Business, Patents, Bridge, and Ice Cream
Every day for the past month I've been waiting for good news relating to a deal I've been working on for my company. Tomorrow, I'll be relieved to get a chance to review some related work that will help close the deal. I'm sorry to be so vague about it, but it's very significant and I don't want to blow it. And in case you are wondering, it's not an acquisition, but it could lead to significantly higher revenue this year. Stay tuned!
I also got my first patent action on a patent I filed for the company years ago. It's a standard rejection that I then have to refute by citing exactly why the invention is not obvious and sufficiently different from previous patents. Thankfully, my stepfather Bill is a retired patent lawyer. He put in a ton of time for my original patent, and recently put in a ton of time to prepare a response. In addition to the response he prepared, he also suggested that I get a declaration from an education outsider that more or less says that my technology is novel. Also, I will provide evidence of commercial success that demonstrates that MathScore.com fills a need that was previously unfulfilled.
This coming Thursday I'll be going to Berkeley to play bridge with my brother. There will 8 of us total (2 tables of 4) playing bridge together for about 3 hours. Eddie and I have been playing a fair amount of bridge together in the past year, so our partnership has improved, most notably in the area of bidding. We utilize a lot more bridge conventions together than ever before. Consequently, my interest in bridge has increased and I've been reading lots of bridge books. I've been on a binge reading books written by Terrence Reese, a British bridge master. His books have given me new ideas regarding declarer play and I'm itching to apply some advanced techniques. Unfortunately, the opportunity to apply advanced techniques is pretty rare because you can only expect to be the declarer 25% of the time, and on top of that, only a small percentage of hands are both makeable yet hard to make without great technique. However, if I can teach Eddie some of the defensive basics I've been reading from another book, perhaps we can apply some new techniques on a regular basis.
And last but not least, April 29th is 31 cent cone day at Baskin Robbins. We don't have a nearby Ben and Jerry's that participates in free cone day, so we're looking forward to getting cheap cones at Baskin Robbins.
I also got my first patent action on a patent I filed for the company years ago. It's a standard rejection that I then have to refute by citing exactly why the invention is not obvious and sufficiently different from previous patents. Thankfully, my stepfather Bill is a retired patent lawyer. He put in a ton of time for my original patent, and recently put in a ton of time to prepare a response. In addition to the response he prepared, he also suggested that I get a declaration from an education outsider that more or less says that my technology is novel. Also, I will provide evidence of commercial success that demonstrates that MathScore.com fills a need that was previously unfulfilled.
This coming Thursday I'll be going to Berkeley to play bridge with my brother. There will 8 of us total (2 tables of 4) playing bridge together for about 3 hours. Eddie and I have been playing a fair amount of bridge together in the past year, so our partnership has improved, most notably in the area of bidding. We utilize a lot more bridge conventions together than ever before. Consequently, my interest in bridge has increased and I've been reading lots of bridge books. I've been on a binge reading books written by Terrence Reese, a British bridge master. His books have given me new ideas regarding declarer play and I'm itching to apply some advanced techniques. Unfortunately, the opportunity to apply advanced techniques is pretty rare because you can only expect to be the declarer 25% of the time, and on top of that, only a small percentage of hands are both makeable yet hard to make without great technique. However, if I can teach Eddie some of the defensive basics I've been reading from another book, perhaps we can apply some new techniques on a regular basis.
And last but not least, April 29th is 31 cent cone day at Baskin Robbins. We don't have a nearby Ben and Jerry's that participates in free cone day, so we're looking forward to getting cheap cones at Baskin Robbins.
posted by Steven | 8:15 PM
1 Comments:
yay for patent lawyers!
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