nine West (03/04/2008)
    Nine West shoes at Heels.com.
18. Nicole Shoes (03/04/2008)
    Nicole shoes at Heels.com.
19. Naughty Monkey (03/03/2008)
    Naughty Monkey shoes at Heels.com.
20. Natural Comfort (03/03/2008)
    Natural Comfort shoes at Heels.com.
21. N.Y.L.A. (03/02/2008)
    N.Y.L.A. shoes at Heels.com.
22. Modern Vintage (03/02/2008)
    Modern Vintage shoes at Heels.com.
23. Shoetube.tv, Heels.com, And A Free Shoes Facebook Contest (3/1/2008)
    Free shoes just in time for spring!
24. MINK Shoes (03/01/2008)
    MINK shoes at Heels.com.
25. MIA Shoes (03/01/2008)
    MIA shoes at Heels.com.
26. Me Too (2/29/2008)
    Me Too shoes at Heels.com.
27. Max Studio (2/29/2008)
    Max Studio shoes at Heels.com.
28. Marciano (2/28/2008)
    Marciano shoes at Heels.com.
29. Marc by Marc Jacobs (2/28/2008)
    Marc by Marc Jacobs shoes at Heels.com.
30. Madeline Shoes (2/27/2008)
    Madeline shoes at Heels.com.
31. Luichiny (2/27/2008)
    Luichiny shoes at Heels.com.
32. Laura Brandon (2/26/2008)
    Laura Brandon shoes at Heels.com.
33. L.A.M.B. (2/26/2008)
    L.A.M.B. shoes at Heels.com.
34. Kenneth Cole Reaction (2/25/2008)
    Kenneth Cole Reaction shoes at Heels.com.
35. Kenneth Cole NY (2/25/2008)
    Kenneth Cole NY shoes at Heels.com.
36. Jessica Simpson (2/24/2008)
    Jessica Simpson shoes at Heels.com.
37. Jessica Bennett (2/24/2008)
    Jessica Bennett shoes at Heels.com.
38. J. Renee (2/23/2008)
    J. Renee shoes at Heels.com.
39. Hollywould (2/23/2008)
    Hollywould shoes at Heels.com.
40. Hale Bob (2/22/2008)
    Hale Bob shoes at Heels.com.
41. Guess Shoes (2/22/2008)
    Guess shoes at Heels.com.
42. Exchange Shoes (2/21/2008)
    Exchange shoes at Heels.com.
43. Enzo Angiolini (2/21/2008)
    Enzo Angiolini shoes at Heels.com.
44. Due Farina (2/20/2008)
    Due Farina shoes at Heels.com.
45. Dollhouse Shoes (2/20/2008)
    Dollhouse shoes at Heels.com.
46. Betseyville (02/19/2008)
    Betseyville shoes at Heels.com.
47. Diego di Lucca (2/19/2008)
    Diego di Lucca shoes at Heels.com.
48. Diba (2/19/2008)
    Diba shoes at Heels.com.
49. Dereon (2/18/2008)
    Dereon shoes at Heels.com.
50. Cynthia Vincent (2/18/2008)
    Cynthia Vincent shoes at Heels.com.
51. Corso Como (1/31/2008)
    Corso Como shoes at Heels.com.
52. Claudia Ciuti (1/30/2008)
    Claudia Ciuti shoes at Heels.com.
53. Cindy Says (1/30/2008)
    Cindy Says shoes at Heels.com.
54. Cindy Says Couture (1/29/2008)
    Cindy Says Couture shoes at Heels.com.
55. Chinese Laundry (1/28/2008)
    Chinese Laundry shoes at Heels.com.
56. Charles David (1/27/2008)
    Charles David shoes at Heels.com.
57. Charles by Charles David (1/26/2008)
    Charles by Charles David shoes at Heels.com.
58. Carlos by Carlos (1/25/2008)
    Carlos by Carlos shoes at Heels.com.
59. Bronx (1/24/2008)
    Bronx shoes at Heels.com.
60. Boutique 9 (1/23/2008)
    Boutique 9 shoes at Heels.com.
61. FeedBurner + AskGraphics = Better Blog (01/22/2008)
    Content + presentation = experience.  More blog changes afoot (pun intended) at High.Heels.com.
62. Betsey Johnson (1/22/2008)
    Betsey Johnson shoes at Heels.com.
63. BCBGirls (1/21/2008)
    BCBGirls Footwear at Heels.com.
64. BCBGMaxAzria (01/20/2008)
    BCBC Maz Azria shoes at Heels.com.
65. Apepazza (1/19/2008)
    Apepazza shoes at Heels.com.
66. A.B.S. Shoes (1/18/2008)
    A.B.S. Shoes by Allen Schwartz at Heels.com.
67. Shoe Brands (01/18/2008)
    Women’s shoe brand at Heels.com.
68. Transform Backless Shoes With Muleos Straps And Ties (1/17/2008)
    Muleos are fashion accessories for slides, mules, and backless bridal and evening shoes or sandals.
69. Shoes Make A Great Valentine’s Day Gift (1/16/2008)
    Guys, trust me on this one.
70. Heels.com Store Update (1/15/2008)
    New arrivals and on sale shoes even easier to find.
71. Heels.com Blog Overhaul (01/14/2008)
    Change is constant.
72. Heels.com Founders Tell Their Story (11/12/2007)
    Plus a discount coupon code!
73. Columbus Discovers Shoes (10/08/2007)
    
74. Why Do Women Wear High Heels? (09/11/2007)
    The answer may surprise you.
75. Putting Comfort Into High Heels (09/10/2007)
    From A Podiatrist And An MIT Rocket Scientist.
76. Heels and Bags Mashup (09/09/2007)
    Match game.
77. Decorations For Your Feet (09/08/2007)
    Party on!
78. Slingback (09/07/2007)
    A thousand words.
79. GameBoy Shoes (09/06/2007)
    Do not want!
80. How To Deal With Broken Heels (09/04/2007)
    Don’t ditch ‘em, fix ‘em!
81. Love Of Fashionable Footwear Brings People Together For Shoe Club (09/03/2007)
    Social networking for shoe lovers.
82. Girls Say Wearing Heels Makes Them Happiest (09/02/2007)
    Agreed.  High heels = happy.
83. Stepping Out With My Baby (09/01/2007)
    Nice Flickr photos.
84. Red High Heels Video :: Kellie Pickler (08/31/2007)
    The original music video.
85. Red High Heels Video :: Kellie Pickler on The View (08/30/2007)
    Pick Pickler!
86. Metallic Silver Sandals (08/29/2007)
    Look, something shiny!
87. Video Teaches How To Walk In High Heels (08/28/2007)
    Because we were all newbies once.
88. Adjustable High Heels (08/27/2007)
    Shoes that convert from flats to high-heels.
89. Blogroll :: Shoeaholics Anonymous (08/23/2007)
    Your Shoe Addiction Secret is Safe with Us!
90. Blogroll :: Teenfashionista (08/22/2007)
    By a nineteen-year-old aspiring fashion writer who is determined to make it big in the fashion world.
91. Blogroll :: ShoeBUYTES (08/21/2007)
    The official fashion blog of Shoebuy.com.
92. Blogroll :: Chic Alert (08/20/2007)
    Designer Clothing, Shoes, Handbags, Jewelry.
93. Blogroll :: ShoeBlog (08/19/2007)
    The ShoeBlog is a site dedicated to women’s shoes.
94. Blogroll :: I Love Shoes, Shoes, and Shoes (08/18/2007)
    A personal space to rant and rave about shoe-mania.
95. Blogroll :: “The” Shoe Blog (08/17/2007)
    Because shoes don’t judge.
96. Blogroll :: Soles4Souls (08/16/2007)
    A nonprofit that provides shoes for the needy.
97. Blogroll :: Sole Satisfaction (08/15/2007)
    I can’t get no … sole satisfaction!
98. Blogroll :: Shoe Queen (08/14/2007)
    Hail to the queen, she’s the queen and so we hail her.
99. Stop Making Sense (08/13/2007)
    Gotta love that big suit.

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

A long time ago (actually 2011-01) in a galaxy far far away (actually Boston), I started redesigning my website and blog.  Then there was this whole thing with the Death Star.  So long story short, I have a new website and blog, and they are OK.

But don’t take my word for it.  The anonymous reviews are in!

• “Arguably one of the websites we’ve seen today.”
• “Please remove me from your mailing list.”
• “We’re so proud of you, son!”
• “You’re a lawyer?”
• “I don’t get it.”

For those who care (hi Mom!) here are screenshots of the home pages from the old website and blog:

And here are the new ones:

The new site is responsive!  Which means it works OK on the iPad:

And on the iPhone (or iClone):

It also has more SEO silliness, so, yeah.  For example, I still hate the phrase “intellectual property” and “IP” but SEO it is what it is.

Is everything perfect?  No.  Is everything good enough?  Yes.  So I launched it.  Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.  Putting that cliché another way, a good solution today is better than a perfect solution tomorrow.

Other notable stuff:

• Increased emphasis on ethics: Lawyers For Human Beings: Patent trolls, trademark bullies, and cybersquatters need not apply.
• Increased emphasis on pro bono IP and nonprofit IP.  Because my mother raised me right.
• Flat-rate IP fees for much of what Clocktower does.
• Option to pay with stock for IP services for a chosen few startups.

I also returned to Hugh Briss of Twitter Image to redesign my social media backgrounds, avatars, and the like:

• Erik J. Heels on about.me
• Erik J. Heels on Facebook
• Erik J. Heels on Google+
• Erik J. Heels on LinkedIn
• Erik J. Heels on Twitter

I’m still ironing the creases, so if you notice anything odd, please let me know.  Thanks!

Erik J. Heels is a trademark and patent lawyer, Boston Red Sox fan, MIT engineer, and musician.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Related Posts

• HTML/CSS Test Page For Web Designers (12/18/2012)
  Erik’s Clueful HTML Brain Dump.
• Drawing That Explains This Blog (9/18/2012)
  Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll.
• Happy Birthdays To Clocktower And Its Website (3/21/2012)
  Clocktower turns 11, Clocktower’s website turns 15.
• How Some Top Websites Fail To Tell Their Stories Well (9/14/2011)
  Internet marketing is a process, not an event.
• Clock Tower Law Group Turns 10, Wants Flying Cars (3/21/2011)
  Or a pony.
• A New Blog For My Birthday (6/6/2008)
  Out with the old blog, in with the new.
• Clock Tower Law Group’s 7th Birthday (3/21/2008)
  My website enters its 12 year today, my law firm enters its 8th year today.
• Happy Birthdays To Clock Tower Law Group (03/21/2007)
  My website is 10 years old today, my law firm is 6 years old today.

The Most Random Number Is 17.

Many people ask me why I frequently publish stuff on the 17th of the month.  To those people I say, “How did you get this phone number?”

The short answer is that 17 is the most random number.

The long answer is long.

OK, here’s how I recall the story.  When I entered MIT in 1984, one of my friends lived at a dorm called Random Hall (sometimes incorrectly called Random House).  The residents of Random Hall tell the story of a survey that was conducted at MIT.  As part of the survey, many things were counted at MIT: the number of departments in an organization, the number of halls in a building, the number of windows, etc.  At the end of the survey, the number that appeared most frequently was 17, causing it to be dubbed “the most random number” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_(number)).  If the numbers resulting from the survey were random (a huge assumption), then it would be correct to say that 17 is the most frequently occurring of those random numbers.  But calling it the “most random number” is simultaneously inaccurate and silly.  Which is why I like it.

Ever since 1984, I’ve been working the number 17 into publications, conversations, etc.  Taking the joke one step further, my MIT friend Art Mellor (a photographer whose work has been (self-)described as “getting better”) even gave me a subscription to Seventeen magazine a couple of years ago!  He also sent this link, with more on this legendary story:

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2007/02/is_17_the_most_random_number.php

So now you know.

Erik J. Heels is a trademark and patent lawyer, Boston Red Sox fan, MIT engineer, and musician.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

50+17 Related Posts (Published On The 17th)

1. SpongeBob, Dracula, and Copyright (8/17/2011)
   Content owners have been getting it wrong for a long time.  Plus why 1995-2025 is the dark ages of the Internet.
2. Law Blogs, Lawyer Blogs, Legal Blogs, Oh My! ABA Seeks Top 100 Blawgs (8/17/2011)
   Nominate your favorite.
3. CEO Photo Fails (9/17/2010)
   Dear Peeps: Please stop using these CEO pics.  They are officially overexposed.  Kthxbai.
4. Google’s Buzz Tweaks Are Lipstick On A Pig, And Why Google 2010 Is Like Microsoft 1998 (2/17/2010)
   Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.
5. LawLawLaw 2009-10-17 (10/17/2009)
   Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
6. Epic Comeback: Red Sox Win ALCS Game 5 Over Rays 8-7 (10/17/2008)
   Down to their last 7 outs and trailing 7-0, the Boston Red Sox staged one of the most amazing comebacks in history.  And I was there.
7. LawLawLaw 2008-08-17 (8/17/2008)
   Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
8. LawLawLaw 2008-02-17 (2/17/2008)
   Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
9. LawLawLaw 2007-10-17 (10/17/2007)
   Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
10. Red Sox On Verge Of Historic Comeback (10/17/2007)
    The Red Sox are preparing to win three consecutive games against the Indians.
11. Drawing That Explains Patent Costs (08/17/2007)
    How to control the cost of filing a patent.
12. LawLawLaw 2007-07-17 (7/17/2007)
    Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
13. Google Analytics Chokes On Long WordPress URLs (07/17/2007)
    So I’m turning off Google Analytics for now.
14. LawLawLaw 2007-05-17 (5/17/2007)
    Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
15. My Last PowerPoint (4/17/2007)
    And other things I don’t miss.
16. LawLawLaw 2007-04-17 (4/17/2007)
    Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
17. More TiVo Failure Modes (3/17/2007)
    Numbers 17 and 18.
18. LawLawLaw 2007-03-17 (3/17/2007)
    Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
19. LawLawLaw 2007-02-17 (2/17/2007)
    Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Etc.
20. LawLawLaw 2007-01-17 (1/17/2007)
    Technology, Law, Baseball, and Rock ‘n’ Roll.
21. Website Review: RedStreet (01/17/2007)
    We can take it as well as we can dish it out.
22. Domain Name Sale: BigBucket.com (11/17/2006)
    It’s big, it’s a bucket, it’s bigbucket.com.  What’s not to like?
23. How To Add Comments To Your Weblog Feed In Movable Type (5/17/2006)
    Comments add value to your weblog.  Share them with your feed subscribers.
24. Rolling Stone Five-Star Rated (Mostly Rock) Albums: Update (4/17/2006)
    More five-star albums added to the list.
25. LawLawLaw 2006-02-17 (2/17/2006)
    Law, Baseball, and Rock ‘n’ Roll.
26. LawLawLaw 2004-10-17 (10/17/2005)
    Law, Baseball, and Rock ‘n’ Roll.
27. LawLawLaw 2005-08-17 (8/17/2005)
    News and Commentary about Law, Technology, and their Intersection.
28. LawLawLaw 2005-05-17 (5/17/2005)
    News and Commentary about Law, Technology, and their Intersection.
29. LawLawLaw 2005-01-17 (1/17/2005)
    News and Commentary about Law, Technology, and their Intersection.
30. Recursive Logo (9/17/2004)
    
31. LawLawLaw 2004-08-17 (8/17/2004)
    News and Commentary about Law, Technology, and their Intersection.
32. What To Call Stuff (5/17/2004)
    
33. RSS Readers/Aggregators – Not Just For Blogs (5/17/2004)
    
34. Music Technology Update (5/17/2004)
    
35. The Battle Over Copyright Terminology (5/17/2004)
    
36. Law Review Article On Patent Claim Drafting From The John Marshall Law School (4/17/2004)
    
37. The ‘Three Full Moons’ Clause (2/17/2004)
    Simplify contracts by omitting needless words.
38. Licensing Domain Names (2/17/2004)
    Consider licensing dormant domain names instead of selling them.
39. A Copyright Primer (2/17/2004)
    How did copyright rights seemingly take over many aspects of our life?
40. Trademarking Numbers (2/17/2004)
    You can register numbers as trademarks, and some numbers are still available.
41. The Jujitsu Method Of Converting From Windows To Linux (2/17/2004)
    Don’t switch to Linux cold turkey.  Use Windows to help you switch.
42. The Jujitsu Method Of Combating Spam (2/17/2004)
    Using a spam-infested email account to train Bayesian spam filters.
43. Old Versions Of Software (2/17/2004)
    The latest software is not necessarily the best software.
44. Patent Assignments (2/17/2004)
    You can search patent assignment documents at the USPTO’s website.
45. News: Firm Name Change (2/17/2004)
    New name is Clock Tower Law Group.
46. Spike Lee vs. Spike TV (7/17/2003)
    Maybe Spike Lee’s case wasn’t so silly after all.
47. How (And Why) To Trademark Your Logo (7/17/2003)
    If you have a word mark that may be difficult to register because it is descriptive, consider creating a logo that contains the words and register the logo.
48. How To Make Your Computer More Secure (Or Why I Deleted Dell’s Support Programs) (7/17/2003)
    When you save HTML files to your local hard disk and open them in your browser, you could be sending information back to the originating website.
49. How To Make Your E-mail More Secure (7/17/2003)
    Spammers (and others) use active elements in HTML-formatted e-mail to send information back to the sender about when you’ve opened a
    particular e-mail message.
50. Top 10 Webware Websites (Or Websites That Do Stuff) (7/17/2003)
    I have a handful of bookmarks filed under ‘webware’ because they are more like web-based software than websites.  Whatever you want to call them, they are useful.
51. Linux-Based Everything Server (6/17/2003)
    More proof the world is changing: an all-in-one Linux-based file, e-mail, web, database, DNS, FTP, etc. server.
52. How To Name Your City (5/17/2003)
    PETA offered the German city of Hamburg 10,000 Euros to change its name to ‘Veggieburg.’
53. Better Whois Patent (5/17/2003)
    There are better ways to search for domain names.
54. Mosaic Ten-Year Anniversary (5/17/2003)
    The web browser brought a graphical user interface to the Internet and opened up the Net to the masses.
55. OpenOffice.org One-Year Anniversary (5/17/2003)
    Try it for two weeks then decide.
56. How To Avoid Drowning In Spam (5/17/2003)
    A five-step process for filtering e-mail.
57. Home Entertainment And Home Computer Convergence (5/17/2003)
    Today, we are just starting to see the convergence of all things data-related.
58. Top 10 Tenets Of Principled Computing (5/17/2003)
    My decisions about computing are not arbitrary, they are based on principles that I’ve been refining for years.
59. Addicted To Your Software? (5/17/2003)
    Make a new year’s resolution to break your habit.
60. Intuit Angers Users With New Licensing Scheme For TurboTax (4/17/2003)
    Not surprisingly, many users are switching from TurboTax as a result of this issue.
61. Top 10 Ways To Keep Your Software Legal (4/17/2003)
    Businesses that fail to keep their software legal run the risk of being ‘reported’ to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) by disgruntled (and typically former) employees.
62. Google PhoneBook (4/17/2003)
    Enter a phone number into Google, and, if a match is found, a phone icon will be displayed along with the name of the individual or company and a link to a map for the street address.
63. Getting More Bang For Your IT Buck (4/17/2003)
    A recent eWeek article summarizes IT best buys based on a survey of IT professionals.
64. Trademarks vs. Domain Names (3/17/2003)
    Trademark holders are winning 80% of their disputes with domain name registrants.
65. Lab Notebooks Help Document Inventions (3/17/2003)
    You should keep good records of inventions since the United States uses the ‘first to invent’ system.
66. IP Infringement Insurance (3/17/2003)
    IP infringement insurance can help companies manage the risk of litigation.
67. Book Review: The Legal List 5.0: 1994-08-17: By Erik J. Heels (8/17/1994)
    ’The Legal List, Law-Related Resources on the Internet and Elsewhere,’ by Erik J. Heels v5.0, 17 Aug 94.

Clueful HTML Brain Dump by ErikJHeels.

Below is just about everything you’ll need to style a WordPress theme (or any other CSS-based web design).  Check the source code (i.e. view source) to see the many embedded elements within paragraphs.  This page is based on the WordPress Twenty Ten HTML test page.  But I changed a bunch of stuff to make it more clueful (at least to me).  Because I still write HTML by hand.  In a text editor.  So sue me.

First came HTML, and it was simple.  It had content, it had format.  Then came CSS, and it was not so simple.  Remember when web pages used to look the same on screen and on paper?  Yeah, those days are gone.  Thanks, CSS!  And so content and format split, content stayed with HTML, format went with CSS.  With the content/format split of HTML/CSS, however, many website designers forgot this basic rule: Websites with custom CSS should look at least as good as the corresponding raw HTML.

So here are screen shots of the raw HTML of this page, displayed in Firefox 17.0.1 under OS X 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion).  If you’re doing any CSS-based design work, then start with the look-and-feel of the raw HTML and improve on it, but don’t leave any HTML elements out (sheesh).

H1 = Heading 1

This is a paragraph (<P>).  IMHO, it makes sense to have vertical spacing between header elements and paragraphs.

This is also a paragraph.

Line 1: This is a paragraph with four lines but:
Line 2: It has self-terminating
Line 3: line breaks (<br />) at
Line 4: the end of every line.

You might want to use the <br /> tag for multi-line list items like this:

Related Posts:

• W3C Recommendation 24 December 1999 (NB: visited/clicked links (like this one) and unlisted/unclicked links should look different)
  HTML 4.01 Specification
• HTML Demo Page (NB: visited/clicked links and unlisted/unclicked links (like this one) should look different)
  by Andrew Bedno
• Everything You Know About Website Design Is Right (9/1/2004)
  No it’s not.  Everything you know about website design is wrong.
• Designing Good Internet Experiences (1/2/1998)
  The Internet will remain out of the reach of many consumers until computers are as easy to use as lamps.

H2 = Heading 2

This is a paragraph.  IMHO, it makes sense to have vertical spacing between header elements and paragraphs.

This is also a paragraph.

H3 = Heading 3

This is a paragraph.  IMHO, it makes sense to have vertical spacing between header elements and paragraphs.

This is also a paragraph.

H4 = Heading 4

This is a paragraph.  IMHO, it makes sense to have vertical spacing between header elements and paragraphs.

This is also a paragraph.

H5 = Heading 5 (I don’t think I’ve ever used this; I think that headings should be bigger than the corresponding text)

This is a paragraph.  IMHO, it makes sense to have vertical spacing between header elements and paragraphs.

This is also a paragraph.

H6 = Heading 6 (I don’t think I’ve ever used this; I think that headings should be bigger than the corresponding text)

This is a paragraph.  IMHO, it makes sense to have vertical spacing between header elements and paragraphs.

This is also a paragraph.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, this is a link adipiscing elit. This is <STRONG>.  Nullam dignissim convallis est.  Quisque aliquam.  This is emphasized (<EM>). Donec faucibus. Nunc iaculis suscipit dui. 5³ = 125 (that’s a superscript (<SUP>)). Water is H₂O (that’s a subscript (<SUB>)). Nam sit amet sem. Aliquam libero nisi, imperdiet at, tincidunt nec, gravida vehicula, nisl. The New York Times (that’s a citation (<CIT>)). This is (<SPAN>) and text-decoration:underline). Maecenas ornare tortor.  Donec sed tellus eget sapien fringilla nonummy.  Mauris a ante.  Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc. Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.

HTML (that’s an abbreviation (<ABBR>)) and CSS (that’s an abbreviation (<ABBR>)) are our tools.  Mauris a ante.  Suspendisse quam sem, consequat at, commodo vitae, feugiat in, nunc.  Morbi imperdiet augue quis tellus.  Praesent mattis, massa quis luctus fermentum, turpis mi volutpat justo, eu volutpat enim diam eget metus.  To copy a file type COPY (this is <CODE>) filename (this is <VAR> inside of <CODE>).  Dinner’s at 5:00 (this is <DEL>).  Let’s make that 7 (this is <INS>). This text (this is <SPAN> and text-decoration:line-through) has been struck.

Below this paragraph, there should be a horizontal rule (<HR />).

Above this paragraph, there should be a horizontal rule (<HR />), which I like to call “horizontal line.”

List Types

Definition List (<DL>) (I don’t think I’ve ever used this)

Definition List Title (<DT>)

This is a definition list division (<DD>).

Definition (<DT>)

An exact statement or description of the nature, scope, or meaning of something: our definition of what constitutes poetry (<EM>).

Ordered List (<OL>)

1. List Item 1 (<LI>)
2. List Item 2
   1. Nested list item A (NB: numbering should make sense)
   2. Nested list item B
3. List Item 3

Unordered List (<UL>)

• List Item 1
• List Item 2
  • Nested list item A (NB: bullets should make sense)
  • Nested list item B
• List Item 3

Table Without Borders (<table>)

Table With Border=1 (<table>)

Table With Border=1 Align=”Center” (<table>)

Below this paragraph, there should be a horizontal rule (<HR />).

Above this paragraph, there should be a horizontal rule (<HR />), which I like to call “horizontal line.”

Preformatted Text

Typographically, preformatted text is not the same thing as code.  Sometimes, a faithful execution of the text requires preformatted text that may not have anything to do with code.  Most browsers use Courier and that’s a good default — (that’s a long dash (&8212;) – long dashes are evil, just like curly quotes) with one slight adjustment, Courier 10 Pitch over regular Courier for Linux users. For example:

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! (this is <PRE>)
    The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
    The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Code

Code can be presented inline, like <?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?> (this is <CODE>), or within a <pre> block.  Because we have more specific typographic needs for code, we’ll specify Consolas and Monaco ahead of the browser-defined monospace font.

#container {
	float: left;
	margin: 0 -240px 0 0;
	width: 100%;
}

Below this paragraph, there should be a horizontal rule (<HR />).

Above this paragraph, there should be a horizontal rule (<HR />), which I like to call “horizontal line.”

Blockquotes

Let’s keep it simple.  Italics are good to help set it off from the body text (and italic Georgia is lovely at this size).  Be sure to style the citation.

Good afternoon, gentlemen.  I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992.  My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song.  If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you (This is <P> within <BLOCKQUOTE>).

- HAL 9000

One more example:

“It doesn’t take all types, there just are all types.”
     - Winston Churchill (this is <small> within <blockquote> with five non-breaking spaces (&nbsp;) for good measure)

This is the final paragraph, not to be confused with The Final Countdown.

Erik J. Heels is a trademark and patent lawyer, Boston Red Sox fan, MIT engineer, and musician.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Proposed Patent Attorney’s Oath.

On 1994-11-02, I took and passed the so-called “patent bar exam” and became a member of the so-called “patent bar.”  I say “so-called” because, as all patent agents and patent attorneys know, the exam is not strictly called the “patent bar exam,” nor is the group of admitted patent practitioners strictly called the “patent bar.”  But that’s what everybody calls it, so I’ll dispense with the quotes.

On 1995-05-08, I officially had the status of “patent agent,” and, on 1996-02-14, after I informed the USPTO that I had passed at least one state bar exam, my status changed from patent agent to patent attorney.

I have taken several oaths in my life (see related posts below), but I did not have to take any oath to begin practicing patent law.  The USPTO does impose a duty of candor (via 37 CFR 1.56, AKA Rule 56) on patent practitioners but does not require said practitioners (whether patent agents or patent attorneys) to take an oath.

To further the discussion about whether or not the patent bar should have a patent oath, I have drafted a patent oath (below) based on the Maine Bar Oath and the Massachusetts Bar Oaths (one of which is the oldest in the country).  Here’s my draft patent bar oath for students of legal ethics, patent ethics, and others:

I, [full legal name], do solemnly swear:

to support the Constitution of the United States
and especially United States patent law,
both codified and common law;

that I will do no falsehood,
nor consent to the doing of any in court,
or before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO);

that if I know of an intention to commit any falsehood,
I will give knowledge thereof to the court or USPTO so that it may be prevented;

that I will not wittingly or willingly promote, prosecute, or litigate any
false, groundless, or unlawful patent application,
nor give aid or consent to the same;

that I will delay no person for lucre or malice,
but I will conduct myself in the office of a patent attorney (or patent agent)
within the courts and before the USPTO
according to the best of my knowledge and discretion,
and with all good fidelity,
as well as to the courts and the USPTO, as to my clients.

So help me God.

Should the USPTO adopt a patent oath?  Presumably all state bars require oaths, so all practicing patent attorneys would be bound by at least one patent oath.  But what about patent agents who are member of no state bar?  Would there be less perceived abuse of the patent system (via patent trolls and the like) if a patent oath were required?  I think it’s a discussion worth having.

Erik J. Heels is a trademark and patent lawyer, Boston Red Sox fan, MIT engineer, and musician.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com and is an Adjunct Professor (teaching patent law) at the University of Maine School of Law.

Related Posts

• Time For A Patent Bar Oath (10/3/2012)
  Proposed Patent Attorney’s Oath.
• Massachusetts Bar Oath (06/20/1995)
  Massachusetts Attorney’s Oath.
• Maine Bar Oath (05/08/1995)
  Maine Attorney’s Oath.
• United States Air Force Oath Of Office (05/26/1988)
  Also known as the United States Uniformed Services Oath of Office.
• United States Armed Forces Code Of Conduct (08/31/1984)
  Also known as the Prisoner of War (POW) Code of Conduct.

Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Why do I write about more than one thing?  Because I think single-subject blogs are, for the most part, boring.

Do you like musicians who play only one note?  Artists who use only one color?  OK then.

So I drew the above drawing to explain this blog.  I’m pretty sure that:

• technology + law = patents
• law + baseball = umps
• baseball + music = organs
• music + technology = MP3s

But I’ve not yet figured out the following:

• A = music + technology + law
• B = technology + law + baseball
• C = law + baseball + music
• D = baseball + music + technology

Let me know if you figure it out.

I do know this.  As soon as I stopped caring what the “experts” said and started writing about whatever was on my mind, my blog started producing results.  Your mileage may vary.

Erik J. Heels is a trademark and patent lawyer, Boston Red Sox fan, MIT engineer, and musician.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

And won’t tell you. Srsly.

Clocktower has been on the receiving end of files transferred to us from large law firms, and for the most part, I’ve been unimpressed with what I’ve seen. That said, so were our clients, otherwise they wouldn’t have fired their big law firms and hired us!

So here are the top ten things an attorney at a big patent law firm doesn’t want you to know.

1. His billable hour quota. He’s always on the clock and will lose his job (or partner status) if he fails to meet his quota. (Disclaimer/note: He’s most likely a “he” and not a “she,” but the same goes for her as for him. Silly English language.)

2. He forgets stuff, misses deadlines. Your patent lawyer should never have to file a response to a “missing parts” request from the USPTO. Your patent lawyer should never have to file a petition for a missed deadline (unless it was your fault). And if any of these “oops” filings do happen, then you shouldn’t pay for it.

3. He’s a partner but associates will be doing most of the work. He won’t actually be working on your matter. He will farm work out to underlings, quickly get up-to-speed before each meeting with you, then just as quickly forget everything. But he won’t forget to put his name on the issued patent.

4. He loves paper. And hates email. You’ll get lots of paper. And few emails.

5. He hates plain English. Prefers legalese. So your patent will be difficult to read for you, hard to understand for others. In fact, patents written in plain English are better.

6. He’s disorganized. He can’t tell the difference between attorney/client correspondence, attorney/USPTO correspondence, and attorney/third-party correspondence. So he files all papers under “correspondence.” You’ll only discover this when you fire your lawyer and transfer files to a new firm.

7. He hates patent searches. Because they may discourage you from filing your patent application. So he’ll talk you out of doing a patent search. Although patent searches cost more in the short term, doing a patent search costs less in the long term (for the applicant).

8. His patent bar registration number. He has not passed the patent bar. So he’s not actually a patent lawyer. (Although he may be a patent litigator or an “intellectual property” lawyer.)

9. He loves to file foreign patents. Because they are very profitable. He’ll convince you to file them. In fact, most foreign patents are a waste of money.

10. He’ll file anything. Because his only tool is a hammer. In fact, sometimes trade secrets are better than patents.

I can, however, think of at least one good big Boston patent law firm.

But David-Letterman-isms aside, there are good and bad patent lawyers and big and small law firms. We like to think we are good patent lawyers at a small patent law firm.

Erik J. Heels is an MIT engineer; trademark, domain name, and patent lawyer; Red Sox fan; and music lover. He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

External Links

• List of AMLaw 100 Law Firm That Have Gone Out Of Business (LawShucks.com)
  Bankrupt/Defunct BigLaw Firms
• News, Commentary, and Opinions on Big Law Firms (AboveTheLaw.com)
  Plus BigLaw Gossip

Related Posts

1. How To Start A Boston Patent Law Practice (11/8/2011)
   Advice for new Boston patent lawyers.
2. Clocktower’s Winning Clients http://goo.gl/Y0IkP (5/24/2011)
   $2 Billion In Angel/VC Funding + 10 Acquisitions By Public Companies.
3. Patent Law 101 (1/26/2011)
   An introduction to patent law in plain English.
4. Top 10 Things Smart Companies Should Know About Intellectual Property (10/22/2010)
   Smart businesses should use all laws – including IP laws – to their advantage.
5. A Mere Mortal’s Guide To Patents Post-Bilski (Or Why §101 Is A Red Herring) (7/9/2010)
   It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing
6. How To Fire Your Lawyer (1/27/2009)
   Terminating your attorney-client relationship.
7. Drawing That Explains Patent Costs (08/17/2007)
   How to control the cost of filing a patent.
8. Drawing That Explains Provisional Patent Applications (08/06/2007)
   Provisional patent applications are rarely the best solution for startups.
9. Drawing That Explains Patent Disputes (7/24/2007)
   And what’s wrong with law school education.
10. Drawing That Explains Patent Laws (7/19/2007)
    From Chief Justice to the patent examiner.
11. Easy To Infringe (12/5/2006)
    Draft to the rule, don’t draft to the exception.
12. To Search Or Not To Search (12/5/2006)
    That is the (pretty simple) question.
13. Why I Respect Wolf Greenfield (11/15/2006)
    A large Boston law firm with a founder who cares.
14. How To Get And Defend A Patent Without Going Broke (8/2/2004)
    It is possible for independent inventors and small businesses to acquire patents and protect their ideas without going broke in the process.
15. Software Patents: Good Or Evil? (Part 1) (6/15/2003)
    This week, I am speaking at the fourth annual Law and Technology Conference at the Technology Law Center of the University of Maine School of Law. I am taking a non-standard approach to this presentation. Rather than preparing PowerPoint slides (or the like), I will be posting a series of notes on my website.
16. Patents vs. Trade Secrets (2/5/2002)
    The advantages and disadvantages of protecting business ideas with patents and trade secrets.

Greetings,

My name is Erik Heels, and this is my LawLawLaw newsletter: subscribe at http://www.LawLawLaw.com.

LawLawLaw is about technology, law (mostly patents and trademarks), baseball (mostly Red Sox), and music (mostly rock).  Besides being an attorney, I’m good at spotting trends, connecting people on social networks, fixing things, building treehouses, and a handful of other things.

I try to keep LawLawLaw short (fail), relevant (win), and timely (draw).  That is all.

Slightly enlarged to show detail.

Regards,
Erik
–
Clock Tower Law Group [Patent Law | Trademark Law]
2 Clock Tower Place, Suite 255, Maynard, MA 01754
phone: 978-823-0008 | fax: 978-246-0256
http://www.ClockTowerLaw.com
      

“The person who says ‘it cannot be done’ should not interrupt the person doing it.” – Chinese Proverb

—snip—

LawLawLaw

Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll

Tech Stuff

From late 1995 to early 1996, I was the Director of Internet Product Development for American Lawyer Media (ALM), a leading legal media company including Counsel Connect (an online service for lawyers) and CourtTV.  ALM was trying to figure out this whole Internet thing, and I was trying to help them.  One project that we tried was called the Internet Concierge, where I would answer questions from Counsel Connect users, via email, about law and the Internet.  It occurs to me that, 16 years later, I’m doing pretty much the same thing!  Except this time it’s for Clocktower clients.  The more things change.

Technology progresses faster than the law.  Always has, always will.  It makes the in-between times (like now) interesting.

1. The Collapse Of The Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940-11-07)
   This video reminds me of the famous quote by Richard Feynman: “You can’t fool physics.”
   
   
2. Facebook To File For IPO Next Week (2012-01-27)
   Perhaps you heard about this.
3. HTTPS Everywhere Keeps Your Personal Information Safe On Over 1,400 Sites, Available For Firefox And Chrome (2012-02-28)
   Good Firefox security plugin.
4. $35 PC Sells Out In Minutes (2012-04-29)
   Small technology = more privacy and security challenges.
5. After 244 Years, Encyclopedia Britannica Stops The Presses (2012-03-13)
   Totally didn’t see this coming.
6. James Cameron Reaches Ocean’s Deepest Point (2012-03-25)
   This should have been bigger news.
7. The Oatmeal: Why Nikola Tesla Was The Greatest Geek Who Ever Lived (2012-05-14)
   Nailed it.  This is why The Oatmeal rocks.
8. 6 Reasons Why The Facebook IPO Fell Flat (2012-05-19)
   Perhaps you heard about this.
9. Investors Sue Facebook And Banks For Analyst Changes (2012-05-23)
   That didn’t take long.
10. IPv6: Now There Are More Internet Addresses Than Stars In The Universe (2012-06-08)
    So your toaster can have its own IP address.
11. How To Measure The Size Of The Universe (2012-06-13)
    It’s big.
12. Minneapolis Police Filming Their Own Work To Show Critics (2012-06-19)
    A good example of how law enforcement should react to changing technology.
13. IPv6: FBI & DEA Warn That IPv6 May Be Too Damn Anonymous (2012-06-20)
    A bad example of how law enforcement should react to changing technology.

Copyright Law Stuff

Copyright law is for litigators, so Clocktower does not do copyright law.  (We try to keep our clients out of litigation.) But of the three areas of IP law (patent, trademark, copyright), it’s the most fun to write about.  So here we go.

1. Forging Art Like No One Is Buying (2011-11-18)
   Is it still ‘art” if it is forged?
2. 100 Years Of Copyright And Disruptive Technology (2011-12-05)
   As much as I hate the term ‘disruptive’ (and the dreadful 1990s book ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’ that made the term temporarily hip), this is a pretty good read.
3. January 18: Internet-Wide Protests Against the Blacklist Legislation (2012-01-17)
   Protests re the silly SOPA and PIPA bills.
4. SOPA And PIPA Are the Internet’s Own Damn Fault (2012-01-18)
   Follow the money: lobbyists get bills passed, anti-lobbyists do not.
5. After Historic Protest, Members Of Congress Abandon PIPA and SOPA In Droves (2012-01-19)
   Battle won, war rages on.
6. How Much Is Enough? We’ve Passed 15 ‘Anti-Piracy’ Laws In The Last 30 Years (2012-02-15)
   Yet the sky still hasn’t fallen.
7. How To Turn A Legitimate Buyer Into A Pirate In Five Easy Steps (2012-02-21)
   Customers will buy stuff if you let them.
8. The $8 Billion iPod (2012-03-16)
   Truthy math from (old media) music and movie lobby groups.
9. How Disruption Works: Job Loss Isn’t Really Job Loss (2012-04-07)
   We also lost buggy whip jobs when the automobile was invented.
10. Video Game Company Misreads Copyright Law, Infringes Tetris (2012-06-19)
    Bonus question: What was actually copied here?

Copyright Law Stuff And The Streisand Effect

There have been a lot of famous Internet-related legal disputes in my lifetime.  Starting with 1994′s infamous Green Card Spam controversy, the first massive commercial Usenet spam event.  Since then, lawyers, law enforcement, old media, and new media have been trying to figure out whether (and the “whether” thought belongs mostly to the old media crowd) and how to adapt to the Internet.  Here is some bonus reading material for those so inclined:

• All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (1994)
• The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual (2000)
• The Streisand Effect (2003)

The case of FunnyJunk vs. TheOatmeal will, I predict, go down in history as one of the more epic Internet-related legal battles.  I delayed the publication of this newsletter to try to include the latest info.  For publishers and legal scholars alike, the dispute is an object lesson of how – and how not – to act on the Internet.  The headlines speak for themselves:

1. What Should I Do About FunnyJunk.com? (2011-05-25)
2. FunnyJunk Is Threatening To File A Federal Lawsuit Against Me Unless I Pay $20,000 In Damages (2012-06-11)
3. The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 In An Hour (2012-06-11)
4. TheOatmeal Fights Back Against Troll Lawyer (2012-06-12)
5. The Oatmeal vs. FunnyJunk: An Object Lesson In How To Deal With Litigious Internet Trolls (2012-06-12)
6. The Oatmeal v. FunnyJunk: How The Court Of Public Opinion Beats The Court Of Baseless Legal Threats (2012-06-12)
7. The Oatmeal’s Viral Lawsuit Fundraiser Surpasses $120,000 (2012-06-12)
8. FunnyJunk Lawyer Being Mocked Mercilessly, Makes Things Worse By Trying To Shut Down The Oatmeal’s Fundraiser (2012-06-13)
9. Oatmeal v. FunnyJunk: A Brief Observation (2012-06-14)
10. Copyright Infringement And Your Business: Making The Tough Calls (2012-06-14)
11. FunnyJunk’s Lawyer, Charles Carreon, Continues To Lash Out: Accuses Matt Inman Of ‘Instigating Security Attacks’ (2012-06-14)
12. The Streisand Effect Wins Again: Scottish Council Reverses Ban On 9-Year Old Blogging About School Lunches (2012-06-17)
13. FunnyJunk’s Lawyer Charles Carreon Just Keeps Digging: Promises He’ll Find Some Law To Go After Oatmeal’s Matt Inman (2012-06-17)
14. FunnyJunk Lawyer Sues Charities Involved in Oatmeal Lawsuit (2012-06-18)
15. Carreon’s Full Filing Reveals He Donated To Oatmeal Campaign Himself, Plus Other Assorted Nuttiness (2012-06-18)
16. Charles Carreon Is Officially Suing Me And And The Charities Of My Fundraiser (2012-06-18)
17. Not Done Yet: FunnyJunk’s Humorless Lawyer Suing Cancer, Wildlife Charities For Receiving Donations From Oatmeal Supporters (2012-06-18)
18. Charles Carreon Sues Matthew Inman… And The Charities He’s Raising Money For (2012-06-18)
19. Can I Sue You People? Troll Lawyer Sues The Charities The Oatmeal Supports (2012-06-18)
20. Cartoonist’s Lawyer Responds To FunnyJunk: The Oatmeal Will Not Cave (2012-06-18)
21. Matthew Inman To Charles Carreon: Take Time Off, Stop Saying Crazy Sh*t To Journalists, Calm Down (2012-06-19)
22. The Oatmeal To Charles Carreon: “Come Back When You’ve Calmed Down” (2012-06-20)

Patent Law Stuff

Due to changes in patent law enacted as part of last year’s so-called patent reform, Clocktower is advising clients that, starting in September 2012, the one-year grace period under US patent law no longer exists.  In other words, if you want to get a US patent, then you should file your patent application before launching the product (where “launch” is defined as sale, offer for sale, publication, or public use of the product).

1. USPTO Says Copies Of Academic Articles Submitted As Prior Art Are Covered By Fair Use (2012-02-07)
   That’s a relief.
2. Political Candidates Sued for Patent Infringement (2012-02-28)
   ‘Tis the season.
3. Yahoo Sues Facebook For Patent Infringement (2012-03-12)
   Yay! Revenue!
4. Twitter’s Revolutionary Agreement Lets Original Inventors Stop Patent Trolls (2012-04-17)
   Don’t be evil.

Patent Law Stuff And A Cause/Effect Reality Check

Patent law exists.  Just like tax law exists.  And just as you can itemize your personal tax deductions to maximize your tax refund, you can take advantage of patent law to make your business wealthier.  Or you can file the short form.

But IP lawyers, IP maximalists, and the USPTO need to tone it down with the rhetoric.  There are many valid reasons to get a patent, and I, as a patent law practitioner and adjunct patent law professor, still believe in the ideals of the patent law system.  But let’s not fool ourselves.  Patents, by themselves, add little value.  At best, patent lawyers can justify their existence by saying that they help smart companies produce products and services that add value, stuff that you can actually measure as part of a country’s GDP.  Smart companies may have some patents, and those patents may help them win disputes with other companies.  But smart companies don’t get patents based on the idea that the patents themselves will cause them to succeed.  That’s like buying a BMW to try to get rich.  Instead, be a smart company, take advantage of existing laws, and produce cool products.  Cool products that actually add value to society.

Here are a bunch of examples of how folks confuse the notions of causation and correlation.  I will admit that probably and statistics (including especially conditional probability) was one of my favorite subjects at MIT.

1. Dilbert: ‘Backwards Causation’ Describes 90% Of Consulting (2012-05-11)
2. Chamber Of Commerce Lies Again: Attributes Millions Of Jobs To IP Laws Based On Flimsy Correlation (2012-05-31)
3. From The Correlation-Does-Not-Imply-Causation Files: Regular Exercisers Earn Nine Percent Higher Pay Than Those Who Don’t (2012-06-08)
   What’s more likely? That exercise causes higher pay? Or that those who earn more have the time and money to exercise? Or that some other factor causes both high pay and good exercise habits?
4. Commerce Dept: Steve Jobs Had Patents, Steve Jobs Made Cool Things; Thus Patents Are Great (2012-06-08)

Trademark Law Stuff

Clocktower is seeing a lot of clients register trademarks in order to secure Twitter usernames and Facebook pages.  Still, companies have, on average, four unregistered trademarks.

1. Help Protect Your Brand with Domain Typo Finder (2011-04-14)
   An oldie but a goodie.  And here’s my Tweet about the domain typo tool:

   Ask 100 folks to spell your company. Were they “wrong”? Your brand is what they say it is. Now register domain “typos.” http://goo.gl/9SrOc

   — Erik J. Heels (@ErikJHeels) April 14, 2011

2. How Many Defensive Domain Name Registrations Is Too Many? (2012-02-24)
   You have to apply the 80/20 rule or you’ll go insane.  You don’t need to register all possible domain name variations, you need to register enough.
3. Louis Vuitton Jumps The Shark (2012-03-05)
   Bonus points if you understand the ‘jump the shark’ reference.

Baseball Stuff

So maybe this is a building year for the Red Sox?

1. 10 Things You Didn’t Know About New Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine (2011-11-29)
   Invented the sandwich wrap?
2. Free The Original Green Monster Scoreboard (2012-02-13)
   It’s in South Dakota?
3. MLB To Expand Playoffs By Two Teams To 10 (2012-03-02)
   One year late.
4. Fenway Park Wins Historic Places Register Listing (2012-03-07)
   So now it’s ‘Historic Fenway’ not just ‘historic Fenway.’
5. Fenwway Park: 100 Years Old, Still Ridiculously Hot (2012-03-27)
   Why Fenway rocks.
6. Jim Rice Talks Fenway, Red Sox At MLB Fan Cave (2012-04-17)
   And I was there!
7. Leaked Memos: Bobby V Is Losing The Red Sox And His Mind (2012-04-23)
   Why I like to call the 2012 Red Sox season the #BobbyVShow.
8. MLB Players Who Played In Only One Game (2012-05-31)
   One game is better than zero games.
9. Unusual Photos Of 19Th Century Baseball Players (2012-06-11)
   Because there’s not much baseball news worth reporting this year.
10. Clemens Found Not Guilty Of Lying To Congress (2012-06-18)
    Note to self: ‘Not guilty’ is not the same as ‘innocent.’

Music Stuff

In 2.5 more years, my band, The MCats Band, will have been together as long as The Beatles.  And we’re only about a dozen albums behind them!

1. Bye Bye Baby Bye Bye: The Monkees’ Davy Jones, 1945-2012 (2012-02-29)
2. Video: Drummer Tears Through Pop Music History (2012-06-05)
3. Walmart Ad Hints At Vudu Streaming On Roku Players (2012-06-06)

This headline explains (unintentionally) why Apple dominates the music market.

4. Video: Mister Rogers Remix Will Make You Cry Tears of Joy (2012-06-07)
   
5. Calm.com Is the Most Relaxing 2 Minutes You’ll Spend Online (2012-06-07)

In-Case-You-Missed-It Stuff: Clocktower And Its Clients

Clocktower is grateful to have great clients doing great things, even as we all collectively struggle to recover from the Great Recession.  Here are updates on Clocktower and its clients since the last LawLawLaw newsletter.

1. Top 10 Things Smart Companies Should Know About Intellectual Property (2010-10-22)
   Smart businesses should use all laws – including IP laws – to their advantage.
2. Drawings, Charts, And Videos That Explain The Recession (2011-11-22)
   9/11 Wars + Tax Cuts + Bailouts = Recession.
3. DO Post The Same Content On All Your Social Profiles http://goo.gl/81pfe (2012-02-14)
   It’s not the seeds that matter, it’s the flowers.
4. Behind Every Piece of Data Is a Patient (2012-02-18)
   PatientsLikeMe empowers patients to find cures by sharing info that is otherwise unavailable.
5. Call-Em-All In The News: New York Times (2012-02-18)
6. FirstFuel Raises $10M Series A (2012-02-23)
7. PMC Launches Fully Integrated App For Bike Riders (2012-03-06)
8. Happy Birthdays To Clocktower And Its Website (2012-03-21)
   Clocktower turns 11, Clocktower’s website turns 15.
9. Apperian Raises $12.4M (2012-03-13)
10. Disruptor Beam Partners With HBO To Develop ‘Game Of Thrones Ascent’ For Facebook (2012-05-21)
11. Corporate Volunteerism: BzzAgent And Helping Hands (2012-06-04)

Random Stuff

1. Saturday Night Live (SNL) 15-Year Special: Len Tukwilla, Driftwood Sculptor (1989-09-24)
2. 10 Classic Video Games You Can Play Online for Free (2012-01-10)
3. 30 Strangers Walk Into This Man’s Home Every Day (2012-02-24)
4. Tips On Starting Your Own Blog (2012-02-26)
   From my 14-year-old daughter.
5. Bathroom Design & Digital Goods: Right Versus Pragmatic (2012-02-29)
   Sometimes pragmatic is better.
6. Philosoraptor: Toast Toasts Toast (2012-03-24)
7. The 50 Greatest Cartoons (2012-03-27)
8. The Oatmeal: The State Of The Web (2012-04-24)
   Nailed it.  As usual.
9. Rick Klau: Success And Luck (2012-06-07)
   In 1992, I wrote the first book published simultaneously on the Internet and in print.  That book, The Legal List, gave me my 15 minutes of fame and launched my career, first as a marketer of Internet things, then as a lawyer of Internet things.  I have always attributed my success to two things: (1) above average writing skills and (2) perfect timing.  Another word for #2 is ‘luck.’  This article repeats the point that if you’ve had success, then you’ve probably had a lot of #1, but you’ve also had a lot of #2.  So be proud of #1, but also be humble about #2.

END

The LawLawLaw newsletter, available at http://www.LawLawLaw.com, is a publication of Clock Tower Law Group.  The opinions in LawLawLaw do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Clock Tower Law Group, its employees, or the author.  Feel free to forward this to anyone who might enjoy it.  Send content/subscription questions to info@clocktowerlaw.com.  Thanks!

Your brand is your brand.

My dad bought me a nice Red Sox jacket from Sports Authority for my birthday.  (Thanks, Dad!) He bought the right size, but the jacket runs large (actually, “runs huge” would be a better description) and did not fit.

Since sizing was clearly an issue with this jacket, it made sense for me to go to the store to exchange it.  I planned to try on a replacement jacket and return home happy.  So, after lunch today, I drove to the nearest store, which was inconveniently located 25 minutes away in Marlboro.

Bad news.  Not only does the Sports Authority in Marlboro not carry this particular jacket, they also do not accept returns in store for items purchased online.

Gotcha!

In 2012, it is reasonable to assume that if a customer buys a product from BRAND-X, then the customer can return the product to BRAND-X, online or in person.  I have returned items to brick-and-mortar stores that were purchased online from L.L.Bean, Sears, and even KMart.

What was I supposed to do?  Mail the product back to Kentucky, have it credited back to my dad’s credit card, buy the replacement coat from the store in Marlboro, and send my dad the bill?  Is this the “user experience” that Sports Authority envisioned?

I asked to speak to a manager, and the person I was speaking with told me that she was the manager.  I explained that “Sports Authority is Sports Authority” and that their policy was a bad one.  Heck, they could have mailed the box back themselves, given me a store credit, and let me get a replacement coat.  We’d all be even, and my dad wouldn’t have to do anything.  But no.  The manager offered no solutions, only excuses.

I left my box at the customer service desk and briefly walked around the Red Sox section looking for a replacement jacket.  Then the easy solution dawned on me: Return the jacket to Kentucky, buy a new jacket elsewhere, and never shop at Sports Authority again!  Yes, that’s satisfying.

This is a not a new problem.  My law school classmate Jill Smith blogged about this exact same issue three years ago when she tried (and failed) to return a $1.75 spool of thread, which she had purchased online from Jo-Ann Fabric, to her local Jo-Ann store:

Let me explain something as clearly as I can to the people who make decisions that create these kinds of conversations:

Your brand is your brand.

If you want to benefit from a brand name that has customer loyalty attached to it, you have to be prepared for your customers to view that brand as a whole entity – online and off.  Your customers neither know nor care about your corporate structure. Beyond that, when a customer is faced with an employee (your corporate spokesperson, like it or not) explaining that their broken item must be mailed back to the online entity for the approximate replacement cost of the item itself, it makes your customers… unhappy.  And that unhappy experience creates a very strong impression.  Call it a brand association.

As a result, I now associate the entire Jo-Ann Fabric brand with dingy, disorganized stores, unhelpful employees in dirty uniforms, and a corporate policy that is a paragon of customer-unfriendly ‘gotcha’ rules.

Congratulations, Jo-Ann Fabric branding team.  That’s a clear picture of a store I won’t shop at again.

This issue of proper sizing for online stores is also not new.  Last month, Amazon.com bragged about hiring three women to do nothing but try on size 8 shoes for its online reviews.  Seriously, it took Amazon until 2012 to do this?  Heels.com, the online shoe store for women that I co-founded, has been doing this since it was founded in 2007.

Returns are part of retail.  Just like credit cards.  In fact, when I purchase any product or service, I expect to be able to pay with check, credit card, or PayPal.  It’s for these reasons that my law firm, Clock Tower Law Group, accepts these three forms of payment.

It just makes sense.

You know what does not make sense?  Not being able to return something at Sports Authority that was purchased at Sports Authority.

Your brand is your brand.

Erik J. Heels is an MIT engineer; trademark, domain name, and patent lawyer; Red Sox fan; and music lover.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Related Posts

• For Better Branding, Use Your Twitter Username In Other Social Networks (6/4/2009)
  I started this as an email and decided to make it a blog post instead.  Hence the format.
• How To Twittersquat The Top 100 Brands (1/8/2009)
  A call for the creation of the Uniform Username Dispute Resolution Policy.
• Erik J. Heels Announces Start-Up Heels.com Shoe Store (11/12/2007)
  With the name Heels, Erik Heels was destined to be either a podiatrist or a shoe salesman.
• The Brand Wars Are Coming, The Brand Wars Are Coming! (7/1/2007)
  How to defend your brands on the Internet.
• Book Review: The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding (11/27/2006)
  By Al Ries and Laura Ries.
• Just Say Moo – How To Name And Brand Your Product To Make It Stand Out From The Crowd (12/8/2003)
  Good branding can separate your cow from the other cattle.
• Business Is A Conversation (Or Clueful Lawyers) (10/1/2000)
  The business of law is a conversation.  Are you conversing?

Clocktower turns 11, Clocktower’s website turns 15.

If you know me, then you know that brevity is not my strong suit.

Even if you don’t know me, you should know that brevity is not my strong suit.

So I’ll try to keep this brief.

Eleven years ago today, I started my law practice, now known as Clocktower Law Group.  Fifteen (yes, 15) years ago today, I launched my law firm’s website.

How is it, you ask, that I had a law firm website before having a law practice?  Because before I was a lawyer working as a lawyer, I was a lawyer working as a marketeer for:

• 6+ years, at
• 6 startups, including a
• $6 billion exit (Verio).

Such symmetry.  It’s pleasing.

This year, as usual, I’ve got a few projects in the works.  More on that later.  Working on the symmetry thing.

Thanks to my friends, my family, my coworkers, and the dreamers I work with every day.  The first 11 years have been a blast.  Looking forward to the next 11!

And for those who have not yet RSVPed, I hope to see you at Happy Winter Friends, the 11th anniversary party for Clocktower, featuring music by The MCats Band (the best party band in Greater Acton-Boxboro), on Friday 03/23/12 in Maynard.

Those who are about to rock salute you!

Erik J. Heels is an MIT engineer; trademark, domain name, and patent lawyer; Red Sox fan; and music lover.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Related Posts

• $2 Billion In Angel/VC Funding + 10 Acquisitions By Public Companies = @ClockTowerLaw’s Winning Clients http://goo.gl/Y0IkP (5/24/2011)
  Clock Tower Law Group: Helping Smart Companies(TM).
• Clock Tower Law Group Turns 10, Wants Flying Cars (3/21/2011)
  Or a pony.
• A New Blog For My Birthday (6/6/2008)
  Out with the old blog, in with the new.
• Clock Tower Law Group’s 7th Birthday (3/21/2008)
  My website enters its 12 year today, my law firm enters its 8th year today.
• Happy Birthdays To Clock Tower Law Group (03/21/2007)
  My website is 10 years old today, my law firm is 6 years old today.
• Happy Thanksgiving (11/22/2006)
  Of treehouses, patents, and trademarks.
• 6-6-66 + 40 = 6-6-6: Erik’s 40th Birthday And Non-Evil 666 Trademark Offer (6/6/2006)
  I am not a hexakosioihexekontahexaphobic.
• Ten-Year Anniversary Of ‘The Legal List’ (7/4/2002)
  My first book, ‘The Legal List,’ went through seven editions from 1992-1995.

It’s not the seeds that matter, it’s the flowers.

This article is in response to another article: Don’t Post The Same Content On All Your Social Profiles.

It does not matter whether or not you post the ‘same content’ on multiple social networks.  There are many other examples of where the ‘same content’ is posted: direct mail, your answering machine, your website, the Associated Press, syndication, just to name a few.

What matters is that you converse with others (friends, family, followers, prospective clients, fans, whomever) wherever they choose to be.  I have many conversations.  I often forget whether I had a ‘conversation’ with someone in person, via email, via text message, or on social networks.  In all likelihood, it was some combination of the above.  It doesn’t matter where or how the conversation occurs.  What matters is that the conversation occurs.

If the Associated Press thought that its stories would never get picked up, then it would stop writing them.  But AP wire stories often blossom and grow into other conversations.  Imagine if, based on advice from so-called social networking experts, the AP had to rewrite its headlines for each of it’s target networks!

Some social networks make having conversations extremely difficult.  LinkedIn, for example, limits comments to 144 characters, so I hardly ever converse there.  But LinkedIn is important for other reasons.  Twitter.com is terrible for following conversations, but that’s why the TweetDeck application was created.  When I blog, I get more comments on blog posts on Facebook than I do on my blog itself.  And lately my techie friends, many of whom are absent from other social networks, have been appearing on Google+, which is nice.

For the record, I moderate all comments on my blog (and other social networks) and delete all of those that add zero value to the conversation.  It’s not hard to add value.  But just saying ‘yah’ or ‘me too’ isn’t enough.  You actually have to do the hard work of thinking.

Yes, Virginia, social networking involves hard work.  So while I use services such as Ping.fm and Seesmic to coordinate my seed-planting across multiple social networks, I follow up personally.

When I was looking for office space, I got some good advice: go where the clients are.  My clients are on various social networks.  As such, I do not discriminate against social networks.  I’m even on Pinterest!  Plant the seeds of conversation on many social networks.  Then have the conversations wherever they take root.  Some seeds may rot, others may blossom.

But don’t try to guess where conversations want to happen.  Unless you want to reap nothing.  Like information, conversations want to be free.  Free to happen anywhere.

And beware of self-appointed social networking experts peddling their wares.

Erik J. Heels is an MIT engineer; trademark, domain name, and patent lawyer; Red Sox fan; and music lover.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Related Posts

1. Drawing That Explains Why Google+ Doesn’t Suck (8/31/2011)
   Any why Facebook is panicking.
2. Top 10 Questions To Ask Before Your Company Spends Money On Social Media (9/12/2010)
   Social networking is not magic.
3. Google Legal Summit NYC 2010 (4/28/2010)
   Innovation And Disruption As A Google Core Value.
4. Drawing That Explains Google Buzz Privacy Problems (2/14/2010)
   Think visually before launching technology products.
5. Drawing That Explains Contact Syncing (2/4/2010)
   Email is social networking glue.
6. RT @ErikJHeels How To Write Web Headlines That Work In #Twitter http://goo.gl/8MKDa (4/28/2009)
   All web pages are shareable items.  All titles are Twitter tweets.  Get used to it.
7. How To Be A Millionaire On #Twitter (2/25/2009)
   In two easy steps!
8. Three Free #Startup Ideas For The Taking http://goo.gl/DHiEB (2/13/2009)
   Ideas are cool, but execution is key.
9. How To Twittersquat The Top 100 Brands (1/8/2009)
   A call for the creation of the Uniform Username Dispute Resolution Policy.
10. Rolling Stone Announces More Five-Star Rated Albums And All I Got Was This Lousy Feed (11/25/2008)
    Want to know why the music business is broken?  Look at how Rolling Stone Magazine mismanages its most prized asset: five-star reviews.
11. Drawing That Explains Social Networking (11/3/2008)
    How to visualize social networking.
12. LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: USAF (10/26/2007)
    Reese AFB, Lubbock, Texas.  Hanscom AFB, Bedford, Massachusetts.
13. FreakonomicsSucks.com (8/9/2007)
    In which Erik Heels demonstrates that domain names – not diamonds – are forever.
14. Funniest Movies Of The 2000s (7/29/2007)
    Funny movie clips from the 2000s.
15. Funniest Movies Of The 1990s (7/29/2007)
    Funny movie clips from the 1990s.
16. Funniest Movies Of The 1980s (7/29/2007)
    Funny movie clips from the 1980s.
17. Funniest Movies Of The 1970s (07/29/2007)
    Funny movie clips from the 1970s.
18. LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: Cayman (12/26/2006)
    Cayman Systems Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts.
19. LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: BBN (12/22/2006)
    Bolt, Beranek & Newman (BBN) Advanced Computers Inc. (ACI), Cambridge, Massachusetts.
20. LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: Rautaruukki (12/19/2006)
    Rautaruukki OY, Raahe, Finland.
21. LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: MIT (12/16/2006)
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology class of 1988.
22. LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: CEHS (12/15/2006)
    Cape Elizabeth High School class of 1984.
23. LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: Verio (12/13/2006)
    Verio coworkers.
24. Business Is A Conversation (Or Clueful Lawyers) (10/1/2000)
    The business of law is a conversation.  Are you conversing?

Boston Patent Attorney

Techie, Lawyer, Baseball Fan, Musician.

In his spare time, Erik enjoys hacking with computers, writing, baseball, and seeking the perfect Hammond B-3 sound on his keyboard.  On Erik’s desk are pictures of his three children: Sam, Ben, and Sonja.  His life adventures include living in Finland, swimming in the Arctic Ocean, pulling 6 Gs and soloing a jet in the Air Force, and traveling to 10 countries and to the 48 contiguous United States.

Erik is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, Adjunct Professor at the University of Maine School of Law (teaching patent law), and a frequent speaker about issues related to law and technology.  He earned his BS in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his JD from the University of Maine School of Law (Maine Law).

From 2007-2008, he co-founded, launched, and sold the Heels.com shoe store (a high end boutique for women’s shoes) with the domain name originally used for his law firm.

After law school, Erik worked for six years for six Internet companies, including a four-year stint with Verio, which was sold for $6 billion cash in the largest cash deal for an Internet-related company in history.  In 2001, he launched Clocktower Law Group, a trademark and patent law firm in the Boston area.

In 1992, Erik wrote “The Legal List,” the first book published simultaneously on the Internet and in print.  Erik’s 15 minutes of fame started after reviews of that book appeared in Internet World, Wired, and The New York Times.

Erik has been on the Internet since 1984 and has extensive experience working in high-tech companies such as Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), Cayman Systems, and Verio.

Erik J. Heels is a trademark and patent lawyer, Boston Red Sox fan, MIT engineer, and musician.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Related Posts

• Drawing That Explains This Blog (9/18/2012)
  Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll.
• How To Start A Boston Patent Law Practice (11/8/2011)
  Advice for new Boston patent lawyers.
• Patent Law 101 (1/26/2011)
  An introduction to patent law in plain English.
• The Perfect Treehouse (Part 2) (10/16/2009)
  Build one with your kids.
• Huge Igloo We Built And Slept In (1/14/2009)
  Photos from January 1982.
• Batman Lawyer Meets Boston Band Founder (10/31/2006)
  Holy rock star Batman!
• A Smattering Of Things That I’ve Learned In Life (12/13/2005)
  This article explains, in a way that a resume cannot, what life experiences I have had and how these experiences have contributed to the unique perspective that I bring to everything that I do.
• The Perfect Treehouse (Part 1) (12/25/2004)
  In the summer of 2003 and 2004, the perfect treehouse took shape in a four-stem maple in the back yard of a house in Acton, MA.

9/11 Wars + Tax Cuts + Bailouts = Recession.

This article analyzes, chronologically, how the US got itself – and the world – into the current recession.  I wrote this post primarily for me, because I don’t want to forget how we got into this mess.  But if others like it, that’s gravy.

For the record, I have never belonged to any political party.  As it says under “political views” on my Facebook profile, “I vote for the smartest candidate.  It doesn’t always work out.”

1946-2001: Back Story

1. Book Review: Economics In One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt (1946, Yes, 1946)
   The current recession began in 1946 when zero politicians bought this book.  You don’t need to study economics in school.  You need to read this book.  Hazlitt explains, in simple terms, how classic economic mistakes are made by pursuing short-term policies that benefit only a select few at the expense of a long-term policies that could benefit many.
2. Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’ (2001-01-17)
   Under President Bill Clinton, the US enjoyed peace and prosperity.  With this story, [satirical publication] The Onion joked about what would happen after George W. Bush was inaugurated.  Now who’s laughing?

2001-2008: The Big Four Expenses

President George W. Bush started two wars and created two windfalls (Bush tax cuts for the rich and TARP bailouts for Wall Street banks).  These are the Big Four expenses that started the current economic downturn.

1. Afghanistan War (2001-10-07)
2. Iraq War (2003-03-20)
3. Bush Tax Cuts (2003-05-23)
4. TARP Bailouts (2008-10-03)

2008-2010: Recession (Part 1)

President Barack Obama promised to end the two wars and the two windfalls (Bush tax cuts and TARP bailouts).  To date, he has done none of this.  In late 2010, Obama extended the Bush-era tax cuts.  So they are Obama’s tax cuts now.

1. The Sub-Prime Primer (2008-05-07)
   The housing market started to collapse in 2008.  This presentation explains how and why the housing market failed.
2. The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future Of Our Economy, Energy, And Environment (2008-10)
   First a video series, then a book, Crash Course will teach you why we’re all screwed – unless we change now.  If you dare watch/read it.  For example, you’ll learn why ordinary Americans are forced to invest their retirement savings in risky stocks just to keep up with inflation.
3. Chart: Debt With And Without Bush Tax Cuts (2008-12-02)
   Nearly four years ago, The New York Times warned about the impact of the Bush tax cuts.
   
4. Infographic of the Day: Our Lost Decade (2010-01-06)
   Zero percent job growth over the last decade.
5. Infographic of the Day: Just How Big Is the Deficit? (2010-02-03)
   Worst deficit since World War II (WWII, WW2).
6. Chart: VC-Backed IPOs and M&A Deals 1992-2009 (2010-05-31)
7. Infographic of the Day: The Entire History of the American Presidency (2010-06-10)
   This great poster gives context to politics and the economy from 1776 to 2010.
8. The Student Loan Scheme (2010-09-16)
   Amendments to the Bankruptcy Code in 2005 prevent student loan debt from being discharged in bankruptcy.
9. Comic: Puzzled by the Downturn (2010-11-05)
10. Chart: Economic DownTurn, Financial Rescues, And Legacy of Bush Policies Drive Record Deficits (2010-12-03)
    
11. Obama extends Bush-era tax cuts (2010-12-17)

2011-Present: Recession (Part 2)

Some economists have declared that the late 2000s recession is over.  But with US unemployment at 9%, it’s safe to say that the 2008-present recession is alive and well.

1. Average Sole Proprietor’s Net Income 1980-2007 (2011-01-10)
2. Scary Unemployment Chart (2011-02-07)
   
3. Rising Inequality Since 1970s: A Sharp Break From Shared Prosperity Of Earlier Era (2011-04-08)
4. Chart: Startups As A Percentage Of All Businesses 1977-2009 (2011-06-06)
5. US Budget: 20% Defense, 20% Social Security, 15% Medicare (Elderly), 8% Medicaid (Poor), 37% Other *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_budget (2011-06-10)
6. Too Big to Fail: Inside America’s Economic Downfall [Infographic] (2011-06-30)
7. The Truth About Who’s Responsible For The Explosion In Government Spending (2011-07-11)
8. The Truth About Who’s Responsible For Our Massive Budget Deficit (2011-07-11)
9. USA Inc. – Where We Are, How We Got Here, What May Be Next (2011-07-20)
   USA Inc. is a nonpartisan group that looks at the US federal government as if it were a business.
   
10. Chart: Policy Changes Under Two Presidents (2011-07-26)
    
11. Chart: Where Does U.S. National Debt Come From? [Infographic] (2011-07-27)
    
12. The Original ‘Scariest Jobs Chart Ever’ Is Still Plenty Scary (2011-08-05)
13. A timeline of events (2011-08-06)
14. US Debt Crisis Explained (2011-08-10)
    
15. The Onion predicts the future (2011-08-11)
    Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’
16. Remove Eight Zeros (2011-08-14)
    The best way for most Americans to understand the big numbers in the US budget is to remove eight zeros and pretend its a family budget.
17. The Limping Middle Class (2011-09-04)
The Great Prosperity 1947-1979 vs. The Great Regression 1980-2011 (2011-09-04)
18. WARREN BUFFETT CALLS BS ON TAX BS: Taxing Billionaires More Won’t Hurt The Economy (2011-09-10)
    Buffet talks a good talk, but he rarely acts on his political ideas.
19. 9/11 anniversary: National Memorial in New York opens (2011-09-12)
20. The Middle Class Is Dead (2011-09-12)
21. US poverty rate hits record high (2011-09-14)
22. The lost decade for the middle class (2011-09-16)

2011-Present: #Occupy

The #Occupy Movement: The Frogs Figured Out That The Water Was Boiling. To late?  Or just in time.  (That first sentence is in init caps because it was going to be the title of this post.) I recall what one Occupy Boston protester said about why he was protesting: “The Bush Administration may have caused the recession, but the Obama Administration didn’t do what it said it was going to do to end the recession (namely ending the wars, the Bush tax cuts, and the bailouts), and so we the Occupiers feel disenfranchised, with nowhere to turn but the streets.”  Then, rather than arresting the politicians and bankers that caused the economic mess, the police started arresting the 99%!  Crazy.  Perhaps 10 years after 9/11, the terrorists have won.

1. Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Starts (2011-09-17)
2. 14 Reasons People Are Occupying Wall Street (2011-09-28)
3. 11 Ways America is Keeping Poor People Poor (2011-09-30)
4. One Third Of Veterans Don’t Back Wars (2011-10-06)
5. Watch Protesters Take Wall Street as Fancy Bankers Look On [Video] (2011-10-06)
6. Finally, A Clear Explanation Of What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About (2011-10-09)
7. Here’s The Chart That Will Get Obama Fired (2011-10-09)
8. 72 Cities That Have Joined The Occupied Movement (2011-10-09)
9. Chart: Growth Of Family Income 1947-2007: We Grew Apart (2011-10-11)
   
10. What Would George Carlin Say About #OccupyWallStreet? (2011-10-12)
    NSFW but worth the read.
11. Here’s What The 99% Are Angry About (2011-10-13)
12. The Protesters Are Getting Their Act Together! (2011-10-13)
13. Violence Erupts in Rome as Occupy Wall Street Goes Global (2011-10-15)
14. Four Charts That Explain What The Protesters Are Angry About (2011-10-15)
15. Amazing Charts Show How 90% Of The Country Has Gotten Shafted Over The Past 30 Years (2011-10-15)
16. NYPD Arrests Citibank Customer For Taking Money Out Of Own Account (2011-10-15)
    
17. Chart: US Debt Accumulation by President (2011-10-16)
    
18. Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance (2011-10-17)
    This is a great read.  Example:
    

    “11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.”

19. U.S. Marine Demolishes NYPD, Defends #OccupyWallStreet (2011-10-17)
    
20. The Greatest #OccupyWallStreet Sign Ever (2011-10-17)
21. Occupy George, Occupy Wall Street Infographics Printed On Dollar Bills (2011-10-18)
22. 15 Great #OccupyWallStreet Political Cartoons (2011-10-18)
23. Libya’s interim leader confirms Gadhafi killed (2011-10-20)
24. Chart: How Many Millionaires In Congress? (2011-10-20)
    
25. Chart: Self-Employment Income 2006-2011 (2011-10-24)
26. Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation’s Income, CBO Says (2011-10-26)
27. Why Obama should call for a breakup of big banks (2011-10-26)
28. Before & After: Occupy Oakland (2011-10-26)
29. Jon Stewart: ‘What the F*ck Happened in Oakland?’ [Video] (2011-10-27)
30. Why the current revenue model of higher education is in trouble (2011-10-27)
31. If US Land Were Divided Like US Wealth (2011-10-28)
32. The Washington Post: What caused the financial crisis? The Big Lie goes viral (2011-10-31)
33. Congress’ Net Worth Up 25% Since 2008 [The Rich] (2011-11-01)
34. College has been oversold (2011-11-02)
35. Super committee: Let Bush tax cuts expire and your work will be done (2011-11-02)
36. Why College? A Comic Strip People Should See In High School (2011-11-04)
37. Chart: Italy GDP Growth (2011-11-08)
38. Why American Roads Are So Bad (2011-11-08)
39. NEW POLL: Americans Want Everything [Video] (2011-11-08)
40. US poverty: Blame the government (2011-11-09)
41. Please Help Us Figure Out How To Solve The Inequality Problem (2011-11-13)
42. Police Destroy 5,000 Books In Their Eviction Of #OccupyWallStreet (2011-11-15)
43. How the rich stay rich (2011-11-15)
44. Occupiers occupied: The hijacking of the First Amendment (2011-11-16)
45. OUTRAGE OF THE MONTH: Insider Trading In Congress (2011-11-16)
46. Chart: The Popularity Of Congress Compared With Other Unpopular Things (2011-11-17)
    
47. Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont), Senate Budget Committee (2011-11-18)
    
48. Lobbyists and Politicians Beware: First Street Reveals Your Hidden Connections (2011-11-18)
49. The real problem with Occupy Wall Street? This Google search: http://t.co/LMJRKSYs (2011-11-19)
50. Venn Diagram: Federal Government vs. Goldman Sachs (2011-11-20)
    
51. Egyptian State TV Uses The Police Response To #Occupy To Justify Their Own Brutality (2011-11-21)
52. CNN’s David Gergen: Have they gone nuts in Washington? (2011-11-21)
53. Five reasons why the congressional supercommittee failed (2011-11-21)
54. Occupy Wall Street Moves Into New Phase With Student Debt Refusal Campaign (2011-11-21)

Summary

There are many problems with the world, its economy, and its denizens.

People have a short attention span.  Most have forgotten the Big Four and what preceded it (9/11).

People make decisions based on emotion, not on logic.

People don’t understand large numbers like billions and trillions (hint: try removing eight zeros).

People take facts out of context.

News is entertainment.

Politicians know people.

So what happens?  Politicians prey on emotions to get people to vote in certain ways.

It’s takes money to make money.

Power corrupts.

Lobbyists lobby, laws change.

Follow the money.

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

And instead of a government of the people, by the people, for the people, we have a government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.

It is sad, but it is true.  Copyright law was long ago hijacked by Hollywood.  In 2011, patent law was hijacked by big business.

50% of those in Congress are millionaires.  Whose interests do you think they have in mind?

I don’t know who the next US president will be.  But the formula for breaking the economy is well known:

9/11 Wars + Tax Cuts + Bailouts = Recession

Here’s how to fix the economy:

End The 9/11 Wars + End The Bush Tax Cuts + End The Bailouts = End The Recession

There has been a failure of leadership in Washington, DC.  There been a failure of followership.  And there has been a failure of get-out-of-the-way-ship.  The 112th Congress will go down in history as one of the most political, least effective, and most corrupt ever.  Unless things change soon, this independent voter may end up casting protest votes in all contests for himself.  Again.

I’m pretty good at spotting trends.  Do you see the trend here?  The natives are getting restless.  The US government must reform now.

Said the king to his protesting subjects, “You have to do what I say or I can’t be king anymore!”

Exactly.

Erik J. Heels is an MIT engineer; trademark, domain name, and patent lawyer; Red Sox fan; and music lover.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

A newsletter by Clock Tower Law Group founder Erik J. Heels about trends in technology, intellectual property (IP) law (patent law, trademark law), baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll.

Greetings,

I, Erik Heels, a lawyer, do hereby swear and affirm that this is my LawLawLaw newsletter: read/subscribe at http://www.LawLawLaw.com.

LawLawLaw is about technology, law (mostly patents and trademarks), baseball (mostly Red Sox), and music (mostly rock).  Besides being an attorney, I’m good at spotting trends, connecting people on social networks, fixing things, solving Rubik’s cube, and a handful of other things.

I try to keep LawLawLaw short (fail), relevant (win), and timely (draw).  Did you know that messages must be heard seven times before being acted on?  So please forward this to your friends.  Please please please please please please.  There.  My work here is done.  Thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks!

Do not expose to direct sunlight.

Regards,
Erik
–
Clock Tower Law Group [Patent Law | Trademark Law]
2 Clock Tower Place, Suite 255, Maynard, MA 01754
phone: 978-823-0008 | fax: 978-246-0256
http://www.ClockTowerLaw.com
      


“The person who says ‘it cannot be done’ should not interrupt the person doing it.” – Chinese Proverb

—snip—

LawLawLaw

Technology, Law, Baseball, Rock ‘n’ Roll

Client Stuff

Clock Tower Law Group has some wicked cool clients.  Here’s what some of them are up to.  I mean, here’s up to what some of them are.

1. The Founding of PatientsLikeMe (2011-07-21)
2. Is Encryption The Solution To Cloud Computing Security And Privacy? (2011-08-04)
3. Monetate Raises $15 Million For Realtime Testing And Targeting Platform (2011-08-04)
4. BuyWithMe Acquires Scoop St., Its Fifth Daily Deals Acquisition This Year (2011-08-16)
5. CloudSwitch to be Acquired by Verizon to Simplify Secure Cloud Services (2011-08-25)

Tech Stuff

We are now 16 years into the Internet age.  Newsweek magazine (remember magazines?) declared 1995 to be the year of the Internet.  But we’re still working out the bugs.

Print publications are going away, websites are rushing to be mobile-friendly, music (and everything else) is moving to the cloud.

I wrote about the passing of Steve Jobs separately.  I purchased my first iPad the day after he died.  Note that Dilbert now refers to desktop PCs as “grandpa boxes.”

1. Dilbert: Desktop Computers Are Grandpa Boxes (2011-08-03)

   

2. Drawing That Explains Why Google+ Doesn’t Suck (2011-08-31)
   Any why Facebook is panicking.
3. As Yahoo Continues to Struggle, CEO Carol Bartz Is Fired (2011-09-07)
4. Advice For Startups From A Giant Robot Dinosaur: BE ON FIRE (2011-10-25)
5. Jess vs. The World: Startup Ipsum (2011-11-01)
   Need filler text for your startup?  Here you go.
6. In the Wake of Estonian FBI Bust, Have You Checked Your DNS Settings? (2011-11-10)

Law Stuff

Even though Internet technology continues to progress, laws continue to struggle to keep up.  Rather than adapting, the entertainment industry, in particular, keeps trying to pass bad laws to hold on to broken business models from another era.  I think it will take a full generation (30 years, i.e. until 2025) until the old guard lets go of its old ways and starts treating the Internet like a feature instead of a bug.

The patent backlog remains bad but has been getting slightly better lately.  See the USPTO patent dashboard (below) for the latest patent and trademark stats.

1. Patent First Office Action Backlog Dips Below 700,000 (2011-07-12)
2. USPTO patent dashboard (2011-07-12)
3. A Harvard Law School Professor Publishes A Study Of UDRP Decisions Involving “Fair Use” & Finds Cases Turn On Nationality (2011-07-20)
4. Jazon Kottke: Our Broken Patent System (2011-08-04)
5. Erik J. Heels’s Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week (2011-08-20)
6. Patent Litigation Is For Optimists (2011-09-03)

   

7. Post-Bilski Cases Fail To Clearly Define ‘Abstract’ Idea (2011-09-20)
8. Video On How PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet (2011-10-26)
   

   PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

9. How To Start A Boston Patent Law Practice (2011-11-08)
   Advice for new Boston patent lawyers.
10. VP Joe Biden Explains Why SOPA & PROTECT IP Are Anti-American & A Bad Idea (2011-11-15)
    
11. The Customer Is Frequently Wrong (2011-11-15)
    Especially when it comes to patents and trademarks.
12. EU Parliament Warns The US To Stop Censoring The Internet (2011-11-17)

Baseball Stuff

So – I’m going to pretend that September 2011 never happened.  The good news is that pitchers and catchers report in about three months!

1. Papi, Adrian, Ellsbury, Beckett named All-Stars (2011-07-04)
2. Tim Wakefield Wins His 200th Career Game (2011-09-13)
3. The Legend of Lavarnway (2011-09-28)
4. Dear 2011 #RedSox: Thanks for a great season. In 2004, zero starts missed due to injury. This year, not so much. Win or lose, we love ya! (2011-09-29)
5. How the Wild Card Redeemed Baseball (2011-09-29)
6. Thanks For Everything, Tito. Godspeed. (2011-09-30)
7. Ellsbury earns AL Comeback Player honors (2011-10-13)
8. Red Sox choose Cherington as GM (2011-10-13)
9. Done Deal: Theo Heading to Chicago on ‘Massive’ Five-Year Deal (2011-10-13)
10. Nothing But Class From Theo (2011-10-23)
11. Theo backed up his first words (2011-10-24)
12. 3 Dodgers, 3 Red Sox earn Gold Glove honors (2011-11-02)
13. Ortiz, Ellsbury, Gonzalez make Red Sox only MLB Team with Three Silver Sluggers (2011-11-03)
14. Orioles hire Dan Duquette as VP of baseball operations (2011-11-07)
15. Papelbon agrees to four-year deal with Phillies (2011-11-11)
16. Godspeed, Dances With Bud Light Box (2011-11-11)
17. Saying Goodbye to the Red Sox ’04 and ’07 World Series Teams (2011-11-15)

Music Stuff

In a span of three days, iTunes Match (iTunes in the cloud) and Google Music (music in the Google) launched.  Let the race to the cloud begin!

1. Amy Winehouse Found Dead (2011-07-23)
2. Infographic: The Death Of The Music Industry (2009-08-03)
   It’s been like watching a predictable, avoidable, slow-motion train wreck.
3. Rolling Stone’s Readers List The 10 Worst Songs Of The 1990s (2011-09-02)
4. Federal Judge Finds Cloud Music Lockers Do Not Violate Copyrights (2011-09-10)
5. Chilean Singer Sounds Just Like Eddie Veder (2011-09-23)
   
6. How Not To Make Music Social: The Way Spotify And Facebook Did It (2011-09-26)
7. Listen To 10 Seconds Of Every Hit Song Of The ’70s (2011-11-10)
   This is pure awesome!
8. Apple Finally Launches iTunes Match, Servers Overwhelmed by Demand (2011-11-14)
9. How iTunes Match Works and Whether You Should Subscribe (2011-11-14)
10. No More Beta: Google Music Goes Live (2011-11-17)

Random Stuff

Than goodness for humor.  It’s good to have happy diversions in times like these.  Enjoy!

1. Cancer Causes Cell Phones (2011-07-15)
   From the cause-and-effect department.
2. Government website hacked! (2011-08-01)
   From the hear-what-you-want department.
3. Drama (2011-08-02)
   From the deniers-gonna-deny department.
   
4. The Best Plan In The World (2011-08-16)
   From the like-it-or-leave-it department.
   
5. Angry Rich Startup Guy (2011-10-11)
   
6. If You’re Happy And You Know It (2011-11-09)
7. The Beavis And Butt-Head Soundboard (2011-11-12)
8. The Best Of Turtlecalls (2011-11-14)
   For $2, Brian Spaeth will call a victim of your choosing and pretend to be a turtle.
9. Multiple flights (2011-11-15)
   I love architecture.  The site StairPorn.org is one of my guilty pleasures.
10. Marching Goose Band (2011-11-16)
    

The LawLawLaw newsletter, available at http://www.LawLawLaw.com, is a publication of Clock Tower Law Group.  The opinions in LawLawLaw do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Clock Tower Law Group, its employees, or the author.  Feel free to forward this to anyone who might enjoy it.  Send content/subscription questions to info@clocktowerlaw.com.  Thanks!

Especially when it comes to patents and trademarks.

Philosophy #1: The Customer Is Always Right.

Philosophy #2: Treat Customers As If They Are Always Right.

Which philosophy does your business follow?

My law firm follows #2.

Wrong Customers And The 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle)

What?  You don’t want all customers?

That’s right, I don’t.  Most smart companies do not.  You want customers that are in your target market.

Here’s an example.  When I worked for Verio (1997-2001), we followed philosophy #2.  Verio (at one point the world’s largest web hosting company) bought 50 small business-oriented Internet service providers (ISPs) and rolled them up into one company.  Everybody at Verio did the same thing: turned 50 of something into one of something.  Whether the something was a billing system, HR system, product offering, or sales methodology.  We Verio-ized the companies we bought then sold Verio to NTT (the AT&T of Japan) for $6 billion cash in 2000.  The NTT-Verio deal is still the biggest cash acquisition for an Internet company ever.

I helped turn 50 Verio marketing and sales operations into one.  Verio’s Boston office was the only one in the country offering dial-up UUCP access.  The UUCP offering was going away, there were only a handful of UUCP customers, and those customers used a disproportionate amount of customer support resources.  UUNet, the only other provider of dial-up UUCP at the time, charged ten times as much as Verio for its offering.

To solve our UUCP customer support issue, I wrote letters to our UUCP customers, told them that the UUCP offering was going away in 60 days, wrote them checks for 2 months of UUCP service, thanked them for their business, and turned off UUCP 2 months later.  The weeding out of the “bad” UUCP customers ended up saving Verio money in the long run.  Another solution could have been to raise the price of UUCP tenfold.  Verio did increase prices for other offerings that were priced incorrectly.  Verio would frequently conduct an 80/20 analysis on its product offerings and terminate the 20% of the product offerings that took up 80% of the support resources.

Verio never wanted 100% of its prospective customers.  Or even of its existing customers.  Verio wanted customers that were in its target market.

I did the same 80/20 analysis on my firm’s client base a few years ago so that I could focus my firm’s energy on the 20% of our clients that make up the 80% of our revenue.

How IP Clients Are Frequently Wrong

The truth is that Clock Tower Law Group’s clients are frequently wrong.  They are wrong about patents, wrong about trademarks, wrong about domain names, wrong about usernames, wrong about branding, wrong about intellectual property (IP) strategy, wrong about IP valuation, wrong about just about everything IP-related.  Which is why they’ve hired us in the first place!

• You want to file a patent just to sue others?  You are a patent troll.  You are not our target market.  Wrong!
• You want to file a trademark just to send cease and desist (C&D) letters to companies in different markets?  You are a trademark bully.  You are not our target market.  Wrong!
• You want to register domain names and usernames that are confusingly similar to existing trademarks?  You are a cybersquatter.  You are not our target market.  Wrong!

The above examples are easy. Other examples of how clients (or prospective clients) are wrong are more subtle:

• Many companies waste money by filing patents on stuff that will be difficult – if not impossible – to patent.  Clock Tower Law Group frequently declines to file patent applications that have less than a 50% chance of issuing as patents.  You’ll find other law firms who will file anything for you.  But we don’t want you to waste your money on stuff that we think is not patentable.
• Many companies waste money on foreign patent filings.  We try to talk our clients out of filing most foreign patents.
• Many companies waste money by filing patents without doing a patent search.  Patent applications that we search issue at 2.5 times the rate of those that we do not search.  So we do patent searches as a rule.  Most other patent lawyers disagree with me on this point.  Most of them are wrong and lack data to support their positions.
• Many companies file overly broad trademarks.  I call this patent-style trademark filing.  If you are a gorilla and stand on a tree stump and pound your chest, then you will invite conflict in the jungle.  So too with filing overly broad trademark applications.  Inviting conflict is great for litigation attorneys, not so great for startups.

Treat Customers As If They Are Right, Teach Them To Make Better Decisions

That said, you should treat customers as if they are always right.  Or at least treat the customers you want – your target market – as if they are always right.

Take patents for example.  You are the inventor.  Our job is to educate you so that you can make the right business decisions to meet your business goals.  Your job is to teach us enough about your invention so that we can file the right patents and trademarks at the right time.

Our favorite clients are those who take our advice and have business success.  But not all of our clients succeed.

Just like a venture capital firm’s portfolio.  Not all VC investments work out.  Most fail.  That’s why VC firms need to get a 10x return on their investments that do work out.

Apologize When You’re Wrong

What prompted me to write this blog post was an email exchange with a client who questioned an invoice for filing an Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) for a patent application.  The patent (and trademark, for that matter) application process involves filling out lots of forms.

The trick, of course, is not filling out the forms.  The trick is knowing what to put on the forms and how to file them.  For example, here’s my IDS blurb:

IDS. Each individual associated with the filing and prosecution of a patent application has a duty of candor and good faith when dealing with the US Patent Office.  This duty includes a duty to disclose all information known to each individual to be material to patentability of the claimed invention.  This duty is deemed satisfied by filing an IDS.  Although it is possible to satisfy this duty without filing an IDS, it is in your best interest to cite all material prior art, because when patents issue, the documents listed in the IDS are printed on the cover of the patent as “References Cited,” and there is a presumption that the patent’s claims are patentable over these references.  If any person substantively involved in the filing and prosecution of the application becomes aware of additional information material to the patentability of the claimed invention, then that person has a duty to disclose this information to the USPTO to avoid loss of patent rights.  This is a continuous duty that applies to each pending claim of the application.

My firm uses hundreds of templates for emails and various filings.  If we gave all of our templates to our clients, it would not help because they don’t know how, when, or whether to use them.  In fact, it would make matters worse by overwhelming and confusing them.

In my response to my client, I quoted from one of my favorite books, “Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing” by Harry Beckwith:

A man was suffering a persistent problem with his house.  The floor squeaked.  No matter what he tried, nothing worked.  Finally, he called a carpenter who friends said was a true craftsman.  The craftsman walked into the room and heard the squeak.  He set down his toolbox, pulled out a hammer and nail, and pounded the nail into the floor with three blows.  The squeak was gone forever. The carpenter pulled out an invoice slip, on which he wrote the total for $45.  Above the total were two line items (1) Hammering, $2; (2) Knowing where to hammer, $43.  Charge for knowing where.

My client’s complaint was that we had apparently charged 40 minutes for “filling out a form.”  When in fact we had charged zero minutes for filling out the form and 40 minutes for knowing which information was material and needed to be disclosed to the USPTO.

FWIW, the USPTO itself says that it takes four hours to “fill out the IDS form” (two hours for patent documents, two hours for non-patent prior art).  “Knowing where to hammer” takes a heck of a lot longer.

Was the client wrong?  Yes.

Were we wrong?  Yes.

We failed to adequately respond to our client’s billing concern.  We failed to communicate what we charge for, and what we do not charge for.  We charge for knowing IP law and guiding smart companies through the minefield of IP law to reach their business goals.  We never charge for filling out forms.

Summary

Can we improve?  Absolutely.  No law firm makes zero mistakes.  Continuous improvement is our goal.

• If you’re looking for a law firm that will file whatever patents and trademarks that you want, regardless of their merit, then Clock Tower Law Group is not for you.  That’s not how we roll.
• If you want a law firm that will help you be a patent troll, trademark bully, or cybersquatter, then Clock Tower Law Group is not for you.  We have higher standards.
• If you’re looking for a law firm with lawyers who have to meet billable quotas of 1800-2000 hours/year, then Clock Tower Law Group is not for you.  No quotas here.

But if you’re looking for a law firm that will challenge your thinking about intellectual property law, about how patents and trademarks work in the real world, one that thinks differently and has been doing so for years (see links below), one that is not afraid to tell you when you are wrong, or to admit when it is, then Clock Tower Law Group may be for you.

Erik J. Heels is an MIT engineer; trademark, domain name, and patent lawyer; Red Sox fan; and music lover.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Related Posts

1. How To Start A Boston Patent Law Practice (11/8/2011)
   Advice for new Boston patent lawyers.
2. $2 Billion In Angel/VC Funding + 10 Acquisitions By Public Companies = @ClockTowerLaw’s Winning Clients http://goo.gl/By5mt (5/24/2011)
   Clock Tower Law Group: Helping Smart Companies(TM).
3. Men Of Great Genius: Venetian Senate, Patent Act of 1474 (4/11/2011)
   All modern patent statutes are derived from the Venetian Patent Act of 1474.
4. Patent Law 101 (1/26/2011)
   An introduction to patent law in plain English.
5. Top 10 Things Smart Companies Should Know About Intellectual Property (10/22/2010)
   Smart businesses should use all laws – including IP laws – to their advantage.
6. A Mere Mortal’s Guide To Patents Post-Bilski (Or Why §101 Is A Red Herring) (7/9/2010)
   It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing
7. Stop Wasting Money On Patents (4/1/2010)
   Patent Law Is Broken
8. How I Sold My House In Acton 01720 In 5 Days (12/7/2009)
   For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) real estate transactions done right.
9. How To Register A Trademark: Part 1: Choosing A Good Name (2/11/2009)
   A trademark is to your business as a foundation is to your house.
10. How To Fire Your Lawyer (1/27/2009)
    Terminating your attorney-client relationship.
11. How To Twittersquat The Top 100 Brands (1/8/2009)
    A call for the creation of the Uniform Username Dispute Resolution Policy.
12. Madrid Protocol: Affordable International Trademarks For Startups (11/14/2008)
    The Madrid Protocol is a great option for startups who want foreign trademark protection but don’t want to file trademarks in separate countries.
13. How To Find The Ideal Canadian Trademark Law Firm (4/24/2008)
    Problem, meet process.
14. Domain Name Law (1/28/2008)
    White hat domainers are not black hat cybersquatters.
15. Erik J. Heels Announces Start-Up Heels.com Shoe Store (11/12/2007)
    With the name Heels, Erik Heels was destined to be either a podiatrist or a shoe salesman.
16. Drawing That Explains Copyright Law (7/18/2007)
    Copyright rights, unregulated uses, and fair use.
17. The Brand Wars Are Coming, The Brand Wars Are Coming! (7/1/2007)
    How to defend your brands on the Internet.
18. Nine Principles of Baseball and Life (5/2/2007)
    Philosophy of Baseball: How to Play the Game of Life.
19. To Search Or Not To Search (12/5/2006)
    That is the (pretty simple) question.
20. Easy To Infringe (12/5/2006)
    Draft to the rule, don’t draft to the exception.
21. How To Get And Defend A Patent Without Going Broke (8/2/2004)
    It is possible for independent inventors and small businesses to acquire patents and protect their ideas without going broke in the process.
22. Patents vs. Trade Secrets (2/5/2002)
    The advantages and disadvantages of protecting business ideas with patents and trade secrets.
23. Ease-of-Copying In The Digital Age – Turning A Negative Into A Positive (4/29/1996)
    Rather than worrying about ease-of-copying, owners of copyrighted works should use it to their advantage.

Remembering F-Flight On Veterans Day.

I was in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC) from 1984-1988 while a student at MIT, commissioned in 1988 as a second lieutenant, served on active duty until 1992, and was in the Inactive Ready Reserves (IRR) until 2006.

I always think of my service, and the people I served with, on this day, Veterans Day.  No matter how important you become in the military, the military will live on without you, so it is clear that the military needs nobody.  But as we fight with enemies foreign and domestic, tangible and intangible, it is also clear that everybody needs the military.

The photo above was taken at my four-week Air Force ROTC field training at Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York, summer 1986.  (Plattsburgh AFB closed in 1995.) Many names I have forgotten, but some names and nicknames I remember, like Mr. Beautiful (front row, 2nd from right), Marine guy (front row, far left; yelled in his sleep in a fox hole), Kilper(sp) (fell asleep on the bus), astronomy guy (back row, far right; knew enough about the stars to get us lost in a swamp), Dave Doucet (front row, second from left), and Jeff Pennington (second row, far right).  I’m in the middle, second row.  I recently learned that Jeff Pennington is now Col. Jeffrey T. Pennington, which is awesome.  So, ladies and gentleman of F-Flight, maybe you can help fill in the gaps on this photo for me.

I am also in touch with several folks who served on active duty with me and remember them on this day as well.  See links below.

I don’t really celebrate Veterans Day; I contemplate it.  I always come to the same conclusion: I am glad that I served, I am blessed for the friends I made, and I am thankful for those who continue to serve in these troubled times.

Erik J. Heels is an MIT engineer; trademark, domain name, and patent lawyer; Red Sox fan; and music lover.  He blogs about technology, law, baseball, and rock ‘n’ roll at ErikJHeels.com.

Related Posts

• AFROTC: The 54 Commands (8/5/2011)
  A marching drill used for training Air Force cadets in the 1980s.
• LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: USAF (10/26/2007)
  Reese AFB, Lubbock, Texas.  Hanscom AFB, Bedford, Massachusetts.
• Topping Survival Training (3/3/2007)
  Recalling the worst night of sleep of my life.
• LinkedIn: Erik J. Heels: MIT (12/16/2006)
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology class of 1988.
• Captain Erik Heels Honorably Discharged From The United States Air Force (3/2/2006)
  I will have much to say about my Air Force years when the time is right.