Learn something new with online training modules

The Global Intellectual Property Academy, a training arm of the USPTO, has developed an excellent set of online training videos covering key topics in intellectual property in five (!) languages.

Topics include patents, copyrights, trademarks, geographical indications, and enforcement and trade; all of these are useful for IP professionals as well and any person with a stake in global intellectual property.

If you speak Arabic, English, French, Russian, or Spanish, this is a great opportunity to increase your understanding of a topic whose global importance is continuing to grow!

If the Naked Cowboy files a suit, is it a birthday suit?

There's never been a doubt in my mind that Times Square entertainer the Naked Cowboy (who, despite his name, is about as racy as a pro wrestler) is a genius of self-promotion, a creative entrepreneur, and can probably do a bunch of sit-ups.

According to this piece in Business Week, I can now see that he is also a savvy protector of his brand.

The article reports that Robert John Burck, the man behind the persona, is suing one Sandra Brodsky for trademark infringement. Burck claims that Brodsky, who has been performing in Times Square as the Naked Cowgirl (also not actually naked), has copied his costume, his act, and his name in a manner that is likely to cause confusion.

Burck has filed a case in a Federal Court in Manhattan. Access to Federal Courts is, by the way, one of the advantages of registering a mark with the USPTO. (His mark is registered; look up serial number 77781761 in TESS.) Perhaps other street performers should take note.

Trademark Expo at the USPTO

T. Markey himself is inviting you to visit the USPTO campus for the 2010 Trademark Expo. This event offers companies with interesting, significant, or really old trademarks to come and show off their marks and to network with other IP professionals. Costumes are, I believe, optional; I've been in DC in the late summer and I would recommend designing some mesh vents into a costume if you're going to go that route.

This looks like a fun event and a great networking opportunity!

Sheet music and copyright discussion

David Pogue's online column at the NY Times has brought to my attention an interesting discussion that happened between Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown and a member of an online community that trades sheet music. (Trading in this context has the same meaning as "sharing" in the online recorded music community.)

The story goes like this: Brown decided to join an online sheet music community and send messages to people offering his sheet music to other members asking them to stop offering his songs. He reports that most of the people he contacted complied. One member, named Eleanor, engaged him in an interesting debate about his actions. Here's the post from his blog with a reproduction of the conversation.

This is a good discussion of the moral issues (objectively, I think that Eleanor is breaking the law) surrounding copyright infringement. Any thoughts?

Supreme Court ruling on business methods a resounding "well, maybe..."

The US Supreme Court ended a busy session Monday by releasing significant rulings on gun control, first amendment rights, corporate accounting oversight, and...patents!

Bilski made its way to the Supreme Court during this session. The Court, which heard the case in November, took a middle path in its ruling, agreeing with a lower court's decision that the Bilski patent application was too abstract to be patented but stopping short of an outright end to business method patents.

So, it looks like folks will be duking this issue out in the courts for years to come.

Patent models for sale

Check this out: http://www.nytstore.com/ProdInterCode.aspx?prodcode=875&intercode=1172

The New York Times Store, which sells lots of cool, expensive, and often kind of useless decorator goods, is selling off a cache of U.S. patent models. The models are actual models submitted by inventors to the US Patent Office before the model requirement was lifted in 1890.

According to the Rothschild Petersen Patent Model Museum website, one of the reasons the USPTO stopped requiring models was because of space limitations, which is totally understandable and, to me at least, evokes a funny image of someone trying to squeeze another model of a gadget into a crowded garage somewhere in D.C.

The invention of inventors

Chlorophyll Paint, invented by Vennesya Huang

With their fresh perspectives and busy minds, kids can be really creative inventors. The USPTO is working with the Ad Council (children of the Reagan era will recall their memorable egg-themed PSAs) and the Inventor's Hall of Fame to give them a space to exercise their innovation.

InventNow is a kid-oriented website with information and activities for the budding inventor. This site is a lot of fun -- learn about patents, play games, and check out other kids inventions in the gallery. Best of all, inventors who submit their designs to the site receive a printable "InventNow Patent."

The gallery is loaded with great inventions, but I think my favorite is Vennesya Huang's Chlorophyll Paint, which converts CO2 into oxygen, thus improving the air quality of any room painted with the stuff. Brilliant!