OKLAHOMA TECH
July 27, 2006
An attraction worth "checking out"
It seems everyone is a blogger these days, including librarians. There is even a specific site for “news, commentary, and stories for and about Oklahoma Libraries.” Fortunately, they have called attention to the Oklahoma Inventors Congress Annual Meeting being held on the OSU campus in Stillwater, Oklahoma on August 12th and reminded everyone that there is a Patent and Trademark Library located on that campus. For those headed to Stillwater next month, the library may be an attraction worth checking out.
If you can’t make it to the meeting, the librarians have provided other useful information and links worth looking into on their site.
Posted by Laura Wood at 06:03 PM.
Permalink: An attraction worth "checking out"
OKLAHOMA TECH
July 19, 2006
Oklahoma Inventor's Congress
The annual meeting of the Oklahoma Inventors Congress (OIC) will be held Saturday, August 12, 2006 on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater in the Advanced Technology Research Center (ATRC). Reading over the OIC 2006 annual meeting brochure, it is interesting to note that for this year’s meeting, time is set aside for product promotion. And as if you didn’t need another reason to register early, if you RSVP by August 10th, there may be a complimentary meal ticket in it for you.
The OIC brings together the inventive community uniting them in common causes. Their website is very informative and worth taking a look at. In addition to the annual meeting, the OIC meets about once a month to discuss all aspects of the inventive process. For more information on the OIC annual meeting or on the OIC in general, contact Dan Hoffman at (405) 348–7794.
Posted by Laura Wood at 04:24 PM.
Permalink: Oklahoma Inventor's Congress
OKLAHOMA TECH
February 15, 2006
How Should States Encourage Entrepreneurship?
Interesting commentary by Joshua Hall over at The Independent Institute considering Oklahoma’s interest in creating a billion dollar investment pool for innovation and entrepreneurship.
While of specific interest to me because of the Oklahoma connection, I would recommend it as an interesting twist on the debate occurring right now on the role of state investment in early stage innovation.
A snippet:
Using the number of sole proprietorships and patent activity in a state as measures of entrepreneurship, Kreft and Sobel find that increased entrepreneurship causes more venture capital to automatically flow into the state. More importantly, they find that influxes of new venture capital do not then cause entrepreneurship to increase. Crowding out of private venture capital is one possible reason why state funded venture capital fails to increase entrepreneurship. This suggests that the trend of state-sponsored venture capital funds have the cart before the horse. Since entrepreneurial activity appears to be what attracts venture capital into a state, the best way to encourage entrepreneurship within a state is to focus on creating a policy environment where individuals are free to be innovative.
Unfortunately Wisconsin is currently planning to invest $50 million from its $66.5 billion state employee trust fund state into venture capital firms that invest primarily in local companies. Similar efforts have been undertaken in other states, including Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Minnesota. However Kreft and Sobel’s new research shows that state financing of venture capital in these states is unlikely to stimulate entrepreneurship.
How Should States Encourage Entrepreneurship?: Newsroom: The Independent Institute.
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 07:07 PM.
Permalink: How Should States Encourage Entrepreneurship?
OKLAHOMA TECH
July 26, 2005
ATTENTION OKLAHOMA INVENTORS!
For Immediate Release
The annual meeting of the
The theme for the program presentation, “Focusing on Marketing” will be highlighted by a formal program to be presented by Boshears & Boshears.
Boshears & Boshears is a Tulsa, Oklahoma based firm with satellite offices in Foligno, Italy and provides cutting edge consulting services in the areas of Product, Business, Marketing, Sales and Management Development.
Members of the OIC will have a "juried" product exhibition starting at the 12:00 noon luncheon break. New products developed and Patented by OIC members will be included in the exhibition and will range from medical applications and transportation equipment, to consumer products including safety products for use in law enforcement. The short official annual meeting is scheduled to end by 2:00 p.m.
The OIC is a non-profit membership educational association dedicated to the development and profitable marketing of Intellectual Property for its members. OIC works in conjunction with Inventors Assistance Service (IAS) which is funded by the Legislature thru OCAST.
For more information regarding the
For information regarding the monthly
To RSVP by August 10 for your complimentary OIC Annual Meeting luncheon ticket call: Jill Nuckolls, IAS at: 1-877-577-7632 or 405-744-8727.
Posted by Melody Wirz at 09:29 AM.
Permalink: ATTENTION OKLAHOMA INVENTORS!
OKLAHOMA TECH
May 11, 2005
Oklahoma/Texas Intellectual Property CLE Weekend
The Intellectual Property Section of the Oklahoma Bar Association will be presenting it’s annual CLE program at the Tanglewood Resort on Lake Texoma (satellite map) the weekend of June 3–5, 2005. The PDF brochure is available here.
Along with Pete Peterson’s patent law year-in-review (which is always the highlight of the weekend), featured topics will include a copyright law year in review, a planel discussion on the state of technology transfer in Oklahoma, trademark enforcement in cyberspace and the risks associated with open source software.
Registration is $345 for Oklahoma Bar members and $370 for nonmembers. The weekend has been approved for 8 hours of Oklahoma CLE credit and Texas approval is pending.
Tanglewood is a great venue for the weekend, the information looks to be extremely interesting and timely and the Board members of the Intellectual Property Section have numerous family and social activities planned – including a golf tournament Saturday afternoon.
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 12:44 PM.
Permalink: Oklahoma/Texas Intellectual Property CLE Weekend
OKLAHOMA TECH
January 27, 2005
You Can Take the Cocks out of Oklahoma - Or Can You?
At PHOSITA, we were pretty embarrassed to be scooped on a great story by 271 Blog, "PATENTS, PUBLIC POLICY AND COCKFIGHTING - ALWAYS A WINNING COMBINATION."
The voters of Oklahoma decided that the lethal sport of cockfighting was unacceptable in 2002. Now, a proponent of the "sport" has introduced a bill that would allow modified non-lethal cockfighting.
You may be wondering how on earth the "sport" could be non-lethal. This is where a currently pending patent application enters the picture. Patent application publication number 2004/0009797, entitled "Non-Lethal Gamecock Sparring Match, Equipment & Methods" was invented by three Californians before the Oklahoma ban took effect. The abstract states that the invention is
A non-lethal method of cock fighting includes providing each gamecock with a garment such as a vest or collar that at least partially covers the body of the gamecock and carries a sensor at a predetermined location on the garment and a signal transmission device. The signal transmission device generates a signal when the sensor is struck by a gamecock. The spurs of each gamecock are covered with a protective device to prevent the spurs from causing injury during the cock fight and their beaks are taped shut. A scoring apparatus is provided that is responsive to the signal and includes a visual display that displays a numerical score for each gamecock. The numerical score is based, at least in part, on the number strikes detected by the sensor being struck over a predetermined time period during the cock fight.
"To me it answers everything. It saves the industry, takes blood sport out and generates revenue for Oklahoma," the legislator said.
Only in Oklahoma!
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 04:25 PM.
Permalink: You Can Take the Cocks out of Oklahoma - Or Can You?
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OKLAHOMA TECH
January 26, 2005
Oklahoma Inventor's Congress - An Untapped Resource
Last night, Nick Rouse and I visited the local meeting of the Oklahoma Inventor's Congress. I must say, I was impressed. These folks have gotten together a wealth of resources, and are more than willing to share their stories of the invention process from concept to completion. They were very friendly and inviting. If you would like to learn more about the group, click here. If you're interested in seeing some of their inventions, click on the link "Inventions," or click here.
If you're an Oklahoma inventor, or just interested in supporting inventors, they have monthly meetings and welcome visitors. For more information, check out their website.
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 05:01 PM.
Permalink: Oklahoma Inventor's Congress - An Untapped Resource
OKLAHOMA TECH
January 16, 2005
gmail invites
I have a bunch of gmail invites if anyone wants one.
Drop me an email at douglas[dot]sorocco[at]gmail[dot]com
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 08:54 PM.
Permalink: gmail invites
OKLAHOMA TECH
Welcome Jim!
Welcome to the blogosphere Jim Calloway’s Law Practice Tips Blog!
I am a day-late and a dollar-short on this announcement, especially since Jim is a home-town blogger. For those few of you who don’t know Jim, he is the Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association's Management Assistance Program and serves as chair of ABA TECHSHOW 2005. Jim is a phenomenal CLE speaker and frequently writes on legal technology issues, Internet research, law office management and organization and legal ethics.
Welcome to the blogosphere Jim – you’ve always been with us in spirit, now its good to have you online.
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 12:49 PM.
Permalink: Welcome Jim!
OKLAHOMA TECH
Welcome OKBlawg!
Welcome to the blogosphere OKBlawg!
The OKBlawg is written by James Dee Graves who began The Oklahoma Law Blog as a weblog devoted to Oklahoma law, legal issues and politics. His hope is to provide an informative forum for those interested in the developments of the legal community in Oklahoma.
Happy blogging James.
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 12:38 PM.
Permalink: Welcome OKBlawg!
OKLAHOMA TECH
November 30, 2004
phosita news - stellar review
One of my favorite blog sites is The Weblog Review. I often use the reviews as a starting off point to new blogs to add to my reading list and blogroll. The reviews range from the sublime to the profound and from the erudite to the crude. To give you a sense of the “tone” of The
Weblog Review, this snippet from their About page should give some insight:
But what about lazy people someone asked. What about the people that only want to read the best sites out there and don't want to read a review of the site? This question kind of defeated the purpose of the reviews he thought, but then he realized the answer. A rating system. But not just by the reviewer, but by the people that read the reviews and the sites. Everyone knows that one person may love a site, but ten might hate it. Or even vise versa. Having people rate the sites would be very helpful.
Fortunately, we were reviewed this week by the very busy reviewers of The Weblog Review and PHOSITA received a very nice and quite complimentary review from ODAAT.
This is my first experience of a “weblawg” (a weblog about law, dummie) and I was quite looking forward to it. After a while, reviewing blogs about somebody’s dog dying last week gets a bit dull and new subject matter always cheers me up.
So I clicked on the link and found a well constructed blog running off Movable Type. It is well put together and has a nice tidy titlebar at the top (which it looks like they have designed themselves) and the usual two columns. Apart from the title bar (which contains a useful subtitle: “A "blawg" (legal blog) blogging intellectual property legal issues of interest: patent, copyright and trademark law!”), you can also find out more about the blog by reading the little explanation in the sidebar about the blog and the company behind it. This was the first idea I had that actually this blog might be accessible to me (i.e. a complete layman with regards to law, patents etc.) It’s pretty nice that they have bothered to make it accessible- usually specialist weblogs are just that- great for those in to the subject, but a waste of time to everyone else. Not so with this blog.
I admit it. I am in to leftfield, counter-culture, “arty” kind of things as a rule. Law is not my thing at all in the usual course of events. So I ploughed in to the content with some trepidation. However I was quite amazed that I found a lot of the articles pretty interesting and informative. Most were about subjects which I have some experience of (the world of intellectual property is basically about new stuff, whether it be computers, the web, music, or the slightly more complex world of er…single-wall-nanotubes, whatever they are). I read through the front page and only found one or two articles which didn’t engage me at all, so ventured forth in to the archives with some optimism.
There are a lot of archives – as the blog has multiple authors, there is quite a high density of posts going back to January 2004. Having different authors also ensures that there are a wide variety of posts right the way through though. Of those that really grabbed my attention, there was one about sampling in rap music, and another about a cool new technology which (kind of) makes things invisible. I think there is something for everyone here though, at least everyone who pays attention to the world around them- there is quite a lot about blogging for example.
I have scored this blog highly, partly because it is visually sound and well constructed. But a far greater achievement, I think, is to turn a subject as (potentially) terminably dull as Intellectual Property, and making it engaging, accessible and informative to someone like me who had no prior knowledge or interest. Obviously anyone in the field will find the outstanding research and points raised incredibly helpful, but casual browsers and Google searchers will also find a lot of interest here too.
Thanks ODAAT!
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 08:30 PM.
Permalink: phosita news - stellar review
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OKLAHOMA TECH
November 17, 2004
Oklahoma Technology News 11-17-04
The Oklahoma Technology News for Nov. 17, 2004:
- The Women in Science Conference is scheduled for Friday November 19, 2004 at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma. The seminar is sponsored by EPSCoR, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and the National Science Foundation. The conference is free to all college faculty, post-doctoral researchers and students. More information is available by calling 405-225-9287.
- Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) was presented an Annual Achievement Award on November 16, 2004 by the Washington Coal Club for leadership in the coal industry. The award was presented at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
- According to an October report from the Mlken Institute, an independent economic think tank, that since 1983, the West Southcentral region (which is dominated primarily by Texas but also includes, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma) has seen biopharmaceutical employment climb by 130 percent, "outpacing industry growth in the nation as a whole." The study put Oklahoma's biotech employment growth from 1993-2003 at 16.7 percent, compared with minus 30.6 percent in Louisiana and minus 2.4 percent in Arkansas over the same time period. Only Texas at 27.2 percent outranked Oklahoma in the "West South Central" region.
- Medical technologies company Medtronic Inc. acquired the intellectual property of CellPlant(TM)Aqueous Stent from Wound Healing of Oklahoma Inc. The CellPlant technology provides Medtronic an opportunity to evaluate a new generation of devices for the treatment of glaucoma, the second-leading cause of blindness in the U.S.
In an article in the Manchester, New Hampshire Union Leader entitled "NH faces competition for biotech jobs," Oklahoma's Yamanouchi Pharma Technologies was cited as an example, of biotech companies who have moved from high cost cities to lower cost cities. Yamanouchi, for example, moved from San Francisco, one of the costliest U.S. sites to operate a biomedical facility -- at $11,223,242 per year -- to Norman, Oklahoma, one of the least costly at $8,704,721 per year.
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 04:01 PM.
Permalink: Oklahoma Technology News 11-17-04
OKLAHOMA TECH
October 09, 2004
hester & sorocco to speak at Oklahoma epscor conference
Dr. Kathryn Hester and myself will be speaking on October 22, 2004 at an Oklahoma EPSCoR seminar entitled "An Entrepreneurial Workshop".
This entrepreneurial workshop is an educational event for young entrepreneurs that features instruction from top business professionals, entrepreneurs, service providers and investors with experience in a variety of knowledge areas that are critical for the emerging technology-based company.
The focus of the workshop will be on practical issues such as: IP Protection, Competitive Strategy, and Alternative ways to find Capital.
- Protecting Your Creativity
Doug Sorocco and Kathryn Hester, Dunlap, Codding & Rogers, P.C.- Putting Together Your Business Plan
John Fitzpatrick, CEO and Founder, LifeGuard America- Cost, Capital and the Challenges
David Humphrey , Oklahoma Equity PartnersDuring lunch hear Success Stories from young business professionals who have walked the path of entrepreneurship right here in Oklahoma . They will tell you how they did it and what pitfalls to avoid.
- Kord Campbell, Having successful created and sold one internet related startup, Kord is launching Zoto, a second internet technology enterprise.
- Bryan Kirchmer, ForcePro, a Tulsa early stage company features advances in plastics manufacturing that may revolutionize the way many products are made.
We will follow up with a fun and insightful hands on workshop by Mel James, Enterprise Director, i2E, that will provide the tools to move forward with your entrepreneurial career goals.
Who Should Attend: This Entrepreneurial Workshop is open to all young entrepreneurs, university students and faculty throughout the State of Oklahoma who are eager to learn how to become the next high-tech entrepreneur in Oklahoma !
Why You Should Attend: Competitive regional economies require entrepreneurship. The process of starting, growing and sustaining advanced technology based companies is faced with many challenges.
It is critical for entrepreneurs, innovators, students and business professionals to expose themselves to information designed to enhance their understanding of the critical processes involved in starting high growth companies, recognizing that successful entrepreneurship requires an understanding of numerous business topics.
Who wants to be an Entrepreneur will provide essential information on topics that will assist in navigating the technology commercialization process.
The Oklahoma EPSCoR program helps build the research competitiveness of Oklahomas universities through strategic support of research instruments and facilities, research collaborations, integrated education and research programs, and high-performance computer networks. The success of the National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR program had lead to the development of six other EPSCoR programs within federal agencies (DOD, DOE, EPA, NASA, NIH, USDA). Recent awards have allowed for the development of the Oklahoma Functional Genomics Resources Consortium (FGRC), the Oklahoma Network for Nanostructured Materials (NanoNet), the Oklahoma Biotechnology Network, the Center for Environmental Applications of the Oklahoma Mesonet and the Center for Photonic and Electronic Materials and Devices.
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 09:18 PM.
Permalink: hester & sorocco to speak at Oklahoma epscor conference
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OKLAHOMA TECH
August 29, 2004
patent searching -- stillwater, oklahoma
I ran across another patent searching tutorial this afternoon and since it is in "my neighborhood", I thought it should receive a mention.
From Polson Enterprises:
Introduction
Many inventors conduct a preliminary patent search prior to enlisting a patent agent or patent attorney to file a patent. This search is usually solely conducted to determine uniqueness. If they find no patents exactly like their invention they are happy and continue on their merry way. This is a very poor approach. We encourage examining patents closely to find additional possible product features, identify other potential uses for products, identify companies recently receiving patents in the area (potential licensees), closely study the background sections and any data presented in the background sections and any data presented in the patents. You can learn a great deal from those who have gone before.
This page contains a few links to non-U.S. patent information, however all the comments only apply to searching U.S. Patents.
This page does NOT address these questions; "How can I protect my idea?, Is my invention patentable?, Should I seek patent protection?, What kind of patent protection should I seek?, When should I patent my invention?, How much does a patent cost?, How do I license an invention?, Which web site is best to use when searching patents? Does my invention infringe on someone else's patent(s)?, Should I get more than one patent?, Should I file foreign patents? How can I avoid being caught in an invention scam? These questions are best left to patent attorneys, patent agents, licensing professionals and reputable inventor organizations. DO NOT ask us these questions !!! In Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Inventors Congress and the Oklahoma Inventors Assistance Service at OSU are excellent resources. The United Inventors Association and National Inventor Fraud Center are good national resources. Inventors Digest magazine an excellent source in its own right, provides an online list of inventors groups around the country where you can obtain meet other inventors and often receive assistance with your problems.
In Oklahoma - the patent deposit library is located at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The reference librarians are always extremely helpful and it is the first place I recommend clients to visit if they are interested in doing their own patent searching. Even though most patents are now searchable online, the ability to flip through the drawings of issued patents is still preferred (if not essential) when searching mechanical type inventions.
What are y'alls (Okie speak) experiences with the patent deposit libraries in your states?
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 04:48 PM.
Permalink: patent searching -- stillwater, oklahoma
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OKLAHOMA TECH
August 25, 2004
It's about time: Spammers in the Slammer
I'm not sure if it happened because I wished it, but the e-mail gods are smiling on me today. Apparently, the justice department is finally enforcing the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
According to this FindLaw article, "U.S. law enforcers have arrested dozens in a crackdown on 'spam' e-mail, identity theft and other fraudulent online activity."
Hopefully, this isn't a problem for those poor folks who will no longer be able to find pornography, medicine without a prescription, that great deal on mortgage rates, or how to enlarge various body parts. Maybe google business will see a sharp increase as a result.
Since wishes are being granted today, maybe everyone will be buzzing about that girl in Oklahoma that won the lottery without even buying a ticket. Kinda think of it, I deleted an e-mail that said just that. I sure hope it was actually spam.
Posted by at 04:51 PM.
Permalink: It's about time: Spammers in the Slammer
OKLAHOMA TECH
August 16, 2004
wicked cool waste of time
....ahhh, I mean wicked cool web-link visualizer.
Thanks to Josh Rubin over at Cool Hunting for the link to TouchGraph GoogleBrowser.
Enter in a URL and you get a 3D visualization of all the incoming and outgoing links to that site. Click on one of the sites listed, and it reconfigures that sites links as well. Zoom in, zoom out and look at the data from different zoom angles. Some of the maps make for interesting graphical elements as well.
DCR's connections (DCR is yellow "Du" -- view zoomed out with short names for clarity)
Who are you connected to?
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 10:59 PM.
Permalink: wicked cool waste of time
OKLAHOMA TECH
May 13, 2004
OKLAHOMA BASED NOMADICS RECEIVES CAPITAL INVESTMENT
Oklahoma's Nomadics announced that it has received an equity investment from Digital Power Capital of Greenwich, Connecticut.
Stillwater, Oklahoma (home of Oklahoma State University which was recently named "Dream Town" USA) based Nomadics is a technology company that has developed a sensor for explosive vapor detection and other applications in security and defense. Nomadics is integrating amplifying fluorescent polymer technology developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) into their Fido(tm) series of sensors for detecting landmines, unexploded ordnance, chemical agents, biological agents, and other threats. One of the patents (U.S. Patent No. 6,558,626) relating to this technology was prosecuted by Marc Brockhaus of Dunlap Codding & Rogers.
Congratulations to Nomadics!
"/>Permalink: OKLAHOMA BASED NOMADICS RECEIVES CAPITAL INVESTMENT
OKLAHOMA TECH
April 14, 2004
DCR QUALITY & VALUE SHINES!
Another kudo (and shameless plug) for the intellectual property law firm of Dunlap Codding & Rogers, P.C. According to Patent Ratings, LLC, DCR is ranked second among the top 100 patent law firms for obtaining the most valuable Mechanical & General patents for its clients.
According to Patent Ratings:
Performance rankings are based on PatentRatings' proprietary IPQ? technology, a proven statistical methodology for objectively scoring patent values. Top scores indicate the law firms that obtained, on average, the most valuable U.S. utility patents for their clients in 2003.
Firm rankings were based on a review of patents issued in 2003 to the 100 firms obtaining the most patents in their respective technology sectors. Among the identified top 10 firms in each technology sector, most had devoted a higher-than-average percentage of their practices to patents in that same technology sector, indicating that experience and expertise within specific technology sectors weigh heavily towards obtaining higher quality patents.
In reviewing the list of other Top 10 firms, one striking statistic emerges -- most of the firms listed in the Top 10 are small to medium sized "boutique" law firms that specialize in patent prosecution.
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 03:58 PM.
Permalink: DCR QUALITY & VALUE SHINES!
