Hotel thermostats

With this blog posting I am launching a new article category “travel”.  It’s prompted by a recent Wall Street Journal article that confirmed what I had been suspecting for quite some time.  Yes, many modern hotel thermostats, the kind with a digital display, are rigged.   Continue reading “Hotel thermostats”

Sharing blog articles on Whatsapp

(Note:  I do not recommend Whatsapp any more.  I now recommend Signal.)

Long-time readers of this listserv will recall my suggestion that the smart way to do messaging is not through cell service text messaging and is not through most of the available messaging apps.  As I wrote in this blog article, in my view by far the best choice is Whatsapp.  Whatsapp is encrypted from end to end.  Whatsapp gets through any firewall, no matter where you are in the world, and nobody can eavesdrop on the messages.  You can use it for messaging but you can also use it to send attachments, including large files, again safe against eavesdropping.  No other messaging app or service is quite this safe against eavesdropping.

This icon is not clickable! If you are using a smart phone or tablet, please click on the icon below.

Just now I have added a Whatsapp plugin to this blog.  If you are viewing this blog article on a smart phone or tablet, you should be able to see a Whatsapp button (like the icon at right) below this posting.

Here’s the fun part.  The first three readers who successfully share this very article with me using the Whatsapp share button below (visible only if you are using a smart phone or tablet) will win a prize, namely a spiffy OPLF digital voltmeter.

To do this, you will need to install the Whatsapp app onto your smart phone or tablet (if you have not done so already) and then you will need to add me to your Whatsapp contacts list (if you have not done so already).  Then you will need to view this blog article on your smart phone or tablet, and scroll down to the Whatsapp share button, and click on it.

Would you like to attend the E-Trademarks reception in Barcelona?

Will you be in Barcelona this May at the time of the annual meeting of the International Trademark Association?  If so, maybe you would like to rub elbows with the savvy and alert people who belong to the E-Trademarks Listserv.  Maybe you would like to attend the Seventh Annual E-Trademarks Listserv reception.  To attend the reception you will need to have one of these spiffy ribbons (see at right) attached to your meeting badge.  To receive one of these spiffy ribbons, just scan the QR code in the ribbon.  Or you can click here.

SSL progress for www.oppedahl.com

We at OPLF should have done it a long time ago … but finally today we have implemented SSL (“https”) for our main web site www.oppedahl.com.   In addition we have configured the SSL on https://www.oppedahl.com so that it uses PFS (perfect forward secrecy).  The domain name itself has for several years now been protected by DNSSEC.

One reason that a webmaster should implement SSL is that Google and the other search engines give a small boost in page ranking to a web site that supports SSL.

But the more important reason to implement SSL is simply to make web connections more secure.  Among other things SSL eliminates eavesdropping on a web connection.

If you haven’t already done so, you should implement SSL (and PFS, and DNSSEC) on the web sites that you operate.

 

Save the date — AIPLA’s PCT Seminar 2017

The dates have been set for the 21st annual AIPLA PCT Seminar.  The Seminar will take place in Arlington, Virginia on Monday and Tuesday, July 24 and 25, 2017.

Save the date for this seminar.  There’s nothing quite like this seminar, which has representatives of patent offices as well as experienced private practitioners.  Here are comments from two who attended:

“Each and every presenter was incredibly knowledgeable and provided us with invaluable information.”

“Excellent panel.”

Have you attended one of the twenty previous AIPLA PCT Seminars?  Did you find it helpful?  Please post a comment below.

 

Building a guitar compressor pedal

The other day we had soldering class at Oppedahl Patent Law Firm LLC.  Everybody at the firm received a nice soldering station and soldering tools and a toolbox to keep everything in.  We assembled several do-it-yourself kits that required soldering.  Some of our people already knew how to solder and got through the kits pretty quickly, and others got to learn how to solder for the first time.  Continue reading “Building a guitar compressor pedal”

A curate’s egg

Bishop: “I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg, Mr Jones”
Curate: “Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!”

I’ve been teaching patent law as an adjunct professor at University of Denver law school for some twenty years, and every one of my students over the years has heard my recommendation that they subscribe to The Economist. I think The Economist offers a very helpful non-American perspective on events of the day.

Today, reading The Economist, I learned the term a “curate’s egg”.  As Wikipedia explains, a curate’s egg is something that is mostly or partly bad, but partly good.  The term has its origin in a cartoon published in 1895 in the British humor magazine Punch.  Drawn by George du Maurier, it pictures a timid-looking curate eating breakfast in his bishop’s house. The bishop says:

I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg, Mr Jones.

The curate, desperate not to offend his eminent host and ultimate employer, replies:

Oh no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!

A Google search for the term “curate’s egg” yields over a hundred thousand hits.

 

Patent firms that might get left out of the utility patent tote board

Here are some firms that were ranked in last year’s Utility Patent Tote Board, but which have not yet responded for this year’s Utility Patent Tote Board.

If you know somebody at one of these firms, you might want to pass this along to them.  The response date has been extended from January 20, 2017 to January 23, 2017.  To respond, click here.

Andrus Intellectual Property Law, LLP
Antoinette M. Tease, P.L.L.C.
Armstrong Teasdale
Baker Botts
Banner & Witcoff
Blakely Sokoloff
Brinks Gilson
Brownstein Hyatt
Bryan Cave
Buchanan Ingersoll
Christie Parker
Cochran Freund
Conley Rose
Crossley Patent Law
Dorsey & Whitney
Drinker Biddle
Duft Bornsen
Faegre Baker Daniels
Fenwick & West
Finnegan Henderson
Fish & Richardson
Fitzpatrick Cella
Foley & Lardner
Greenberg Traurig
Hamilton DeSanctis
Hartman Patents PLLC
Hauptman Ham, LLP
Head, Johnson & Kachigian, PC
HIPLegal LLP
Hoffman Warnick LLC
Hogan Lovells
Holland & Hart
HolzerIPLaw
IP&L Solutions
Juneau & Mitchell
K&L Gates
Kain Spielman
Katten Muchin Rosenman
Kenyon & Kenyon
Kilpatrick Townsend
Klaas Law O’Meara
Knobbe Martens
Ladas & Parry
Larson & Anderson
Lathrop & Gage
Law Office of Robert Rose
Leason Ellis
Lemaire Patent Law Firm
Leydig, Voit & Mayer, Ltd.
Macheledt Bales LLP
Marsh Fischmann & Breyfogle LLP
McDermott Will
Merchant & Gould
Morgan Lewis
Morrison & Foerster
Muncy, Geissler, Olds & Lowe, P.C.
Neugeboren O’Dowd PC
Nixon Peabody
Nixon Vanderhye
Norred Law, PLLC
Novak Druce
Oblon McClelland
Ollila Law Group
Patentfile, LLC
Patterson Thuente
Patwrite Law
Pepper Hamilton
Perkins Coie
Pillsbury Winthrop
Polsinelli PC
Polson Intellectual Property Law
Pritzkau Patent Group, LLP
Pryor Cashman
RatnerPrestia
Reed Smith
Robinson Intellectual Property Law Office
Rossi, Kimms & McDowell LLP
Santangelo Law Offices
Schwegman Lundberg
Scully Scott
Setter Roche
Sheridan Ross
Stass & Halsey
Steptoe & Johnson
Sterne Kessler
Sughrue Mion
Swanson & Bratschun
Vedder Price
Wenderoth
Westerman, Hattori, Daniels & Adrian, LLP
Winston & Strawn LLP
Wolf Greenfield
Workman Nydegger

 

First of the 2016 Tote Boards posted

The 2016 Design Patent Toteboard has been posted.

The response periods for the 2016 Utility Patent and 2016 Trademark toteboards is being extended from January 20 to January 23.

Several well-known firms that do trademark prosecution have not yet responded.  If you know someone at one of these firms, you might want to pass along a reminder to them.  These include:

  • K&L Gates
  • Leydig Voit
  • Banner & Witcoff
  • Head, Johnson & Kachigian
  • Antionette M Tease PLLC
  • Andrus Intellectual Property Law
  • Lee & Hayes PLLC
  • Chernoff Vilhauer LLP
  • Dorsey & Whitney
  • Alston & Bird LLP
  • Arent Fox LLP
  • Baker Botts L.L.P.
  • Fross Zelnick