New Patent and Trademark Resource Center Now Open to the Public

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced in a press release that the University of New Hampshire School of Law Library, which was designated as the Concord Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) on January 30, 2012, is now open to serve the intellectual property (IP) needs of the public.

“PTRCs serve as the face of the USPTO on a local level and promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that ensures that potential filers have the resources necessary to draw on for support as they begin their quest for commercial success with their intellectual property,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO David Kappos. “We look forward to working with the University of New Hampshire School of Law, formerly Franklin Pierce Law Center, to better serve New Hampshire’s IP community.”

Currently, PTRC designated libraries can be found in 46 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. This network of more than 80 public, academic, state and special libraries assists a variety of customers including inventors, intellectual property attorneys/agents, business people, researchers, entrepreneurs, students and historians.

In addition to offering free electronic services and resources designed to support the intellectual property needs of local and state patrons, the Concord Patent and Trademark Resource Center will employ USPTO-trained librarians to provide customer assistance on the use of the agency’s patent and trademark databases and public seminars on intellectual property topics for novice and experienced users.

Transparent – that´s how we operate!

We already told you about Inventorhaus, Inc., the Inventor Shops and some of its exclusive products. And since InventorHaus, Inc. is a transparent operating company, today we want to give you some deep insights.

InventorHaus, Inc. is a privately held company based in Miami, Florida, which offers inventors basic services such as research, prototype creation, and marketing materials, to the more complicated search for manufacturers or licensing, retail and wholesale distribution partners in Europe. In addition, product scouting is conducted on behalf of the Inventor Shops in Germany and Austria, where innovative products are presented, and offer inventors an outlet to test the market and present themselves to potential partners.

Established by Gerhard Muthenthaler and Marijan Jordan in 2011, InventorHaus, Inc., is part of the Erfinderhaus Patentvermarktungs GmbH group, based in Berlin, Germany. Erfinderhaus is a dedicated invention marketing and consulting company which also owns Erfinderladen retail shops in Berlin and Salzburg.

For the English-speaking market, the company also offers inpama.com, an online platform for inventors, manufacturers, licensees and investors to meet and work together.

California leads the USA in innovation, or does it?

Remember? We already told you about Utility patents. They are the most common patent type and a primary means of protecting intellectual property and technological innovation. IFI CLAIMS®Patent Services recently announced its top-50 ranking of global companies awarded the most U.S. utility patents in 2011. IBM remains in the first position, as it has for 19 years in a row, with a record of 6180 utility patents. Samsung trails second with 4894 and Canon replaces Microsoft in the third slot with 2821.

According to IFI, the USPTO issued 224.505 utility patents in 2011, an increase of two percent over 2010’s record breaking total. While preparing the 2011 Patent Intelligence and Technology Report, IFI analysts took a closer look at the 2011 US patent grants and in particular the location of the inventors named on these documents. Despite the obvious surge of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese companies in the Top 50 assignees, 50% of US patents in 2011 named US inventors.

Diving deeper into the US inventor information the IFI analysts could rank the States based on inventor data. In this case a patent is credited to a state if at least one of the patent’s inventors resides in the state. The top 10 states are shown below:

State
2011 US Utility Patent Grants
California 32,715
Texas 9,407
New York 9,263
Massachusetts 7,106
Washington 5,737
New Jersey 5,583
Illinois 4,933
Pennsylvania 4,746
Michigan 4,644
Minnesota 4,609



As you see California is the clear leader with respect to the overall volume of patents accounting for 15% of the total number of US utility patents granted in 2011. However when you factor in population, IFI analysts find Vermont at the top of list along with Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The figure below shows a graph of the top 10 states by number of utility patents granted, and the number of patents granted per 100.000 residents.


So what exactly is going on in Vermont that accounts for its performance? The IFI analysts looked at the assignees and found IBM accounting for most of the patent activity. How come? IBM has a large facility in Burlington that designs and produces semiconductors.

Do you know …. AIA?

Do you remember the American Invents Act being implemented in 2011? On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed the America Invents Act. It is a historic patent reform legislation to support American inventors. It basically speeds up the process to receive a patent and gives entrepreneurs and small business owners the chance to bring their product to the market much sooner and quicker.

The most significant change which will derive from this law is the change from first-to-invent to first-to-file. It defines who will receive the grant of a patent or an invention. With the first-to-file system, the person who first filed the invention is granted the patent regardless of the date of the actual invention. With this system, products and inventions can be marketed faster and introduced to the public much earlier than before. President Obama hopes to increase the creation of jobs and the competitiveness of United States entrepreneurs in comparison with other countries.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is now working on further reports and studies and is also planning events across the country to discuss the propositions. The events are free and open to the public. Every inventor, entrepreneur and small business owner is welcome to attend and use the opportunity to interact and contribute to the discussions. Registration is not required. For further details about location and timing please look at the USPTO website.

Another Year is Coming to an End

… and we should take the time to sit back and reflect on all the important events of 2011.

Among the people that sadly passed away in 2011, the world lost one of its best known inventors and entrepreneurs. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, died on October 5, 2011, after fighting pancreatic cancer for many years. He lost the battle, aged only 56.

He was a great inventor and business man and co-founder of Apple, Inc. He overlooked the creation of the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone and iPad. The impact of his influence reaches far into our personal lives. Most of us find it practically impossible to imagine a life without our smart phone. In order to commemorate his achievements, the United States Patent and Trademark Officeshows an exhibition in the Inventors Hall of Fame at their head office in Alexandria, Virginia. It is open to the public and the admission is free until January 15, 2012 where more than 300 patents, which bear the name of Steve Jobs along with many trademarks that have given Apple its recognizable identity around the world, can be seen.

This exhibition was created by Invent Now, Inc., which is a non-profit organization dedicated to show and preserve the inventions created in America and around the world.