Cichocki on USPTO News
Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at February 14, 2007 11:17 PM
One of my favorite motivational stories is the story of POW Charlie Plumb entitled "Packing Parachutes."
The three of us at RethinkIP likewise have people who pack our parachutes...people who work behind the scenes helping us do the things we do. One of those people is Western New England College School of Law 2L Kristen Cichocki. Kristen, also works as a part-time legal intern for O'Shea, Getz & Kosakowski, P.C. a patent firm in Springfield, MA. Her current project is researching and writing a law review article (or what I hope will be a law review article) on licensing frameworks for digitizing public libraries. She can be reached at kristen.cichocki [at] gmail.com if any of you have insight for her...
Kristen has been helping us keep RSS Mojo updated by making blog posts every now and then.
What is RSS Mojo? It is a service where we monitor the USPTO home page and News and Notices page for new news items and then we create posts on the RSS Mojo blog pointing to the new items. The blog is linked to both email delivery (sign up box below) and RSS options, allowing practitioners to easily follow what's new at the USPTO.
Someday the USPTO will release RSS feeds...until then, let us (Kristin) do the work for you.
Christmas Morning in January
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at January 16, 2007 03:25 PM
While I love my Toshiba R15... my newest geek purchase is taking way too long to arrive for my taste (hint: its model number is X60 and it is made by Lenovo). Sheesh - I ordered it yesterday and it still hasn't shipped yet. =)
What does a guy have to do?
Martin Luther King
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at November 27, 2006 08:41 AM
On a weekend of Thanksgiving, accurate information should be a goal for a search on Google for Martin Luther King.
So... let's do a little Google-bombing:
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King
If you want to know why we are doing this, have a look here. Even better - join in the project and do some good.
Thanks to Scoble for raising the profile of this project.
Technorati tags: MLK, Martin Luther King, Thanksgiving, Do Good
Rethink(THIS!): Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at November 14, 2006 08:53 AM
From Alan Weiss' Value-Based Fees, How to Charge -and Get- What You're Worth:
"Other than their tactical and strategic failure, time based fees are great."
Surviving and thriving in times of revolution
Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at June 25, 2006 06:35 AM
I'm currently reading a book that I've been meaning to get to for several years. So far, Intellectual Capital by Thomas A. Stewart was worth the wait....it's a gem, and seems to be more relevant today than it was a few years back. I'm at least a little glad that I waited.
Stewart on the revolution that is the arrival of the Information Age: "Surviving and thriving in such times require peripheral vision as well as focus, adaptability as well as power. The better you can understand the large forces - the tectonic plates - reshaping our world, the better you will be able to cope with the surprises they are certain to throw at us. These days, keeping your nose to the grindstone is a big, shortsighted mistake."
Reminds me of some of our initial thoughts about the Rethink(IP) project and the purposes behind our little adventure.
Astute Insight
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at June 20, 2006 07:48 AM
Couldn’t the same be said for bloggers – even law bloggers?
Quote of the Day: Service
Posted by Stephen M. Nipper at June 9, 2006 03:39 PM
Doug had a “quote for the day” yesterday…I thought I’d turn the tables on him and fire one of his own quotes back to him:
Never confuse "service" as in what bulls do for cows with "service" as in what good attorneys do for their clients.
I’m betting that is a prime example of Oklahoma wisdom.
Quote of the Day: Logical Thought
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at June 8, 2006 12:01 PM
“Innovation is not the product of logical thought, although the result is tied to logical structure.”
— Albert Einstein
The last gasp of a dying industry?
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at May 6, 2006 09:58 AM
Commercial skipping to cost $8 billion in TV ads this year?
When will the networks realize that the customer is always right?
Perhaps ABC.com’s experiment is a step in the right direction… although, I wonder how much precious firm bandwidth is going to be flushed down the toilet every Monday from folks watching that housewife show?
Glass Cages
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at October 29, 2005 02:54 PM
Maybe it is just my city. Or maybe it is just me, finally noticing something that has been happening all along. But it looks to me like BigLaw is in a deepening crisis. When I speak to other BigLaw associates from around town I keep hearing the same story: associate morale at a critical low with associates leaving at an alarming rate. Not alarming for me, of course: I personally don't care. But, it should be alarming to partners because associates are leaving when they are finally getting good at their jobs, and when the firms' investment in them should start to pay off.
When will the general public and members of the legal profession look at individuals in BigLaw the same way they look at those smokers in the glass cages at the airport?You know that look -- sadness, bemusement and pity.
Rethink[THIS!] law firm brands
A brand is nothing more than an expectation that customers have of something. So if you're continuously elevating the customer's expectation and delivering on that expectation with an experience such that customers are predisposed to choose your brand at a price which allows you to make a profit, you are growing your brand. How can this be done without growing the "relationship" between the customer and that something?
Rethink(THIS!) - Let's make a better patent document
Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at August 29, 2005 08:14 AM
How much do you hate patents? I’m not talking about the legal concept of the right to exclude, but actual patents.
The document. It’s structure, layout and appearance.
Current US patents are better documents than their ancestors. But, if you ask me, there’s still room for improvement.
Let’s change them.
Got any ideas on how to improve the patent document? We’d love to hear them. The ideas can be about anything and for any purpose. You can view one of my prior rants on the subject here if you need something to get the gears moving.
So go ahead, make the patent more useful and/or easier to understand. Heck, we’d even love to hear suggestions on how to make them more aesthetically pleasing (just remember not to place that term in the claims).
Use comments or send any of us rethink’rs an e-mail (addresses at top left). We’ll post ‘em later. Maybe we’ll even send them to someone who cares.
Blogging Depression or What to Do When Willie Wonka's Squirrels Come After You
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at August 17, 2005 10:09 PM
Via - What's Your Brand Mantra a post entitled Blog depression
OK, I finally got motivated to post... about why I'm not posting. Here's a very entertaining look at Blog Depression, a Public Service Pamphlet.
There is a growing epidemic in the cyberworld. a scourge which causes more suffering with each passing day. as blogging has exploded and, under the stewardship of the veterans, the form has matured more and more bloggers are finding themselves disillusioned, dissatisfied, taking long breaks, and in many cases simply closing up shop. this debilitating scourge ebbs and flows but there is hardly a blogger among us who has not felt it’s dark touch. we’re speaking, of course, about blog depression.
Wow - I guess I wasn't alone this past 6 weeks.
Rethink(THIS!) - Paris in the Springtime
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at June 13, 2005 07:04 PM
Sometimes a little rethinking can go too far!
Via Adrants
Rethink(THIS!) a giant sucking leech
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at May 28, 2005 03:20 PM
Yikes, and I always thought Microsoft’s reputation was bad…
… whatever you think about patent law, as a longtime businessman I’m pretty convinced that the IP law profession, while it contains many good and intelligent people, is collectively a giant leech sucking money and time out of the community of innovators.
Thanks (I think) to Al Robert for the link
Rethink(THIS!): Afraid of getting "point 3'd" to death?
Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at May 13, 2005 09:27 AM
Do you hesitate to call your patent attorney to update him on something on fear of getting a bill for 0.3 hours? Why does Dick Vitale’s voice permeate my head whenever I think of this problem?
“You just got 0.3’d baby!”
I bet Dickie V would look for patent counsel who doesn’t like to shoot the ‘trey so often.
Rethink(THIS!) -- How Many Hours Are You Being Billed to Meet "Quota"
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at May 11, 2005 05:28 PM
If you are a general counsel or other purveyor of legal services and you want to know why you get billed 2 hours for something that should take 15 minutes, have a look at this calculator.
Ask your firm what the billable hour requirement is for their associates, add 200 hours to that number (what associates really need to get their bonuses), assume they get to work at 8am, with an hour lunch, three weeks vacation and no holidays. Then assume they can’t bill 1–2 hours per day. Hit calculate.
Scary isn’t it.
My questions: Why would (1) anyone want to work in such a situation and (2) why would anyone want to hire a firm or lawyer who works in such a manner?
Service as a Commodity - What Else is Left? [Rethink(THIS!)]
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at May 8, 2005 12:31 AM
Hugh MacLeod over at gapingvoid posted this drawing in a post this week – read his post to go along with the drawing.
He raises an interesting series of questions relating to goods – but they also apply to services.
What if everyone completely understood intellectual property law inside and out – what would your intellectual property attorney be able to do, other than outstanding service, that would keep you coming back to them over and over.
Is there anything?
Via Projectified.
Rethink(THIS!): Patent prosecution a loss leader?
Posted by J Matthew Buchanan at May 6, 2005 09:45 AM
Does your patent counsel view patent prosecution work as a loss leader? Does that give you a warm-fuzzy, or the heebie-jeebies?
J. Matthew Buchanan 
Stephen M. Nipper 
Douglas Sorocco 