Author: Carl

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Whither Daylight Saving Time?

More than five hours have passed since my blog posting that points out that right now you probably have an extra hour for e-filing of stuff at the International Bureau of WIPO.  Why do you have this extra hour?  You have this extra hour because probably you are in the US and you set your clocks forward.  And (this is the important part) the folks in Switzerland did not pick today to set their clocks forward.  (They will set their clocks forward in about three weeks, on March 31.)

Anyway, during this past five hours I sort of figured that at least one alert reader would have posted a comment about the imminent demise of Daylight Saving Time.  Yet, astonishingly, this has not happened!  So I will now discuss the imminent demise of Daylight Saving Time. Continue reading “Whither Daylight Saving Time?”

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US patent prosecution boot camp – Philadelphia in May

There are only a few good ways for a new US patent practitioner to get training.  One of these ways is the AIPLA Patent Prosecution Boot Camp, which will take place May 13-15, 2019 in Philadelphia.

Your truly will once again have the honor of serving with the other faculty members of this boot camp.  I know, having served on the faculty of this boot camp for many years now, that the other practitioners who give their time and energy to this program are among the most skilled, experienced, and generous as any in the patent profession.

To find out more, or to register, click here.

 

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Who charges how much for foreign payments?

As readers of this blog are by now well aware, my most recent obsession area of inquiry has been the sending and receiving of international bank wires.  More or less by accident I have stumbled upon smart ways to receive international bank wires.  As I describe in this blog article, more or less by accident our situation is that for our patent firm, we now receive our incoming foreign bank wires free of charge through Afex.com, and for my personal bank account, I receive my incoming foreign bank wires free of charge because the bank is USAA.

As for the foreign sender of funds, if the foreign sender of money to our patent firm happens to be a customer of Afex.com, they can send money to us and they will likewise not have to pay any fee (other than perhaps a currency conversion fee).

But how about sending bank wires?  Who charges more and who charges less for sending bank wires to foreign countries?  Here is a specific example of what it would cost to send about ten thousand dollars to Switzerland by any of three different providers.  I find the price differences to be striking. Continue reading “Who charges how much for foreign payments?”

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Yet another smart way to receive international bank wires

If you are going to have someone send you funds by means of an international bank wire, what instructions should you give to them?  Thirty years ago my firm did what I suppose most firms do.  We went to our bank we asked our bank what to tell the sender.  Our bank very promptly and cheerfully provided detailed “incoming bank wire instructions” including a Swift code and an ABA routing number.  We then dutifully provided this information to all of our foreign associates for use in paying us for the work that we do for them.

It turns out that this is approximately the stupidest thing to do.

Our patent firm has changed banks from time to time over the years.  But what has not changed is that each bank has charged us some amount of money for each incoming bank wire.  Our most recent bank (Wells Fargo) usually charges us at least $16 for each incoming foreign bank wire, or as much as $33 if it feels the wire required “repair” (whatever that means).  I cringe now to realize that during these decades our banks over the years have charged us many, many thousands of dollars in bank fees for our incoming foreign bank wires.

And the same is true for incoming foreign bank wires to my personal bank account.

Imagine how stupid I feel to have discovered only in recent days that there are common-sense ways to receive foreign bank wires that do not incur bank fees, for businesses and for personal accounts.  Continue reading “Yet another smart way to receive international bank wires”

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Surface Phenomena

I’m going to reveal a practice tip that I had been keeping to myself for the past thirty years of patent practice.  The practice tip is to be alert to the possibility that some important thing about a client’s invention may turn on “surface phenomena”.  My main point being that as far as I can tell, nobody actually knows how most surface phenomena work, and so you can use the phrase in some client/inventor discussions, and the client/inventor will think you are very smart regardless of whether you are actually very smart. Continue reading “Surface Phenomena”

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Yet another foreign wire transfer service

click to go to AFEX web site

Recently I blogged about Western Union Edge, a service for foreign wire transfers.  Alert reader Andrew Berks commented that he uses AFEX.  So I decided to open an account with this service provider.  Having used the service now for a short while, I think it’s possible that AFEX is the best choice these days for foreign wire transfers. Continue reading “Yet another foreign wire transfer service”