Ric Richardson | Inventor

Candidate for a zkimmer book

2012-01-08T12:18:00.000+11:00

I have been thinking about using zkimmer for some time to publish really good photo books as iPhone apps maybe this is the first book to try this with.

How about 1200 dpi with zoom and beautiful pictures? What do you think?

Flat Tire Detection

2012-01-06T16:58:00.003+11:00

A simple system that alerts drivers to a flat tire without the need for RFID or any electronic sensors.

I designed this system during an evening with a former neighbor and good friend Herb Elliott who had just had a flat tire experience and suggested there must be a better way.

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Reputation Driven Social Network

2012-01-06T16:53:00.000+11:00

This concept is based on the simple premise that your membership in the network is based upon having at least two people who are willing to vouch for you and who can be held accountable by network rules if you run amok.

The idea behind this invention is to make people accountable. After considerable research a basic rule for membership is that you must personally know and vouch for the person you allow to join the network and be able to prove their age, sex and identity or risk being expelled.

Someone who breaks the network rules not only jeopardizes their own membership but also the membership of the person that helped them join. In extreme cases such as pedophilia everyone associated with allowing that person onto the network would be questioned as to their suitability for membership.

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Personal Data Blackbox

2012-01-06T16:39:00.000+11:00

After reading about the recovery of the Air France 330 that crashed into the Atlantic last year losing all aboard, I somehow made the jump to the need for a Personal Black Box for all our personal and important data... images, documents, videos etc.

So what would a personal black-box achieve? It would be fire proof, waterproof... recoverable after an earthquake, flood or fire. It would be easy to access. It would have a wired and wireless connection capability with its own security. Namely data could be sent one way with one password and require another password to be accessed.

It would have a heartbeat system that raised the alarm if it lost power or was damaged in any way (for example if the hard drive detected damage to itself). A service would try to connect with the black-box at regular intervals and if unsuccessful send a series of alerts on an escalating schedule... It would try to contact you for a couple of days, then a second designee or a third or a fourth until it found someone to confirm that they will follow up to retrieve the device. For example the heartbeat service could initially try to contact you via email, then via SMS, then your spouse, then your Dad or your brother or sister gradually raising the alarm as it takes longer to find someone to contact.

The system could also include a secondary or tertiary drive or even an optical disk backup and writing system. It would have a battery to survive blackouts and possibly even a 3G pinging service capability to make contact itself in an emergency.

What about the Software?
Ideally, via a government certification process owners should be able to be given permanent access license keys to all the software and media they own. You should be able to have backups of all the media you own and have access to that media and software no matter where you decide to live in the world.

Photos/ scans of every important document, all your passwords and usernames and all your cherished movies, videos and photos should be safely stored inside.

Updates on the Inventor Roadshow

2012-01-06T15:47:00.001+11:00

The Inventor Roadshow is an idea by Ric Richardson to combine the sense of discovery of the Antiques Roadshow TV program and the positive value of helping inventors get real world feedback about their inventions.

Latest Update

Jan 6th 2012: It's been a long time but finally a meeting is set with a TV programmer to see what the future holds for the show.

List of Music written or recorded by Ric Richardson

2012-01-06T15:29:00.000+11:00

As you may have seen at the end of the Australian Story about him, Ric is a guitarist and also writes his own music. Most of the recording below are original compositions by Ric and are mostly in rough demo form as he has never attempted to become a recording artist. Most of the tracks feature either the actual drumming or the drum programming of Ric's life long friend Steve Cox. A couple of the tracks below actually ended up used on films. The track "Move It" was the soundtrack for a short film that accompanied the Australian Feature Film "Man from Snowy River" during its worldwide release. Another short film he provided music for ran with the "Muppet Movie". The music is the track entitled "Drive like hell". Ric still gets a royalty check for these films from time to time.

Last updated 9/9/2011

Freedom - Hendrix Cover - Ric (vocals and instruments), Steve Cox (Drums)
Rock and Roll - Zep cover - Ric (vocals) Steve Drums
Black Mountain Woman - by Steve Cox (vocals, drums) and Ric Richardson
Move It - Rhinoceros studios mix, written by Ric, Dave Girsh (keyboard), Mick Hennesey (Bass), Steve Cox (Drums)
Lonely in the City
Cha - by Ric Richardson
Drive Like Hell - soundtrack for off road racing film
Dues
Epping Studio Jam
Going Home
HSC Composition
How I feel - written by Ric, Sven Knudsen (vocals), Steve Cox (Drums), Mick Hennesy (Bass)
King Tut
Living with a Tiger
Lonely in the city - original rough 2 track
Police idea 1983
Six Feet Tall
Something here
Swords to plowshares
Top of my mountain
Your coming back to me
Dark Zep Test

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Australian Story - Episode about Ric

2012-01-06T14:50:00.003+11:00

In 2009, the renowned biographical and social commentating television show known as Australian Story aired an episode covering Ric and his battle to that time with Microsoft. In the first week of viewing it is estimated that 1.8 million Australians saw the show.

Below are links relating to that story:

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List of patents

2012-01-06T13:49:00.001+11:00

The following are patents that have been published in either the USPTO online search engine or other public databases around the world. This list of patents only includes those that have been publicly published. As the dozens of patents covering inventions by Ric are published they will be included in the list below

Last updated 9/9/2011

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Current Projects

2012-01-06T13:43:00.001+11:00

As of 6th Jan 2012:

Various projects for FMG at the request of CEO Nev Power.
Gamma Project (restricted information)
TNZ project (restriced information)
Squealrs
Inventor Roadshow (TV show)
TheIncubator.com

The above projects represent a full time schedule for me so unfortunatly all other projects are on indefinite hold.

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Richard Bransons latest book

2011-12-27T22:41:00.001+11:00

I am only a few pages into Richard's latest book and it is really interesting reading. The basic premise is that corporations should have a social conscience.

Interestingly this was the complaint of Michael Moore's movie about corporations back in the 90s. By designing corporations so that they could outlive individual shareholders and directors the idea was to give a company a multiple generational value to a family and allow the value to easily transfer from owner to owner as stock was bought and sold.

But giving a corporation the rights of an individual without the moral accountability that the law expects of a real person allowed directors to make decisions that were purely profit driven and devoid of normal social accountabilities. Branson reasons that corporate social and environmental accountability are the only viable long term approach to business.

It really is an upbeat and positive message and worth a look.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00667HHNO/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1324986010&sr=1-1

Siri. iPhone and Bluetooth glasses. Mmmmm

2011-12-20T13:41:00.001+11:00

It's about time for some new glasses and the latest idea is some Bluetooth sunglasses that can link up with the voice control on my iPhone. Wonder how heavy they are? Oh. And I'll do my old trick of putting normal prescription lenses in them.

People often say they like my glasses and are amused to find out that they are tortoiseshell Ray Bans with prescription lenses. Simple. Obvious. Like a lot of my inventions yet still unique in a simple way.

My latest office location

2011-12-19T12:54:00.000+11:00

Hard at work finalizing a patent for a Japanese company and some problem solving for Fortescue Metal.

Secret Project Codename: TZ

2011-12-18T16:23:00.003+11:00

Sounds all very mysterious... and it is... a new technology that will really surprise most people in its simplicity and its pervasiveness... it has been around a little while now and was the reason behind my announcement about three weeks back of a special event in Sydney.

Well there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that the special event in Sydney has been delayed.... but that is because the good news is that there will be instead a US release some time later in the year. Yes things are moving along and unfortunately for Australia, again the technology has quickly migrated to the US.

Please accept my apologies if you had signed up to be at the event. I really appreciate the support. And as soon as it comes to do the Australian press release (probably after the US press event) I will make sure you all all taken care of... unfortunately by that time the cat will be out of the bag.

Sorry for the disappointment, but exciting none-the-less.

With some inventor friends and a great designer and prototyping expert

2011-12-10T14:52:00.000+11:00

Thought I'd just share with you a photo from my lunch today with some dear friends who are also fellow inventors. We had lunch together with a really fine designer and prototyping expert named Mark Boardman who I have worked with over the last 18 months...

The couples invention is yet to be publicly announced so I will have to wait to share their story with you but I thought Id share Mark Boardman's expertise with you... most of my projects are fairly large scale and dont require 3D printing or CAD CAM rendering but most of you who want help from me usually do... Mark has a day gig working for a 4 wheel accessories company but he is open to doing jobs for inventors on the side... hes not cheap, but he's good and solid... and delivers... which is why I work with him.

If you need a 3D print or a simulated cadcam rendering of your invention give him a call.

Mark Boardman
0468961042
markgboardman@gmail.com

Just because he works with me does not mean he does the freeby thing so only call him if you are willing to pay... but if you want a good job done I recommend him.

Handy texting for iPhone concept

2011-12-10T00:58:00.001+11:00

One of the young gentlemen I give time to on a Friday morning asked me about the idea of a simple device to enable fast texting without having to get your phone out.

This concept is what I came up with. His logic is that there are millions of people out there who learned to text on an old phone keyboard made sense... simply hook an old style keyboard to your iPhone using Bluetooth and your off.

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Aqua-mation...wha?

2011-12-08T10:00:00.001+11:00

I met with an optimistic fellow name Max Dumais yesterday who needed some patent and start up advice for he and a friend who are the brains behind the idea of Aquamation... using hydrolysis which is a high speed decomposition process to replace cremation as a earth-friendly way of burial.

Here are some incredible facts: 1. That 15% of the mercury in the atmosphere in the UK is from smoke related to the burning of human remains; 2. That using Aquamation in place of cremation would do the equivalent of taking 35,000 cars of the road every year in Australia and; 3. The way the EU is dealing with the issue of cremation is by enforcing a law that requires a $300,000 chemical and carbon scrubber be placed on the flew of every cremation burner.

A quick survey of some of my personal network uncovered that over 60% of Australia's crematoriums are owned by one off shore American, and that Cremation has obtained an exception under the Australian carbon tax laws. Obviously the government wants to avoid dragging loved ones through the carbon tax debate during the grief of losing a loved one. But it seems that overseas interests are profiting from that goodheartedness.

On top of that a survey by the Fairfax news group last year showed that most people would prefer Aquamation if it was available.

Mmmmmm. Here's an idea. Let me state for the record that I am neutral on all political issues. That said, there is an obvious opportunity for consideration in that the EU is already moving to stop the pollution by regulatory means, by insisting that a scrubber that costs more than the furnace be installed.

Could this be done in Australia?
If people really would prefer Aquamation then why not?
Its Australian technology... it's carbon-less.. it's cheaper and the proceeds go back to a company here in Australia.

Note: Ric is neutral on matters of politics and has no affiliation whatsoever with any political party.

Ric's Hobbies

2011-12-01T15:08:00.000+11:00

Ric has a few past times he enjoys that he like to share with some of the sites visitors. These include:

Playing and Writing Music

List of Music he's written and or recorded
Ric playing the lead guitar from Deep Purple "Smoke on the Water" in the last 5 minutes of Australian Story.
His latest gear/ setup (Marshall Stack and Fender Strat)

Surfing

Video of Ric Surfing as a young man (from 1984) was only a foot or so but its a good memory.

Motorbike Riding

Video from unused section of Australian Story
Karen's abuse of Ric's monster bike by putting streamers on it
Video of Ric climbing a rock face on his bike
Video of Ric's mates practicing Monos in the 90's

Writing Books

Jason's Toy (A Novel)
The Patent Fallacy
Making Your Ideas Fly

About the Van

2011-12-01T14:28:00.000+11:00

Ric uses a Ford Transit Van as a mobile office. For some reason it seams to have grabbed the imagination of a lot of Aussies and seems to be one of the most popular visited subjects. It's nothing much. Just a regular van with a comfy office chair and a desk in the back and most days a really great view.

Various articels about Ric's invention Van:

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Siri works... amazingly

2011-11-24T21:52:00.001+11:00

I've had my iPhone 4s for a few weeks now and just realized something really significant has happened in the way I use technology. I found myself actually PREFERRING to reply to emails using my phone and voice dictation than typing at my PC.

The key was realizing that you can actually edit the text in the Siri screen after it shows you dictation results and also realizing that this actually helps the voice recognition system improve.

This became clear when I was constantly signing off emails as Ric and Siri would type out "Rick". When I started editing the emails, Siri picked up on the problem and started to spell my name correctly. Someone who says "this stuff has been around for a long time" is not a serious user of it..

I remeber when I used a mouse and a WYSIWYG display for the first time (on my first Mac and Amiga). The feeling was empowering... this darn phone is giving me the same feeling... a paradigm shift.

Inside the new fitted-out Dick Mobile... Man in the Van goes upscale

2011-11-24T10:42:00.001+11:00

Nah, only joking... but looks impressive just the same. Came across this on Treehugger.com. Basically it appears that New Yorkers are fitting out transit vans and cruising around in things like this in between meetings...

Actually I like my thing more. I can put my dirt bike in it... my surfboard.. it opens out to let the breeze through and I don't have to lock it... best of all it has no computers, no screens.. just a good solid desk, a comfy chair and a big picture window that lets me choose any scene from around Byron Bay as my daily inspiration... Mmmmmm... I think I have it over these New Yorkers and probably for a tenth of the cost!
No I have not upgraded to a Mercedes.. still have the old Transit Van but this is the Van the guys in New York tend to use...

What has Ric been up to lately?

2011-11-22T20:15:00.001+11:00

A lot of you have been asking what's been happening lately... well I've been pretty flat out! Last month I did a speaking event in Adelaide and a week ago to a great bunch of innovation managers for mid to large size corporations... I also have helped a handful of fellow inventors inch their projects forward.

Most mornings I start at 5am often working on problem solving for Fortescue Metal. They are really fun people to work with. Besides these I have the preparation for the new technology role out in January (that I have mentioned in this blog), another hush hush technology announcement that I have NOT discussed before (I'm waiting to see if the team involved hits their deadlines) and three other projects I can discuss.

These include a website to help Model Agencies get control over their clients photos and copyright, a group of Japanese businessmen visiting me to rethink the worlds Digital Rights Management systems and to design an inter-operative and better flavor of DRM and the Australian Patent Trading Exchange.

Many have asked about the TV show I've mentioned in the past and the prospect of a book. Well both are on the cards still. The TV show is in the hands of respected television veteran Peter Abbott at Freehand TV. He is patiently working through the process with the television programmers so I have no question things are going as fast as they can on that front.

And regarding the book, I am adding tidbit here and tidbit there and also firming up what I think will be the most reliable advice for the many inventors out there who really need some insight into how things work from my perspective, and to give them a clearer more direct path to a taste of success without dragging the family into debt... wow. It makes me tired just reading about it :-)

Pretty big technology announcement coming within 4-6 weeks.

2011-11-16T13:21:00.001+11:00

Update. This project has gone worldwide and will probably be announced in the US initially. An Australian announcement will follow so I will make sure to notify everyone in due course however it means that the main announcement will have already hit the press.

To those of you who keep track of what's happening in the world of Ric, there is a pretty big technology release and press event coming in the next month or so... it will be in Sydney at a location yet to be finalized and will involve as much of the press as is willing to turn up on the day, but I promise not to waste their time..

For those who visit this site often Id like to know if you would like to come along to see a little bit of new technology so if you would like to send me your email address (send to ricricho at gmail.com) I will send an invite to you when it's all locked down...

Here's a clue... it is not an Apple iPhone App but everyone coming including the press will be invited to download an iPhone App for the event as part of the interactive demo... and the demo will include live TV, a radio station and a Youtube video...

Sound cryptic?

I guarantee it will be fun for most of you if you want to come along.

Ric

Every good turn deserves... at least a thank you.

2011-11-16T13:03:00.001+11:00

I have a little sad story to share... About a month ago, I asked the cashier at my families favorite Chinese restaurant why they didn't have a web site? She said they were not real technical and would not know what to do and in a moment of community spirit I offered to put up a quick site up for them as a favor... no obligation just a bit of a thank you to one of the local businesses...

I was thinking that I help local inventors a lot but it's nice to do something for someone outside of inventing every now and then.

So I went home and dared myself to do a site in less than 30 minutes...

This is what I came up with....

It's pretty basic... just a scan of the takeaway menu and a Google Map etc but it was fun to do since it was an opportunity to learn how to use the new Adobe Muse software.

As a favor I registered the .au domain tsangschinese.com.au and got it directing to the site at a $20-$30 domain reg and DNS redirect cost... thats all ok...

Then I proudly ring the restaurant to get the to have a look at the site... I speak to a girl there and she knows nothing about it (the girl I offered the help to hadn't mentioned it to her)... oooohhhh a bit disappointing... oh well I tell her the web address and leave my number and watch the visitor logs for the site to see when someone visits... a day goes past, a week then finally I call...

Obviously there is some mis-communication... maybe they lost my number... maybe.. I speak to someone and get onto the owner and here is how it goes...

Ric:" Hi there I was just calling to see what you thought of the web site I did for you..." (the logs showed no one had visited but I had forgotten that important fact)

Owner: "Oh yes.. its the takeaway menu isn't it?" (this means one of the girls I spoke to had probably told him)

Ric: "Yes I tried to make it look good and let everyone know your prices and your telephone number for ordering."

Owner: "Yes." (pregnant pause) About this time it was clear to me that a thank you was not going to be forthcoming.

Ric: "Well I was not expecting any money or anything but I was wondering what you wanted me to do to transfer the domain over to you."

Owner: "Well I'm not really a computer person so I don't know what to do with it.. so I really cant help you with that." (pregnant pause) About this time I was getting a bit cranky..

Ric: "Well it really is your property and it cost me $20 bucks to register for you so its not nothing."

Owner: "As I said, Im not a computer person so I really don't know what to do."

About this time it hit me that some people are so busy thinking that a little kindness is a veiled attempt to somehow get you to pay money that this guy can't see that its just a neighborly gesture... or maybe he just doesn't care.

Ric: "Oh look... sorry to bother you I have obviously wasted your time". And I hung up...

So here I am now, paying for a domain and a website that no one wants with such a bad taste in my mouth that Ill probably not eat Chinese Food for a long time...

But on the other hand I am probably spoiled. Nearly everyone else I have helped has been so genuinely thankful that its been a real joy for me to be able to say I helped them without charge...

The moral of the story, sometimes it doesn't work to surprise someone with a free gift... better always to ask them if they want it first so you make sure you don't waste your time and theirs when they really don't appreciate anything you do for them.

Fwd: notice of allowance for 11/470,235

2011-11-16T12:20:00.001+11:00

Just received this email today from the Uniloc patent lawyer:

Gentlemen, On November 3 the USPTO issued a Notice of Allowance for Ric's invention entitled: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTION OF TAMPERING ATTACKS Congratulations to Ric Richardson on another U.S. Patent! Sean D. Burdick, P.E. | Uniloc USA, Inc, Patent Counsel.

Another patent granted. I feel very privileged. This patent tracks to see if a hardware system is trying to fool the fingerprinting software into thinking its running on a registered device when it is really not... cool stuff even if I do say so myself... it was fun doing that invention.

APTX site to help inventors

2011-10-23T18:12:00.001+11:00

Just been working on the Australian Patent Trading Exchange and getting ready for a beta in a few days/ weeks. Its designed as a way for inventors to get their patents looked at and to generate sponsorship to help them get their provisional patent converted to full apps... and some other great things thrown in...

http://aptx.com.au

Come join us for the beta.. we'd love you to be involved.

Incubators new look

2011-10-08T11:01:00.001+11:00

Please have a look at the NEW Incubator web site.

After many months of experimenting with a wiki based format for the Incubator, I finally gave up on the free form but messy approach and opted for the simpler more structured approach of the new site design that combines automation from a back end database I'm very familiar with and the new design tool from Adobe called use.

The design is also changed to focus more on specifically getting the project managers to walk step by step through my own project development process designed to make it easier for inventor types to move as quickly as possible from idea to patent to execution and market entry. The process is also explained on the site... I am still adding projects to the site so that it can be formally released in a short while.

Uniloc and band Kulcha first music and interactive CD ever?

2011-10-08T10:10:00.003+11:00

Wow this was a blast from the past! Was going through old video footage from my early days running Uniloc and came across this project... a multimedia CD which Warner Music advertised as the worlds first music and computer game CD!

It featured a hip hop band called Kulcha and a Uniloc protected copy of Doom on the same CD..
I remember working out how to mask the data to stop the speakers from blowing up when the CD player tried to playback the game data... we came up with the trick of setting the track number for the data to track number zero which in most cases fooled the CD player to go straight to track one and ignore the data on the CD... CDROM drives could see the data and install from it... pretty cool for 94.

Wow. We really did a lot of cool things over the years.

At the end of the video the Warner voice over says that it was the WORLDS FIRST interactive music and game CD.... maybe it was! What an honour.

Cherio from Ric to all the visitors coming in from the Sydney Morning Herald news site.

2011-08-10T16:43:00.001+10:00

A little message for all of you visiting from the Sydney Morning Herald article that appeared today.

Sydney Morning Herald runs Good Weekend story

2011-08-10T11:38:00.001+10:00

Asher Moses from the Sydney Morning Herald emailed me yesterday to tell me they were running the Good Weekend story online soon and it popped up just now.

The link to the story is this: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/the-beautiful-mind-of-the-aussie-who-beat-microsoft-20110810-1ilm6.html

For a bit of background on some of the projects mentioned in the story please click the special welcome in the right column to Good Weekend Readers.

Some extra news for you is that Microsoft’s attempt to have the Uniloc patent questioned by the US Patent office failed last Friday. The patent office ruled that the 216 patent is legal and stands in its entirety despite claims by Microsoft that there were prior inventions… now all that is left is to get a Jury to give us a good damages amount and then wait to see if Microsoft appeals that decision and then tries for the Supreme Court… well that’s my understanding of what’s ahead… it’s been a long battle but I’m not complaining… anything worth while usually takes a long time.

Still can’t get my head around the beautiful mind thing… to me most people will be surprised how well they think when they clear out pressures, get in a good calm and interesting setting (like the fig tree lane in the article) and take their time to really analyze a problem… the brain just seems to love that situation… oh and a good cappuccino every two hours or so!

Carbon Tax explained… a non political explanation.

2011-08-10T09:19:00.000+10:00

Please note that I personally am completely neutral on political matters and do not have an opinion one way or the other regarding governmental initiatives.
That said, I also would like to weigh in on clarifying how the carbon tax seems to have been designed to work.
A basic fact:

According to government figures Australians per capita produce more carbon than anyone in the western world mainly due to the use of coal for generating electricity.

To stem this tide the government is introducing a tax on carbon. It is really a tax on dirty energy generation.
To understand how this works you may want to consider import duty. The idea behind an import duty is to artificially raise the price of imported goods so that locally produced (more expensive goods) can compete on a level playing ground even though the basic costs of producing Australian goods are higher due to Australia’s higher hourly worker rate etc.
The duty is then redistributed to Australian tax payers and probably results in less need for taxes to cover other costs that the government needs to pay for.
Most people understand this and comprehend that the higher price Australian’s pay is directly related to the good of preserving jobs and also a small reduction in taxes due to the funds being used to offset costs in other areas of the government spending.
The carbon tax? Well imagine all our energy was imported and we only had wind farms and solar panels to produce our electricity. The import duty (carbon tax) would make the imported energy more expensive driving down demand and allowing local competing technology like wind and solar generators to be more competitive and increasing the demand for it. The key is how the collected duty (carbon tax) is redistributed. If the tax is redirected to Australian tax payers then the whole process is relatively cost neutral.
For me to understand it, the key was seeing it as a redistribution rather than another tax. In fact the whole process of taxation seems to be about balancing the redistribution of profits from Australian people and companies for hopefully the benefit and common interest of tax payers.
I reiterate. Personally I am neutral to political and national issues. This article was simply an attempt to try and clarify how I think the carbon tax is designed to work.

Wonderful Feedback on Good Weekend article

2011-08-09T14:06:00.001+10:00

Wow what a title… I suppose with a headline like that I should expect to be brought back to earth with some hassling about my weight.

Surprisingly, many of my friends and readers commented that the article was really inspiring despite the digs about my size. So far I have received about a hundred emails, most of whom are fellow inventors looking for a little support or advice.

If you missed the article there seems to be no place on the web where the article was published digitally so for those of you who weren’t able to pickup a physical copy I have done a PDF of it and it is available here to download.

That photo was taken near our home at a place I actually do use for brainstorming… lovely fig trees and a lovely grassy area to have a play with Max between mind grinds.

Yeah I get it… I’ve got to lose weight

2011-08-06T11:20:00.001+10:00

“Yeah I get it… Ive got to lose weight” was my first words to Jane Cadzow when I rang her just now to thank her for the article in the Good Weekend.

After a good laugh Kaz had a talk to her and we thanked her for her open and candid, but interesting article… somehow great writers make a pretty normal person look really interesting… Kaz and I are amazed that the people in the newspaper are us….

Also it feels really current even though the $500 mill win was over two years ago. As always our pets steal the show and the van gets another shot… great photos…. if you have a read, thanks for showing the interest…

Thanks,

Ric and Kaz, and Oscar the horse and Max the dog and Blanch, Noddy, Betty, Hazel, Hilda, Bev and Edie the chooks.

Ric in Good Weekend mag- Sydney Morning Herald

2011-08-06T10:07:00.001+10:00

I’m currently up in Townsville without access to the normal Fairfax newspapers like the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age so I have no idea yet how good the article is that appeared today in the Good Weekend Magazine today… but by the emails I've started to get the reaction must be good.

So far everyone seems to been a little bit inspired by the story of a normal Aussie caught up in very abnormal circumstances. I've got some important things to do today so will not read the story till later but feel very privileged that an award winning writer like Jane Cadzow thought enough of the story to pour her considerable talents into writing it…

Welcome Good Weekend Readers

2011-08-06T07:00:00.012+10:00

Hi, and thanks for taking the time to look for me on the web after reading the excellent article in this weekends Good Weekend Magazine.

First of all, let me share with you that it was a real privilege to be interviewed by Jane Cadzow. Even though she walloped me regarding my weight :-) she seemed to catch every nuance of our time together. After reading her article it seems now that she must have been watching everything with laser beam eye sight! Her insightful questions about my child hood also also highlighted how important my parents influence was on our family. You know we all just grow up and think that everyone had a childhood just like ours but after an interview like that you realize the special things your parents do.

Thanks Jane.

Some of the things mentioned in the article are explained in other articles on this blog if you are interested.
These include:

Logarex - an explanation of what it is and how it works
Rail Trucking - Herb Elliott mentions it in his part of the interview.
Working with Fortescue - this article talks about my first week working with Andrew Forrest's fantastic team.

If you would like a PDF copy of the article you can download it from here..

Thanks for visiting.
Ric

Customize your iPhone home screen with your own icons and weblinks

2011-08-04T17:03:00.001+10:00

iPhone users. Have you ever been frustrated at not being able to put links to important things on the home screen of your phone with their own custom icons?

An icon that calls your best friend with one touch?
An icon that opens a new email to your wife?
An icon that opens your favorite app using a custom script or instruction?

I searched far and wide without someone supplying an answer.

It seems Apple likes to control what can and can’t be displayed on your screen.

Well there is a work around. Apple supplies a utility to corporations called the iPhone Configuration Utility that is available to the public.

It is used by large corporations to configure iPhones for their employees for all the fiddly stuff like security protocols, wifi logons etc. But the utility also has a desktop icon writing capability which allows you to place any URL inside a button on your iPhone home screen!

For example I use Filemaker Go on my iPhone. I need a link on my home screen to quickly open a Filemaker file and run a particular script. It saves me at least 4 steps and can now be conveniently triggered from my home screen… you can do anything you want with this great little utility.

The download is available here:

http://support.apple.com/downloads/iPhone_Configuration_Utility_2_0_for_Windows

How it works:

Download the utility and install it.
Setup a profile and go to the section called weblinks and fill out the form. It allows you to add a name to be displayed on your home screen, the url you want to use and upload the icon you want to use.
Save the profile and export it as a config file. A config file is a special file recognized by your iPhone.
Send the config file to yourself as an attachment to an email.
Open the email on your phone.
Click on the config file that appears on your screen as an attachment.
and Voila! the icon will appear on your home screen… easy.

For those of you who find this all a bit daunting please email me your title; url and icon and ill send a config file back to the first 5 people who approach me. I can be reached at ric.r@r2labs.com.

Things you can have as a url:

callto://telnumber – calls the number direct from the home screen
mailto://email|subject| body – opens an new email to the persons email with the subject and body you want
fmpscript://database|script – opens a filemaker file and runs the corresponding script

Provisional Patent for Sale $3,500

2011-08-04T16:32:00.001+10:00

No. It’s not one of my patents. But pretty good in any case. A pretty relentless inventor I have been helping has asked me to see if I can help him sell a provisional patent we have worked on together to cover an unexpected cost he has to cover.

The patent covers an invention he came up with to vent toilet bowls as they are used rather than venting all the air in the bathroom after the fact.

How it works?

Basically a tube connects the toilet bowl with the toilet s-bend and contains a fan activated by sitting on the toilet seat that sucks the air out of the bowl direct to the S-bend when the user is sitting on the toilet.

I did the prior art search myself and it looks pretty clear…

Some people may ask, your well off Ric, why don’t you buy it?

Well I have always been tempted to buy or get in on good inventions but that would compromise my ability to help people and be seen to be neutral… also I hate doing business, and the gentlemen I rely on to bring my inventions to life ask me to only work on projects that are worth in the millions… this project is needed, its cheap to manufacture but worth millions? That may be questionable…

So what do you think?

Want to have a go?

Then email me directly at ric.r@r2labs.com and lets see if we can give a good beginner inventor his first break at a good price.

Ric's system for delegating email to his PA using screen recording

2011-07-06T16:16:00.000+10:00

Just thought Id let you in on a little experiment I am running at my office with my PA Danielle. Since our work times don't coincide I've been looking for ways to allow her to help me as much as possible without having to spend much time face to face.

Besides my penchant for hanging a voice recorder around my neck an uploading the voice messages to Evernote for her to work on, the next best thing we have done is using screen recorders.

Here is how it works:

I have a screen recording app running all the time. It is set to record only the window I am working in.
When an email comes in I work out if I can handle it immediately or if not I quickly summarize in my mind what I want to do and then hot record.
While looking at the actual email (I use GMail) I record my instructions using my voice while highlighting things on the screen so that Danielle can see exactly what I'm talking about.
When I click the stop button the file is recorded to a time stamped video file on my desktop.
Then I drop the file onto a shortcut which links across my network to Danielle's machine and a folder on her Desktop.
The icon changes to reflect the new file has been added and she opens and works on the file.
When she is finished doing the task she changes the name of the file to describe what it was about and drops it into a sub folder called DONE.

So far so good... we have been using it for a few days now and it seems to be working well. She really loves that she is seeing what I'm seeing but working on tasks in the order that makes sense for her... for me it's really fast and convenient. And I can keep doing what Im good at which is NOT answering emails!

Collaborative shipping–an Amazon book should cost 6 cents

2011-07-05T16:36:00.003+10:00

When I moved home from the States in 2009 we brought all our stuff over from the US in a 40ft container fro $3500. Two lounge suites, California king, motorbike, side tables, everything. But for me to get some books from Amazon cost me $75…
Whaaaa?
At the same rate as I paid it should have cost me $0.06 cents!

Are my facts wrong? Don’t think so. So what do we do about it… this is my idea:

Get a consignment quote for one container to be shipped to your neighbourhood.
In my case it would be consignment at an address in LA (where we have our stuff sent to).
Then get a quote for customs handling (every package must be under $1,000 AUD in value.
And a shipping truck rate from the port to your location ($300 from Brisbane to Byron Bay)
Then get your neighbours to put the dimensions of the products they want onto a website that calculates the total volume and as soon as it makes sense everyone puts in their orders and waits for the shipment to arrive…

Yeah. Go the Aussie dollar. What do you think? Would you do something like this if it was available… please make comments below.

Cool keyboard invention

2011-07-05T14:54:00.001+10:00

I met with a Byron local who had one of those wake up epiphanies… literally…. and ended up with a new approach to the way a computer keyboard works. Today we sat in one of my favourite Byron Cafes and discussed, then drew, then dictated the nuts and bolts of a provisional patent over the course of a bit over an hour and a really nice Fettuccini.

I cant go into details of Paul Nicholls patent as he may want to have some filing options but when he is ready I’d love to share with you this great idea.

For me its so much fun to sit with an inventor who has a simple well thought out idea that is also new and practical… congratulations Paul.

Writing patents for others… disappointment

2011-07-05T10:26:00.001+10:00

Some time back an acquaintance approached me about the patentability of their invention and I helped them brainstorm on what was patentable and what was not. After all, I do have a bit of experience on these things.

As I recall they were having trouble getting their head around working out if anything they were doing was patentable. They also said they didn’t have money and when I offered to help draft their patent my invitation was enthusiastically accepted. They really did have a cool idea.

As always, I offered my help for FREE.

However I don’t like being used as a transcriptionist or a technical drawing expert. When I write patents I like to make notes, record audio transcriptions and do hand drawings… its fast spontaneous and allows me to capture the essence of the idea at the time it is most fresh… the moment the idea hits me on how to handle the patent… in many cases the inventor I am helping is sitting across from me at a Cafe and the drawings and the outline of the patent are done on the spot… so a transcriptionist and drawing expert were used at $75 per hour working at my instruction.

This is what I did for the above mentioned person. Then I receive this email:

An acquaintance of mine spoke to a Patent Attorney and he said that you could get fined for filing a provisional patent and that US investors may find it very irregular that the patent was not written by an Attorney.

Well goodness gracious.Apparently no one but patent attorney’s are allowed to file patents. Garbage. Both the US and Australian patent offices sites show laymen how to file patents. The IP Australia site says:

Patents can be very complex. Many people have been caught out by their lack of knowledge and experience in this area, or by their failure to adequately develop their IP protection strategy.

Many patent applications filed without the help of a patent attorney are not successful-or are abandoned by the applicant.

We strongly recommend you avoid problems by consulting a qualified patent professional before you apply. They can also carry out searches of existing inventions and draft your application.

Sure… its complex. Sure… get professional help if you need it. In fact I DID. For the first 6 or 7 patents I used a lawyer to draft my provisional… then I had a go myself. The first provisional I did was ripped to shreds by my attorney… the next one was better and then I realised that by around the ten count that all they were doing was clean up, some legalese and the claims writing… so now I file my own provisional patents and only get the lawyers to do the full application conversion and the writing of the CLAIMS… the most important and legal part of the patent…

As far as US investors are concerned… who would you have as the person to help capture the protectable essence of your invention? A guy who is behind a successful patent infringement win against Microsoft or a guy with a plaque. In the end it’s the work that matters. Is it a good patent? Does the patent fairly and accurately describe the invention? Then that’s all that matters.

No I am not against patent attorneys. I am, however, against abdication of the inventors role in writing the patent especially the provisional. The more an inventor can educate themselves on how patents work, how they should be written, how they protect the inventor, the more educated the better.

Sure you may not be a natural patent writer. The majority of provisional patents I wrote for Uniloc were given the once over by the lawyers but ended up with only minor edits when going for full application

It’s sad however that self serving alarmist comments by patent attorneys like the one above make light of the gift I gave in helping the inventor I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

The book I wrote about the fallacy of having to use a patent attorney looks at this issue closely. The problem is that patent attorneys reason for being is to provide legal advice but their motivation is their hourly rate which means there is a natural tendency to be alarmist and to complicate things to appear to add value, but after you see a few dozen patents and understand how they work, the opposite is true. Well written, concise and honest patent writing is better for everyone… its the basis of the original idea of patent law to protect inventors…

Things like this happen from time to time. Everyone knows what it’s like to help someone else out and they turn around after accepting your help boo-hoo it. Well all that means is that I now have time to help someone else.

The latest on Uniloc vs Microsoft

2011-07-02T21:36:00.000+10:00

In case you have lost track of where the case between Uniloc and Microsoft is at these days here is the latest:

We won the appeal that reversed the judges decision to ignore the Jury's $388 million win in 2009.
But the appeal judges made us go back to court to review the settlement amount.
Uniloc tried to have the appeal judges consider just letting us go with the original $388 but they were persistent. Note this does not mean a LOWER figure... just a figure based on a calculation that does not use the 25% rule... a bit confusing.
Uniloc is waiting to hear when it will have a court date to go after a damages amount, but this time we do it with the courts ruling that Microsoft IS GUILTY.

So there it is... that's the latest

Note: The 25% rule has been used a lot to determine what percentage of the product should be paid in damages if someone uses a patented technology illegally.

VoiceTING... text messaging but with your voice!

2011-07-02T20:45:00.004+10:00

Whats this? Imagine texting....
....BUT WITH YOUR VOICE!

Yes I'm dubbing it Voiceting... as in texting but with your voice... what do you think? Ive put a form below so you can give me some feedback... It's really important to me so please make the effort.
Here is how it works. You go to the Voicy messaging app like you would the standard text messaging app on your phone and you choose a recipient from your phone book but instead of typing a message you hold a little record button and speak your message. Then SEND.

The recipient gets a message notification saying XXX has sent you a message and you can choose to play or cancel and play later.

They see who sent the message then here your message and then can reply by... voice. How cool.
When you get their response back you can hear the last few seconds of the message you first sent and then their response is played back to you, and the conversation goes on as needed... back and forth. In the example above I am planning to add the ability to send photos as part of the app and maybe normal text if you want to reply without sending voice but the idea is to COMBINE THE CONVENIENCE OF TEXTING WITH VOICE without having to use a phone answering or message system... the audio gets uploaded and downloaded automatically and is instantly ready for you to hear and listen to.

This is a stripped down version of a technology I am developing for my parents involving a physical phone with the ability to send and receive VOICETING messages and also keep them in conversations like you do on an email system but I couldn't resist seeing what everyone thought of this idea as I am seriously considering getting it coded and onto the AppStore if there is enough interest.

Please give me your feedback below and help me make the decision to go ahead with this project....

5 out of 10. 5 to go.

2011-06-15T10:10:00.001+10:00

From Uniloc legal counsel:

“Yesterday the USPTO mailed a Notice of Allowance for Ric’s invention entitled “Method and Apparatus for Using Imperfections in Computing Devices for Device Authentication”.

This will be the 5^th US patent granted to Ric Richardson and Uniloc.”

Another milestone. This marks the halfway of the granting of the patents I did for Uniloc before I left day to day at Uniloc back in 07. This patent covers the use of making a fingerprint not only from devices within or attached to a computing device but also by looking at imperfections and damage to any of those parts or devices… for example some CPUs take longer or shorter time to compute certain calculations based on impurities in their design… its a very cool idea and I feel privileged to have had the USPTO grant me inventorship.

Can RailTrucking alleviate Australia's trucking congestion?

2011-06-14T03:02:00.000+10:00

Over the months since I started working on RailTrucking the idea has been growing from an interesting idea to be handed off to a captain of industry to something that is a real need and should be executed properly sooner rather than later.

The idea of taking over 5,000 trucks off the road between Brisbane and Sydney may sound audacious, but it is also critical in so many ways.

Diesel conservation/ carbon conservation. Trucks on rail can safely travel at 135km/p hr instead of 100 on rail that has a co-efficient of friction that is a fraction of road tire friction. Plus rail has a maximum 4% grade compared to 8 or even 10 on some parts of the Pacific highway. Better yet the minimum radius of a turn on rail is 1km. Road turn radius's can be as short as 150 metres!
Driver fatigue. While the drivers do have to hit a dead-mans brake button (a braking system that kicks in if the driver does not respond) the level of concentration compared to driving on the road is far less stressful and far healthier for the driver.
ROI on the cost of rail infrastructure.... just think... 1000km of rail only services 15 trains a day on the busiest day... what a waste.
And best of all... safety. Taking trucks and driver fatigue out of the travel equation just has to be safer...

What do you think?

Why the Van helps Ric get thing’s done

2011-06-12T19:37:00.001+10:00

Ever found yourself solving big problems on a jog, or on the ferry on the way to work, or while quietly enjoying a cappuccino in your favourite cafe. It’s not uncommon. Some people like the discipline of a cubicle or an office… but for creativity I find that most of the people I ask, they say very little is accomplished in a traditional work setting.

The van is simply a tool that helps me kick start the process that happens when most people run in a park or find their favourite seat on a ferry going across Sydney harbour. You clear the head, in an environment with no reminders of the myriad pressing matters that scream at us every minute of most working days, and let the mind move. Let your mind pace itself and settle on the issue or opportunity that presents itself when the noise quiets down.

If my van was in a tech feature film or a tech blog you would expect a battery supply, AC power points, wall to wall monitors and a fridge. Sure there is a comfy office chair and a steel foldaway work desk, but that’s all. Just some space to work and whatever I bring for the occasion. A legal pad… some folders, a sketch pad and maybe my iPad and my cell phone which are usually set to silent.

So basically the Van is my way of going for a thoughtful jog… without the jog bit.

Computer screen for the blind

2011-06-09T13:23:00.002+10:00

Flying back from Fortescue last week I was thinking about a doco I saw
on the Senior Australian of the year who is a blind gentleman. I have
seen the audio support for windows that uses text-to-speech to help
blind people know what is on the screen but it struck me as odd that
the blind person has to sit in front of a screen that they obviously
can't see... So I came up with...
... what if?
What if each pixel on the screen was a pin head and the pins raised by
a millimeter or two to separate black text from white background...
the whole screen could become a braille space... amazingly the
gentleman I saw was an amazingly fast touch typist so the input is not
the issue... its the output and the feedback... it will be interesting
to see where this project goes.

Refining how to get the Incubator working

2011-05-11T22:07:00.001+10:00

There is a famous American Baseball movie that touts the phrase “if you build it, they will come…” well frankly, getting the Incubator going is resisting our efforts to make it really go fast.
It has received a lot of interest from inventors especially the brave hearts who were on the Inventor Roadshow with us but it is obvious that something more is needed to get things heating up.
So this blog is opening up the idea of a “Hatchery”. A special process for those that want to avail themselves of a service where I am prepared to volunteer my time to help with strategic advice pro bono as long as the project founders are willing to invest a little money in covering the time of the professionals I want to use to help hold your hand through the process.
This enables me to help lots of people and keep the costs to a minimum by using business helpers that are relatively cheap but can help you implement the advice I share with you and are familiar with the process.
The steps are fairly straight forward but specifically designed to help you build momentum towards getting your project rolling along or bringing it to a point relatively cheaply where you can make a decision about whether or not it is feasible to continue…. the idea being is that we try every avenue to help you succeed but if we find a real deal breaker that it is better for you to know sooner rather than later.
So here goes the process… and its based on my own experience.

Concept fully devised.
At least a provisional patent in place and properly packaged for investors and customers to look at when needed.
A provable prototype that is also snazzy and valuable for the next step.
Media. Get some strategic publicity with valuable pushback/ feedback that will be valuable in the next few steps
Build a business plan that aims at an exact/ specific outcome, that investors and incoming professionals can believe in.
Find a candidate to make the plan happen, either with or for the founders.
Help the resulting team connected to investors.

Most of the people I have worked with over time have a lot of the basics for what is needed above so the process may only take a few months to get going, others maybe longer but at a minimum I think you need to budget on 10-15 hours of professional help to break the back of the process with me coaching the process.
As I have done in the past with patent advice my time is pro bono, but you should budget at least $75 per hour for a business professional to hold your hand through the process.
To give you an idea for most of the people I have helped so far Im pretty sure that in less than 15 hours we could make sure your IP is safe (this process assumes you already have at a least a provisional patent in place), show you how to reconfigure your prototype to make is really useable for business development and publicity, advice and coordinate some basic publicity for you that is designed to help build momentum to writing a simple, basic but solid and realistic business plan.
Then we put your project out there to fish for professionals and investors to make the plan happen.
Tell us what you think of the idea.

Tip for filing trademarks overseas

2011-05-11T21:39:00.001+10:00

Just a little idea I have used but have not shared with you is how to file Trademarks with overseas trademark offices such as the USPTO.

One of the biggest issues is working out what categories to file your trademark in. Its all pretty confusing, however I use this simple trick. When I search for the appropriate category I just look for trademarks of products in your same space or even your competitors trademarks to see what categories they have registered in… its pretty easy to search and it can help you make sense of that countries category labelling system.

My first book published on Amazon Kindle

2011-04-29T18:02:00.001+10:00

The provisional patent Fallacy.. and why it’s all good news is my first published book on Amazon.

I’d love to hand out some discount coupons to many of you so you can have a look without the full retail expense of USD$9.99 but Amazon doesn't cater to that service unlike iTunes unfortunately.

What’s the book about?

Basically it addresses what I feel is the fallacy that you have to pay for what amounts to a full patent application just to get patent protection while you explore the invention and its opportunities. The whole idea of the provisional patent was for you to find out if you have a commercially viable idea BEFORE you have the full expense of a patent… but somehow this wonderful provision by the patent office has been completely nullified by the practise of submitting provisional patents that have taken as much work as full applications to produce… this is bunkum!

As a taster I have included the first chapter here for you to read if you think you may like to download the full book which casn be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Provisional-Patent-Fallacy-good-ebook/dp/B004Y09WTM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1304062779&sr=8-5

xxxxxxx Start of Chapter 1 xxxxxxxx

Chapter 1: The problem

Why is one of Australia’s largest University’s, with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual investment in research, only applying for one or two dozen patents per year?...

…for the same reason that hundreds, if not thousands, of budding inventors, don’t patent their inventions.

Because of the fallacy that a provisional patent will cost as much as a full patent. At $8-$12k this is too much of a burden for most people…

Fallacy?

Yes.

The following definition is supplied for a US provisional patent at: http://www.uspto.gov/patents/resources/types/provapp.jsp

“Although a claim[1] is not required in a provisional application, the written description and any drawing(s) of the provisional application must adequately support the subject matter claimed in the later-filed non-provisional application in order for the later-filed non-provisional application to benefit from the provisional application filing date.

Therefore, care should be taken to ensure that the disclosure filed as the provisional application adequately provides a written description of the full scope of the subject matter regarded as the invention and desired to be claimed in the later filed non-provisional application.

There is no requirement that the written description and any drawings filed in a provisional application and a later-filed non-provisional application be identical, however, the later-filed non-provisional application is only entitled to the benefit of the common subject matter disclosed in the corresponding non-provisional application filed not later than 12 months after the provisional application filing date.

Additionally the specification shall disclose the manner and process of making and using the invention, in such full, clear, concise and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which the invention pertains to make and use the invention and set forth the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention.”

Note the following:

Does this description of an invention need legally binding language? No.
Does it require that claims be included? No.
Does the provisional even need to be filed in the traditional patent format of background, description, operation and alternative embodiments? No.
Do the drawings need to be identical? No.

No. No. No.

In essence the only limitation is your sense of risk. Risk that what you submit as a provisional does not adequately cover and relate to what you file in your full patent application[2]. Proof of this will be supplied later in the book, but believe me, I was surprised at how simple a provisional can be that still captures the legal and practical essence of the invention you want to patent.

All you need is drawings and a description that can be reasonably linked to the full application you submit within 12 months of filing your provisional. In fact, although I have not tested this yet, my gut instinct is saying that most University white papers would easily qualify as the basis of a provisional patent application!

You may ask “even if the requirement for a provisional patent is technically much less demanding in terms of legal language and form, why wouldn’t you file something as close to a full application as possible? You have to do the work anyway… don’t you?...

Why keep provisional filings simple?

… Well no. You don’t. That’s the whole point. To file a provisional takes $100. With slight modifications, most white papers could qualify as a provisional filing. So why engage lawyers and commit to thousands of dollars in legal expense when:

You don’t know if someone will buy your invention
You may not have had time or the resources to complete a thorough prior art search.
You don’t even know if you have come up with the best approach to your invention. You may go another month and find a better even more valuable way to solve the problem that is the basis of your invention.

These are just three of a hundred reasons I can think of showing why a $100 provisional filing and your best effort at an invention description are by far the best first step in protecting your invention.

So why do people tend to file provisional’s that are pretty much a full application?

Probably fear.

Fear that the provisional filing is not good enough.

Fear that you will get five years into your patent term, be in court with an infringer who has your case thrown out because your provisional didn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Are such fears groundless? Yes and no. But more yes than no.

I can’t be a hypocrite and say that there is no basis for caution. For my first five or six patents I had a lawyer check my provisional’s before filing, but pretty quickly I worked out that:

The changes my lawyer wanted to make were frequently of a legal language nature;
Or that they were of a form related nature; ie what goes where in what order, and;
That the real decision as to the value of your provisional is with the patent examiner as it is their job to argue that your provisional doesn’t adequately cover the description in the full application.

Points one and two are more about a lawyer justifying their existence than actually protecting your legal rights, and point three is a win win for you.

Why?

Because if your provisional doesn’t cover what you submitted as a full application, then it can’t be used as prior art against you. It also means that your full application is a stand alone patent filing… you see. You win even if you lose!

On top of this, remember. The examiner is the one who makes the decision about the value of your provisional. If he or she gives it the green light, then you are in the clear.

If someone (ie an infringer) questions this decision in the future, it is an argument to be made between them and the patent office… not between you and them. And any judge and jury is going to think seriously about questioning an examiner about their decisions relating to a granted patent.

xxxxxxx End of Chapter 1 xxxxxxxxx

See the following to buy the full book: Kindle viewers are available for Mac, PC, Kindle iPad and iPhone

http://www.amazon.com/Provisional-Patent-Fallacy-good-ebook/dp/B004Y09WTM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1304062779&sr=8-5

[1] This refers to the fact that there is no need for a set of claims to be provided with a provisional patent.

[2] In the US a full patent application is called a non-provisional patent application.

Innovation Festival–My privilege to help kick-off

2011-04-29T15:46:00.001+10:00

Just now I got back from doing the keynote speech for the Innovation Festival that will run over the next month in the North Coast area of New South Wales.

As usual I tried to make the talk about the audience and not just Ric pushing one of his pet agenda’s and it seemed to work well. We explored two areas around innovation:

Answering the question “What is innovation?” and;
For maximum innovation how important it is to do what you do best and find team mates and partners who compliment your strengths to bring maximum impact to your innovations.

In one interesting section of the talk I asked the audience to tell us about the top two problems they have in their business… I was really surprised to find that many of the answers showed that people were really actively solving problems for their businesses and most were really clued in on how to get solutions.

One lady taught health and safety using mannequins to simulate CPR as she travelled around Australia and her biggest issue was the size and bulkiness of the mannequins. The audience actually shared in solving her problem by exploring ways to break mannequins down into a small a package as possible and making them portable… I think we even invented something on the spot!

That's just one example of the open, free thinking environment that was shared at the event.

A new patent licensing model – SELL A BOOK!

2011-04-26T20:25:00.001+10:00

Traditional patent licensing is a pretty complicated and long winded affair. Some big hearted souls even go through the cost, expense and work of a patent only to end up making it public domain… good for them but not really the point of getting patent protection.

So what can be done to make money from your invention that fills the space between full commercial licenses and giving away licences. Here is my idea:

Include a licence with the cost of purchasing a book.

Wha? Yes, include the cost of a patent licence when you sell a book about your invention.

Still confused? Think about this. Besides the few dozen companies that may ultimately pay a decent royalty for your invention there may be literally thousands of people who may want to use your idea for their own project. How do you give them a relatively cheap way to licence your patent AND give them all the info they need to understand and implement your patent?

The answer is obvious when you think about it. An eBook.

A vehicle that covers your basic costs, shows the value of your invention AND gives the buyer what they need to get value from what you invented… a reasonably priced limited license.

How about this for an example. I invented a simple system for detecting when a tire is flat. It is so simple anyone can make the invention with a kids noise maker and a band of aluminium. But how do I share this idea without it costing me money and without losing any real opportunity to make a decent royalty fr4om it later?

If I publish a book including a limited license I can reach all those home users and small business users who would love to try out and use my idea. Even the big targets like the Goodyear Tyre Company or Repco could buy the book and get a limited licence to try out and evaluate the idea. The book could even have guidelines of licensing terms as well as well thought out conditions of use to allow small business users and individuals to freely use the invention.

I have quite a few projects that could benefit from this approach:

The Reputation Based Social Network – a concept that has so many applications, it makes more sense to explain all the possibilities and let people run with it than try to lock it down to a single model.
The flat tire detector – because its simple and a lot of people may find it really helpful, but I also need a vehicle to explain it to big licensee prospects.
Kalvin Ernst’s Cloud computing scripts – Kalvin’s ideas are truly elegant in their simplicity and a real temptation to people to just use them and not pay Kalvin a dime. But this model enables all the little guys to fully understand his concepts and implementations and pay appropriately for their use of his idea.

Looking back it feels like nearly everything I invent should have a mini book written about it even if all it means is that people get to use it and I have the impetus to fully explain how the invention works. Even if I end up not doing a full patent for an idea, most of the time I have come up with inventions to solve problems for people, and the least I could do is outline how people could solve the problem for themselves using my invention outlined in a book that others can benefit from.

Collaberative Location finding for mobile devices

2011-04-26T14:56:00.000+10:00

Over a week ago a gentleman approached me about his idea of an application to help people collaborate and share information and a common phone based experience while sharing the same event or location. The idea really needed a way of using a combination of location data to refine how each device determines its location.

The result of that session was a collaborative location finding system that I am in the middle of doing a provisional filing for... its one of those things that you think would be pretty obvious but no one seems to have done.

I will supply more details once the business paperwork and prov patent filing are complete, but it's really exciting.

LESANZ dinner guest speaker

2011-04-05T10:58:00.001+10:00

LESANZ is the License Executives Association of Australia and New Zealand, but as the world chairman of the Society agreed with me, it’s more likely Society of Professionals who make a living from Intellectual Property…

I had no idea who was going to be in the room when I came to speak. During the day leading up to speaking I found out that Judge Randall Rader (from the Uniloc appeal court hearing) was going to be in the audience as was going to be most of Sydney’s IP elite.

The location was just spectacular. With the backdrop of the City’s Woolloomooloo district and surrounded by excellent art I waffled on about some of the stories from my Uniloc days, some recent work with Fortescue Metals and some ideas about how to capitalize on Australia’s heritage as a nation of tinkerers and how rosy the future is when we have to rely on the collective Australian brain when our back yard of minerals starts to run out or lose it’s attractiveness.

What a great night.

My mate Matt–Entrepreneur of the year

2011-04-05T10:38:00.001+10:00

Last Thursday, after running late to be a panel member at the SydStart conference in Sydney, I sat down next to monster entrepreneur Matt Barrie (on stage), only to find his face looking up at me from the panel table. What a great achievement... good on you Matt.

Matt and I started our friendship/ rivalry back in 2010 at the Funding Connect event in the Quay in Sydney... a good natured argument broke out about how Aussies are not aware of their strengths because our culture teaches us to think of ourselves as the same as everybody else... Matt's argument was "everyone can do what he did... it's easy". The audience sided with me that “no... sorry we are not all super proactive leader types”... and “no... most of us need to partner with guys like Matt to make something really happen...”… since then a lot of others have sided with my side of the argument to the amusement of most people that know Matt and I.

As a result Matt wrote this little ditty on the copy of the magazine that he gave… its too small to see but it says “To Ric, My #1 PR team. Keep up the [Matt] bashing… Matt”.

Matt is CEO of online jobbing site Freelancer.com.

Another US Patent granted

2011-02-25T16:28:00.001+11:00

Just got this from the Uniloc in house counsel:

“Today we received the Issue Notification for this patent entitled “System and Method for Auditing Software Usage” invented by Ric and assigned to Uniloc. The patent will officially issue on March 15, 2011.

Congratulations to Ric on another patent!”

This patent follows a thread that I originally wanted for the Uniloc patent which was to regulate rather than stop sharing all together… fair use says that you should be able to share to a reasonable degree your own property. This technology allows software licenses to accomplish that.

I remember writing this when I was back in the States. What a great environment to do business… I really miss Craig and the vibe of the team over there. But then again the view out my office at the time wasn’t this…

Ha… what a gloater!

More on the location wiki project

2011-02-21T14:05:00.001+11:00

Wow… a lot of feedback on the idea of a location based wiki but obviously I have not explained what the idea is because everyone seemed to miss the point…

To me wiki’s are two things:

A communal resource for information and
A convenient way for me to collect information conveniently for myself…

The idea of a location wiki is simply the ability to link a location to a page and the ability to search by location and not only keyword… ie a button at the top of the wiki that says find pages near here (where you are now)… to me the results would be presented in two columns…

1. Pages that have location identities that are nearby your current location irrespective of keyword and…

2. Pages in another column that are my private notes from pages with location ids that are nearby and sorted by distance from your current location…

So going into Byron I see:

On the public side of the page list – a picture and page of a street busker from last Thursday night, a review of a cafe two doors down the street, an event review of a swim that started up the street at the beach hotel…

And on the private side of the page list – a list of the names of workers at Cafe Mokha, the name of the parking officer who I talked to about an illegal parking detection technology I discussed with him 6 months ago, a note that the local cops love to frequent a smoothy shop down the road and that local band “Bourbon Street” got their first big gig at the local pub in Johnston street just down the block.

This idea just uses the local location services on the phone or iPad to make your loco wiki work for you on the basis of location… simple.

Intellectual Ventures… let’s see what happens

2011-02-13T17:48:00.001+11:00

Back in December last year I ran into the Australian team that is running a patent acquisition company based in the states called Intellectual Ventures. They buy patents and inventions and put them into portfolios for licensing to large companies giving the inventor a stipend of the royalty stream.

While I would probably not use this model for any of my major projects it certainly sounds interesting so this month I’ve decided to run some ideas past them and see what strikes their fancy. They have a list of areas that they are actively buying solutions for and out of those I chose the area of Grey Water utilization and water conservation.

I submitted two ideas to them and it will be interesting to see if either of them strike a chord. There is certainly a place for this business model as there are really prolific minds out there who can solve problems quickly but don’t have the resources or skills to turn them into businesses… maybe this is a way to go.

Location based wiki concept

2011-02-13T17:37:00.001+11:00

Searching is so proactive… every time you want to find something you have to initiate the search… what if relevant stuff was presented to you simply based on location?

This idea is being worked on at an operating system level by one of the inventors we help but my idea is a lot simpler… what about a Wikipedia that showed you search results based on your location rather than a search term?

Here is a for instance…

I go into Byron and look in my location wiki… I can switch between a list of the nearest notes/ wiki pages I’ve written myself or pages by others but I can do things like…
See the latest photos from locations near where I am standing…
see the notes of the waiters name at my favourite restaurant just up the block.
Or that the book shop around the corner is having a special on Clive Cussler books.

What would it take to do something like this?

A simple interface to Google Maps where a pin sts the location of your note or wiki page, a second list allows you to associate the location with a specific business or address, then write the title and note and mark it private or shared.

mmmmmmmm… not that hard to do.

What do you think?
R

Inventor Roadshow on TV News

2011-01-31T16:10:00.003+11:00

What a great day this was… congrats to everyone especially the inventors who showed over 70 different projects to experts who flew in from Sydney and drove down from Murwillumbah.

The above news segment was featured on NBN TV News and covered some of the many interesting inventions presented on the day… the event ran from 11am to 3pm with a few people turning up even then…

Thanks so much to everyone for the support and interest.

Ric

In the Wall Street Journal again

2011-01-12T12:00:00.003+11:00

Over the weekend Julia Angwin’s (Senior Technical Editor) counterpart talked to me about the appeal result… quite rightly she focussed on the real issue. Guilt.

It seems the technical workings of the damages calculation machine has overshadowed the most important thing. Next after this is making sure the fair thing happens.

The fact that Microsoft in their own documents say that they made $5.5 billion from Activation should go a long way to making sure justice prevails… if someone uses another persons idea illegally then they ought to be made to recognise that they can not profit from doing so… that’s the fair thing.

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/01/11/inventor-says-microsoft-patent-ruling-is-beautiful/?mod=rss_WSJBlog&mod=

Inventor Roadshow - now oversubscribed!

2011-01-11T15:07:00.001+11:00

Without any advertising until today in a local newspaper, we have run out of slots for people to present their inventions at the Roadshow in Bangalow next Sunday....

Unbelievable...

With only a week of promotion including one radio segment and a newspaper article in the local Echo we have been flooded with interest... all this in a country town of 15-20,000 people....

And the quality of inventions! Wow...

All of the registrations seem to be serious and interesting... I hope we can help them all move forward and find a home that allows them to see their invention realized.

Fwd: Amazing Quality of Inventor Roadshow applicants

2011-01-06T17:44:00.001+11:00

Ive just been reviewing the last few registrants for the Inventor Roadshow event coming up Sunday week and the quality is amazing... where do these people come from? Many of them have just started responding from an article in the local newspaper called the Echo up here in the Byron area...

Invention seems to be the iceberg past time of Aussies... and not just a passing interest.. most of the submissions are for really serious inventions and technologies... we are in the process of getting gear together and finalizing arrangements for what is bound to be a very special and enlightening event.

Sydney Morning Herald Article about the win

2011-01-06T16:33:00.002+11:00

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz-tech/ric-richardson-20110106-19h25.html

Ben Grubb rang me today and recorded our interview which he included as part of the article... since the original jury win last year I have been dealing with Asher Moses but he is in Las Vegas at the CES at the moment... it was great to get a chance to speak for myself as the inventor of the patented technology.

13 Inventors signed up already

2011-01-05T22:11:00.001+11:00

Registrations for the Inventor Roadshow are mounting up already even without any publicity... of the 14 registered so far, over half are people off the street... this is getting very interesting...

Publicity for the event is going out tomorrow so it will be interesting to see if we get past our minimum target of 30 but since I have about 20 people turning up from the group I have already been mentoring it looks like we have just about reached that figure.

We won the Appeal – Jan 4th 2011

2011-01-05T17:19:00.001+11:00

Big news today. Another step forward… with caveats, but a big step forward.

As the inventor of the Uniloc technology it is a great thing to have put your future in the hands of the US legal system by applying for a patent, then have that patent withstand some of the heaviest scrutiny ever in history and come out intact.

Many people have made wild comments from the sidelines claiming its all about the money, but that is only secondary. The fact that I made the choice to file a patent and not use the money to put a deposit on a home, is a true investment in the legal system.

The hope that if it turns out that I really did invent something of significance, that I and the people who helped get the technology going, would be protected from people stealing, or just taking the idea.

The jury verdict last year was a great feeling. The judges decision to overturn that decision was a major setback. Today’s decision get’s us back on track towards justice.

The courts decision can be read at:

http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions-orders/0/all/uniloc

Inventor Roadshow TV show test in Bangalow 16th Jan 2010

2010-12-26T13:15:00.003+11:00

It’s been a while since I last updated the blog and here is the reason…

The Inventor Roadshow.

It’s a concept for a television show that is designed to encourage buddying inventors and just people with good ideas to come in and share them with the aim of helping you get going with your invention or project.
The mini event is to be held in Bangalow near Byron Bay on Sunday 16th January is a little test to see how the idea works out…

Simply its Antiques Roadshow (the UK based BBC television show) but with Inventions rather than antiques. People bring their ideas into a community hall and have them assessed by professional investors or Venture Capitalists.

The experts chosen to help you have been screened to be supportive and upbeat so you will feel as comfortable as possible talking about your idea or invention.

For those of you I have helped over recent months, please feel free to go directly to the registration page by clicking above and registering for the event if you think you can make it and will be available. For those not within driving distance I apologize and promise to keep you in mind as the project progresses to other dates and locations.

If you want to fly in then welcome… well take special care of you. Hope you can come.

At the US patent office

2010-11-22T16:33:00.001+11:00

It is a great privilege to have visited the US Patent office to support some legal proceedings surrounding one of my patents. You know, for me, I always thought of the US patent office as one of my first investors… I didn’t pay someone to examine my patent… yes there was a fee but no way could it cover the many hours it takes to search for relevant patents and make a decision about allowing the patent or not…

All that effort was given to me and my company as an investment in my future giving me the opportunity to go out and try and make good on something I invented by protecting my ability to do that without competition for a decent period of time….

To stand in front of these people and to say thanks to them was a real highlight and one I’ll not quickly forget.

TheIncubator.com.au – A planned Aussie resource for inventors

2010-11-09T15:59:00.001+11:00

For over a year now
I have been chewing over how to consolidate all the expertise, goodwill and intellectual horsepower that is willing to support Australian inventors.

Well after just a few phone call this afternoon, it is clear that there are some really good people at our Universities and in State Government who want to see this happen for Australia. After just one day of ringing around for help I am already half way to finding sponsors who are willing to work along with me in setting up a home for the Australian Invention community.

The project has been tentatively called The Incubator and if you would like to know more there is a wiki page discussing the project here.

#159 Modular Car system

2010-11-09T08:19:00.001+11:00

Below is one of many attempts to come up with a solution to a problem that has been nagging at me for years, namely the waste of driving cars around designed to transport a whole family when most of the time you only need the car to transport one or two people…

This modular approach may not be the most streamlined or pleasing to the eye but hopefully you will see that it is very practical.

The rear wheels swivel up out of the way so that the front tires of the module behind tucks into the the module in front. The flush front surface fits neatly into the back of the module in front and the windscreen glass retracts down into the space below as does the rear screen of the module in front to allow communal travel space and for mums and dads to make sure the kids seat belts are in place!

The work page for this project is here.

Project #160: Trolley system for moving heavy furniture

2010-11-07T18:14:00.002+11:00

Guess what? I moved house last week, which became a treasure trove of problems to solve and invention opportunities. I haven’t had time yet to check if something like this has been done before, but short of a prior art search I’m pretty sure that the idea is pretty fresh.

The basic idea is a two trolley system. The main trolley is like a traditional moving trolley but it has the ability to suspend the scoop tray at the bottom 2” higher. An additional single wheel trolley with the ability to swivel goes at the other end of the item being moved.

I could have used this invention last week.

Work page for this invention: http://r2labswiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Furniture_and_large_object_trolley_moving_system

US Billionaire Mark Cuban invests in Uniloc spinoff

2010-10-26T11:58:00.001+11:00

Mark Cuban is better known as the owner of the Dallas Mavericks Basketball Team in Texas than for his role in building Broadcom and selling it to Yahoo in 1999.

But there is no denying it. Mark is a very smart man. Which is why I am delighted to see that Mark has chosen to become a major investor in a spin-out from Uniloc called BlueCava.

It looks like he may even be sitting on the companies board which means I will have a legitimate reason to meet him some day soon. I am so pleased for the guys at BlueCava. They have been working hard and making strong headway. I hope to get to say hello to them all when I go to the States in a few weeks for some business in Washington DC.

Proof that Uniloc people do more than sit at desks

2010-10-26T07:56:00.001+11:00

Co-founder of Uniloc, USA at Newport Beach October 19th getting tubed.

Craig Etchegoyen is one of the most hard charging, determined and smart businessmen I have ever met. And he’s a good mate. But I’ve always felt guilty that he has taken by far the brunt of responsibility for day to day operations at Uniloc ever since we started working together back around 2003.

Well it’s great to see him enjoying a real love in his life.. surfing. And great to see things settling down for him at Uniloc.

Wall Street 2 inspires new office setup

2010-10-23T20:13:00.001+11:00

After seeing Wall Street 2 I was inspired to re-think my next home office setup and opted for something along the lines that appear about 3 minutes into the movie.

A trader setup of 6 x 20” monitors and;
Wire display boards for project and information display.

At any given time I am working on over a dozen projects and being able to scan them all in a flash really helps to get an overview of whats next… Seb and I are moving to a new office so it’s an opportunity to experiment.

The work page for the project is on our wiki. Have a look if you want.

A week in the Outback with Fortescue Metals

2010-10-23T19:04:00.001+11:00

Last week I had a fantastic experience working with one of the most dynamic companies in the world, at one of the most interesting places in the world… a red dirt surface mine in the Pilbara of Western Australia.

The week of work was truly amazing. I don’t know how Andrew Forrest has placed his mark so heavily on the culture of the company, but he has.

Mines are dangerous places, so safety is a priority. So you’d expect everyone to be walking around cowering under the watchful glare of a safety monitor. Not Fortescue! Their mantra is “when you do something, think of your mate his mrs and their kids before you do something..” simple but powerful.

With BHP as a competitor Andrews mantra of “think with your head, not your wallet” means that the two year old operation is catching BHP and Rio Tinto at an incredible rate.

I had the privilege of meeting lots of great people, hard workers, clear and open thinkers and enthusiasm to burn.. and not a single naysayer amongst them….

I’m going back if they’ll have me… just got to do a report for them first and hope I make a valid contribution.

For the Sydney Uni students – an actual provisional patent filing

2010-09-25T21:48:00.001+10:00

For the students who I spoke to at Sydney Uni last Friday I promised Id show a simple example of a patent to give them an idea of how it all works… this patent was abandoned after finding prior art but it show you how simple the provisional can be… in this case the drawings were hand drawn and very quickly processed…

If this patent went to full application I’d use PowerPoint to redo the drawings in a more presentable way but basically the text would remain the same:

This is for the patent text
This is for the patent drawings

What I liked about this patent was that the time from final drawings to filing was about 14 hours. The above pdfs were from the actual filings with the USPTO.

Presentation from todays seminar at Sydney University

2010-09-24T22:39:00.001+10:00

The following presentation was done for some students from Sydney University who I spoke to about the importance of Intellectual Property to start up businesses.
The audience was smart but a lot more business oriented than invention oriented and the enthusiasm for invention and protecting great ideas just wasn't as important to this group as to most groups Ive spoken to.... this is not to say that there was not a lot of potential in the group.

The course is being put together by Matt Barrie from Freelancer.com and Bill Bartee from Southern Cross Ventures so it is a serious education opportunity and i wish them both success in the future as they try to build the profile of the course over the coming years.

Intellectual Property and Startups on Prezi

The importance of Momentum

2010-09-21T16:01:00.001+10:00

n. pl. mo·men·ta (-t) or mo·men·tums

1. Symbol p Physics A measure of the motion of a body equal to the product of its mass and velocity. Also called linear momentum.

momentum = mass x velocity

In business terms this means the same thing. Bringing weight of experience and resources to bare (mass) with speed of execution (velocity).

This lesson was classically illustrated today. I met some really smart surf tech types today with my mate Bob McTavish. They have a really great product and idea but were ginger about committing. They even have a patent but are all cautious and wary.

What they have come up with is probably of real importance to the surf industry and they need to be careful that they are not run over by bigger players, but that is what the patents for.

The meeting nearly went nowhere as they have limited resources and could not even give a sample to Bob to try out… then the breakthrough… the momentum.

I convinced the guys to give Bob all the gear they had so that Bob could make his own samples… as many as he needed to satisfy any reservations.

Bob is an “in the moment guy”. If you have his attention he will run hard with it, if you dilly dally he will quickly move on to the next thing… he's not being mercenary, he just hates long term planning and having a ton of things on his plate… so I got in the ears of the two guys that visited and convinced them to give everything they had to Bob so he could run as hard and as fast as he wanted.

That is momentum.

Speed does not mean unthinking… you have to be smart. But the thing is MAKE THE DECISION.

Bob is a momentum monster. When he senses a good opportunity and can execute a project in a timely way (when weeks are required not months) he generates incredible momentum. His connections, the goodwill others have for him and his own enthusiasm all mass together (mass) to great success when matched with a high velocity plan (velocity).

I for one am happy to be part of his next adventure.

Reputation Driven Social Networks - 2 Sheeters

2010-09-18T14:48:00.003+10:00

Recently I started using a tool I've called "2 sheeters" to help get a message across quickly and visually. In a recent business meeting I went through 5 fairly complex iPhone app concepts in about 20 minutes, mostly because I had a 2 sheeter for every concept... what do you think of the idea?

More news from the states regarding Uniloc

2010-09-16T10:46:00.001+10:00

I can now talk about it because Uniloc’s CEO just announced that the total companies Uniloc has sued besides Microsoft has gone up to 60 now with 20 companies taking a license with the company.

“The company, with U.S. offices in Irvine, California, has sued 60 companies and reached licensing agreements with more than 20”, Chief Executive Officer Brad Davis said in a telephone interview.

Another patent granted U.S. No. 7,804,079

2010-09-13T18:22:00.001+10:00

Just got word that another of my patents has been granted in the US. This one has been assigned to Uniloc and covers the use of the imperfections in optical fibre to uniquely identify the location and identity of a device on a fibre optic network…

Its pretty cool stuff if I don’t say so myself….

For those of you into the technicalities here is the patent application info as I don’t think the patent database has been updated with the granted number yet…

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=18&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=ric&s2=richardson&OS

Uniloc vs Microsoft Appeal Hearing completed

2010-09-13T13:40:00.001+10:00

Last week the Appeal Court in the US had it’s hearing for arguments from Uniloc and Microsoft regarding the appeal against Judge Smith’s reversal of the jury verdict in favour of Uniloc.

The panel of three judges asked a wide range of questions ranging from the technicality of the subject matter to justifying the settlement figure.

For those of you following the case closely you can listen to a recording of the case online at:

http://oralarguments.cafc.uscourts.gov/Audiomp3/2010-1035.mp3

The appeal court judges final decision can take weeks or months so I have no idea how long the wait will be at this stage.

Making your ideas fly - the book (outline)

2010-09-05T23:18:00.000+10:00

I have been asked by dozens of people to consider writing a book about the process I use for my own projects. This mind map can be edited if you want to add some questions of notes so feel free... please comment on anything you would really love to see covered.

Map of Ric's Activities for fellow project workers

2010-09-05T17:51:00.004+10:00

For those of you who I work with I have included a little mind map that you can help me edit to keep updated.
Use tab to create a new sub node and return to add a new peer node.

Please note: This is by no means complete but will become more comprehensive as my team members and the people I am working with fill in the blanks over time...

News story from 1992 just weeks after filing the Uniloc patent

2010-08-30T20:27:00.000+10:00

I was looking through some videos that were returned to me after the Australian Story episdoe (they asked me for any video I had that may be relevant) and found this... a segment from the 7.30 report done a few weeks after the Uniloc patent was filed back in 1992... it was a pretty exciting time.

A little Google Robot experiment that may work

2010-08-26T00:23:00.003+10:00

Sorry to drag my readers through an unproven experiment but hopefully the following will actually work…

I have done a little experiment to see how search engine robots work and have planted hopefully a unique term “Testaramarizer” in such a way so that it is clear how the technology works.

Before writing this article a search for the term at this search url:

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Testaramarizer

Delivered no results… but hopefully after the Google Robots visit there will be at least two results… one for this article and the second to show the results of my test where the search results actually point at a video from my YouTube account…

The link that triggers all this is:

http://ric.r2labs.com/redi/FMPro?-db=redi.fp5&-format=main.htm&docid=1&-find

Hopefully by morning this will all be working….

I have also included the following test do to ensure I know if the Google robot is being detected improperly…

http://ric.r2labs.com/redi/FMPro?-db=redi.fp5&-format=main.htm&docid=2&-find

Highlights from Tech 23

2010-08-23T20:03:00.001+10:00

Had a great time at Tech23. Caught up with some of the people I met last year and a lot of new people… had 11 meetings starting 7.30am!

Here we go:

First up at brekky met Ryan Junee a young fellow who has successfully sold his business to Google.. power to him
Bit of circulating talking to a few of the guys that will be presenting to my panel later in the day then…
10am Peter Fox, the guy who turned Home and Garden into a web aware TV/ Magazine show and I discussed a new technology to allow kludging of online video into other projects and tracking royalties and rights at the same time… that was fun…
11am met with Bill Bartee from Southern Cross Ventures. What an open enthusiastic gentleman.I’m looking forward to matching his funds needs in the future and having him up to Byron for a visit.
12 noon. Steve Berry - Global Head of Business Management at Macquarie Bank also old mate and friend caught up.. talking about one time use credit cards, a new transaction model for credit cards and some other interesting stuff over a bit of lunch… it was great to see him…
10 minutes with the NICTA Automap people… shape recognition for street signs and sending geo info to the online map people…
Then a quick session with the other panel members including the head of strategic investments for Intel… just to square away how we were going to run the panel…
Then the panel….
BiNu was really cool… a great technology for speeding up internet usage on basic/ non smart cell phones… it uses a simplified and automated process to interpret web pages for simple cell phones and then displays the page much faster… has lots of non cell applications that I hope to explore with them…
Next Ceebron… a way for tracking palettes of food and other perishables while in transit… really cool and very important…
Finally Taggle… cell phone band tracking tags for everything from cattle to water meters… definitely a great idea.
Then a bit of chin wagging before going off to the awards ceremony… on the way a great brained entrepreneur from ALLOVERGEO.com ran some ideas past me over a 10 minute walk… even came up with an idea for a patent!
Saw an old friend from my pre Uniloc days David Fox.. he and another guy started Infomagic back in the eighties… Dave turned me onto DayTimers and we used to sit around in his office playing music with his in office keyboard… they were the great early fun days of the Mac craze… it was so great seeing him again especially since he has moved to the US and was just visiting by chance….
Then VC Steve Hobbs visited with me and blockbuster Avatar video effects guy Steve Koury. Steve is a VC who specializes in medical applications and has some really interesting projects going.. the night just kept going and going…
Then the awards:
NiBu won the day of consulting from me so I congratulated them, then returned to the two Steves to continue talking about the future of medical technology in Australia.
Then finally I met a visionary hedge fund manager who is looking for a way to make a difference with Australian inventors with some investments funds… what agreat way to finish a great night….

Well done Rachel and the team for a wonderfully constructive and supportive event with meaning.

What to patent… what is the example embodiment?

2010-08-10T13:37:00.001+10:00

Lots of people have asked me what to place as their prime example of an invention when they submit a provisional patent.

When you write a patent you have a core idea which is meant to be expressed using an implementation that demonstrates what you think at the time is the best possible example of the invention in practise (i.e. in actual use).

The problem here is that many people start writing up a specification for their product instead of showing a version of the invention in use that is the simplest you can possibly show that discloses how you actually intend to use the invention in real life.

In my mind there are three implementations of an invention you need to consider when writing a business plan which need to be considered before showing your invention in a patent:

The simplest implementation. What is the thing in its most basic form. No puffery. No additional features. Just the bare minimum. Simple but enough to enable someone who knows the business to duplicate what you are doing.
Dream implementation. This is where you let your imagination run wild and try to envisage your invention as people will actually use it.
Actual Implementation per your business plan. This may be a simplified real world version of your invention that minimizes manufacturing and marketing costs and is most probably geared to a specific market segment/ opportunity that makes it easy for you to enter the market and get to break even as soon as possible.

How do you use these three implementations?

Your initial business plan should have a vision section where you flesh out your ultimate dream for your invention. Where the invention is used throughout the market and the invention has reached full market penetration and is used in every possible way you can imaging. This is where you use your dream implementation.

Then your business plan has the next steps section. This section is about real world. About what you are going to build first,how it will be received by the market place and the real costs of getting an initial toe hold in the market. Use the actual implementation version of your invention for this.

And finally for the main body of your provisional patent example use the simplest implementation. In the alternative embodiments section make sure you have covered any essential features you may run across in the dream implementation but only if they must be added. Otherwise focus on cutting off any opportunities that occur to you that people may use to work their way around the basic specification of your patent.

This and other articles will appear in an e-book I am preparing for those of you who are interested.

Rail Trucking: Some maths for the Sydney to Brisbane Rail line

2010-08-08T12:46:00.005+10:00

Your browser does not support iframes.

Ok… so how many trucks could the Sydney Brisbane rail line handle? How many trucks could we get off the Pacific Highway?
10… 100… 1000? Is this all worth it?
Here are some figures.

The station manager I interviewed at the Casino rail station said that up to 15 trains pass through per day with the maximum on the weekends.
This manes that 7-8 trains pass every day going opposite directions.
This means one train passing every spot on the line every 2 hours on average.
Each train is up to 1.5km in length and must go on the side rail at least twice in a 12hour Syd Bris trip to allow other trains to pass. During this time they are waiting for the other train to clear the main line since it is shared by trains going north and south.
The Sydney Brissy line is about 1000km long.
During a 12 hour trip there would be at least seven other trains on the line with you at the same time.
Given that the train is 1.5km in length and a 10 km buffer is needed in front of each train for safety reasons you need to take at least 7x 12km (or 90kms) of track just for trains and their safety zones.
This leaves 900k’s of track available for rail trucking activity.
Give each truck a 300meter buffer this means 3 trucks per k and this means…
A capacity of up to 2700 trucks 10 hr trip or (2700 x 2.4 ) 6,480 per day with each truck getting on and off the rail maybe three times per trip…
In reality a 2-3 hour drive spell means 4-5 stops in 10 hours which actually adds to the relieving of congestion further.
Better still what if the main line went bidirectional… ie one rail line in each direction… spacing could get down to 100 meters and the space needed for trains could be reduced due to never risking a head-on collision….
With this config the capacity more than doubles…
Only 50k’s are needed for all the trains on the line…
And 10 trucks can travel per km of rail which makes the equation 2 x 950 x 10 which is 19000 trucks in 10 hours which is over 32,000 trucks per day at full capacity.

And this is a line in high existing use!
Note: This is not a definitive research figure but more an initial assessment prior to full research and verification which would happen prior to publishing the post prototype business plan.

Rail Trucking Research with Engineer and trucker

2010-08-08T11:38:00.001+10:00

Last Wednesday I was out on the road doing research with the fabrication engineer for Rail Trucking collecting information for the initial drawings of the Rail Trucking bogeys (see Rail Trucking article).

Along the way I flagged down a truckie going past and asked him if could measure his truck for Rail Trucking specifications. While the engineer measured wheelbases and tire widths etc, I interviewed the truck driver about what its like to be a truckie.

Towards the end I eventually explained to him what we were doing and how Rail Trucking works. I fully expected to be palmed off since it very unconventional to think of trucks on the rails but I was truly surprised to find that his reaction was very positive… in fact his biggest problem was with the thought that truckies would find it so relaxing to drive by rail that they will be falling asleep…

--- thus to him the biggest problem would be the installation of what is called a deadmans’ brake… some kind of device that allows the truck to stop if the driver is incapacitated for any reason…

Wow. What a great reaction. This is going to have to be well thought out since the idea of a truck driver reading a news paper until the next rail turnout is what the invention is all about. The other thing the driver talked about was the though that much more traffic could travel in the day now that hundreds and even thousands of trucks could travel on one rail line.

What a great start.

I also asked him what he felt about being another 10 inches higher up if we had to put the rail wheels underneath the truck tires? He saw straight away that since rail has much milder sweeping curves and flatter climbs that going up in height didn’t impact operation or safety at all… so far every problem I thought would be an issue has turned out to be not a problem after all.

Thankyou for all the support

2010-08-07T14:29:00.001+10:00

4,000 visitors in one day from the Sydney Morning Herald article. Again I feel privileged that the Uniloc story and our fight has been of so much interest. To me its just stuff that has to be done, but it is so great to have the support of everyday people.

Thank you.

A small but vocal few persisted in touting their contrary opinion which is fine but mislead. The fact that Asher Moses reported an inflammatory comment by a local lawyer may be necessary to be seen as neutral reporting, but his position that there may be doubts about the integrity of our patent claim are truly unfounded.

For the record:

Patent trolls do not spend 18 years building business that they are only trying to defend.
We only took action after it was blatantly published by Microsoft exactly what they were doing.
If we were patent trolls, do you think we would go after the biggest software company in the world by choice?
If we were only in it for a quick buck, why would we pick the most expensive case to fight first?

Come on.

Sydney Morning Herald Article Today

2010-08-05T11:46:00.002+10:00

After speaking to Asher Moses from the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, he reported on the new Uniloc suits on the SMH.COM.AU website today.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/van-man-1-microsoft-0-now-aussie-rics-gunning-for-more-tech-giants-20100805-11ihy.html

It's amazing that everyone is so supportive of what Uniloc (and I...) are trying to do. Even though there are a handful of ridiculous murmurs calling Uniloc a patent troll in the US, everyone seems to understand that you can't lay claim to a patent and then walk away from it as soon as things get a bit hard.

Here are some of the quotes I gave to Asher:

“What many people don’t realize is that the validity of the Uniloc patent was not being questioned by the court. In fact it’s validity was maintained even under the test of all of Microsoft’s legal resources. The judges decision simply showed that he agreed with Microsoft that the method used by them for Activation is different to the method described in the 216 patent. It’s there in the decision for all to see.”

“The fact is that the patent withstood a firestorm of scrutiny has given me the confidence to support Uniloc as it goes about protecting its patent rights that I assigned to the company shortly after it was invented.”

“Even though the list of new companies being sued have been carefully researched and evaluated over the years, I am sure Uniloc is using the same approach we used in evaluating Microsoft’s Activation system while I was day-to-day at the company.”

“I am the inventor of the 216 patent, but Uniloc Singapore (a wholly owned subsidiary of Uniloc Corporation here in Australia is the assignee of the US patent. The Australian and New Zealand patents for the same invention are owned directly by the Australian parent company.”

“As I said on ABC’s Australian Story, you can’t decide to patent your invention and then let it flap in the wind. You have to stand by your decision.”

“When you invent something it’s really hard to believe that no one else in the world has thought of your idea. You spend a year then two, then five waiting for someone to pop up who was doing it better before you, but that never happened.”

“Uniloc is a serious company with lots of employees, lots of talent and only a fraction are working on the patent protection side. It’s not a focus in terms of manpower but it is something we have to do.”

Re the Microsoft case:

“My personal opinion is that Microsoft is a big company and their fighting Uniloc every step of the way from initial suit even to the Supreme Court makes sense for them financially if it can lessen the likelihood of paying out the large sums being contested. What is ten or fifteen million dollars in legal fees when hundreds of millions are at stake?”

“I haven’t researched how many times Microsoft has said “oops sorry we infringed your patent… here is the royalty you asked for” but I doubt it has happened to many times.”

Not to be picky but there are a few things in the article needing clarification:

It was reported that I list 140 inventions on my site.... actually its projects and inventions.Some of these were not what I would consider an invention including the Shadesavers I worked on with my brother... it was a novel idea but I don't think qualified as an invention.
Also the Collaboration for eBay is quoted as having applications in the Lottery and gambling space. For the record I personally do not agree with or want to support gambling in any way. However, the article quite rightly reports that the invention could be used for that purpose though if I was implementing it would never use it that way.

Nuff said.

Ric

Invention: Outback grass fire blanket

2010-08-05T11:37:00.002+10:00

Update 31st August 2010: Research results so far into fireproof tire coverings and under chassis heat protection have been a bit depressing, but I am not giving up hope... since I wrote this a few fire-ees have approached me for help with their own inventions and I am bringing their experience to bare on the problem. I also at this stage would like to formally confirm that the results of these tests and any invention that comes out of it will be made available in the public domain to ensure that the technology is provided as cheaply and widely as possible if we are successful.

This idea has been on the cards for some time after seeing the bushfires in southern Australia last year. One of the easiest things to do to stop a bush fire spreading is to attack it before it gets into the trees.
This concept involves a protective blanket that protects the underside of a tractor and a trailing blanket of fire resistant material that is 30 feet wide and up to 100 feet long that gets dragged behind the tractor as it drives along the fire line that often occurs as a bush fire burns across an open field or across a lawn surrounding a residence.
The idea is that the blanket starves the fire of oxygen for long enough to stop it from reigniting after the blanket passes.
The next step is to run this past the local fir-eys to see if it has legs.

Uniloc is now enforcing its patent rights with others besides Microsoft.

2010-08-02T17:15:00.001+10:00

As I am not on the board at Uniloc and not privy to a lot of non public information about the company, I learned along with a lot of you that Uniloc has gone to court with another group of large software publishers including Sony and McAfee.

Even though I spent most of my time preparing for the Microsoft case before I left Uniloc to become a full-time inventor, I knew this kind of thing was on the cards and really what else can Uniloc do?

As I said in ABC’s Australian Story, you cant decide to file a patent and then just let it flap in the wind. It’s a gutsy thing for the guys at Uniloc to do and I fully support them.

Yes, I am a shareholder, and yes there is money involved in winning these cases but there is also a financial return in reclaiming money stolen from a bank. It’s not a way to make a quick buck, its just a way to get justice when someone just takes something that isn’t theirs and is forced to pay you for what they took.

The Example Planning Cap Table

2010-08-01T23:45:00.001+10:00

As promised in a previous blog I have enclosed and example of a cap chart that could be used in planning out the equity and dilution of ownership over the life of a company.

Please click to enlarge

This approach includes two features that I find very useful in my new circumstances operating in Australia but ultimately doing market entry in the US.

In summary this cap table shows the following key events:

In the initial inception of the company I sell 15% of the stock in a holding company to obtain 600k in operating cash for the market entry team to live off while they are raising cash for their own modified business plan. This assumes an angel round valuation at $4mill. I have done start-ups ranging from $900k to $8mill as start-up angel valuations in the past.
Next I may give 3% as a sign on equity to an experienced CEO who has taken a similar product to market entry. The CEO will also have performance equity bonuses ranging from an additional 5% for completing the raise and a total of 15% for completing a successful market entry with the company being in the black at a valuation of $25mill.
An additional 9% is allocated to other key staff that the CEO needs to hire and will require an equity position to participate.
After round 1 funding the round investors will be given just under 30% of the shares in the company for a $2mill investment.
By the time the CEO and team members get their performance equity totalling 15% for the CEO and 9% for other key staff, the founder holding company has been diluted to 51% ownership and the round 1 investors diluted from 30% down to 25%.

Planning out dilution this way helps you as a founder manage your business plan, valuation and equity positions to ensure that you know exactly the maximum equity you can sell to ensure you do not lose control of the company during the business building process.

Including angel investors in a parent holding company allows them to get maximum return on their investment without diluting your ability to control the company at a later date since they are not voting as a shareholder in the market entry company.

If you think that round 1 investors will need more than 30% of the company and you are worried that the you may lose control of the company if the CEO votes with the round 1 investors then you can negotiate to place the CEOs holdings inside the parent holding coampany where they can still get a high percentage return on the companies success but their voting rights are controlled by you as the majority owner of the parent holding company.

Something to think about.

Write provisional patents not white papers: my advice to Universities

2010-07-31T05:41:00.001+10:00

Note: The statistics in this article come from Sydney and NSW Universities who are in the mid range in terms of patent filing activity ahead of most US Universities but behind technology centres like Stanford and MIT.

After visiting now two of Australia’s premiere Universities it is clear to me that there is a major opportunity here. Some stats first:

With thousands of researchers and students at each campus and tens and often hundreds of millions invested in education how many projects are submitted for patent application: approx 100 per year.
How many of these get provisional filings? 40-60
And how many get granted? About 15.

15 patents from hundreds if not thousands of great brains… WHAT A WASTE.

If any of these researchers are like me at all they are capable of at least 10 provisional patent apps per person. So why isn't there thousands of provisional apps being filed?

I hope to find out… but for now here is an idea to explore.

Make provisional patent writing a basic requirement of any researcher/ students training.
Incentivize them with a 15% royalty on all patent sales/ licenses after expenses.
Place all patents in a simple open portal/ database and publish them publicly or at least the abstract of the filing… make sure that everyone gets a chance to know about the idea that is being protected and give them every chance to express interest.
The database should be activly marketed to industry and government with a publicity/ media tie in for standout projects.
The portal could also encourage rating and cross collaboration using the format of sites like thefunded.com where the inventor and each project can be commented on using community feedback to refine ideas, to expose problems with ideas and to allow great ideas/ patents to percolate to the top.
Attach whitepapers to the patent filing AFTER the provisional has been filed.

If this idea is resonating with you and you are working at or with a University, feel free to contact me to explore the opportunity… this is a really important initiative in my mind.

Ric

University of NSW wrap up

2010-07-31T04:42:00.001+10:00

Thanks to you all at the University of NSW for the interesting night we had last Wednesday. I was expecting mainly business and science post grads and students but was surprised to find faculty, University business partners, researchers and even some VC’s made up the majority of the audience… so they knew all the industry lingo and were very tuned in to the subject of business development… we moved very quickly and due to the interactivity explored lots of area together… I have a few ideas from the time together and will explain them in upcoming articles but here are two that stand out…

The need for a change of culture at Universities to write provisional patents rather than whitepapers and my suggestion to UNSW to then place these in a portal that allows third parties to buy or license the technologies. Then if the patents aren't sold or licensed to simply publish them as public domain after the 12 month expiry of the provisional. It’ll cost $200 each but will open a commercialization window that wasn’t there before. and;
The need to explain the idea behind a planning cap table and how it helps preserve equity across the whole life of your project to exit. This request came from a number of audience members who approached me after the talk…

So, thanks everyone… I had a great time and especially to Steve Brodie for putting the evening together.

Ric

Come and say hello – tomorrow Wed 28th July 5-7pm Uni of NSW Sydney

2010-07-27T09:58:00.001+10:00

Hello everyone, if you are in Sydney please accept my invitation for you to come to the University of Sydney to talk about making your ideas fly.

The uni invited me to talk and have reserved some space for some of my blog readers to come if they want… but you have to register so please use the banner advert above to do that.

I will be talking a bit about the Uniloc story but more so talking about refining the process of making ideas fly from inception to reality, maximizing speed and keeping momentum.

I will also talk about the importance of IP/ patents in particular and the differences between doing business in Australia and overseas, especially the US.

I hope to make it interactive with lots of audience participation and questions at the end…

Ask questions about your own projects, or businesses or inventions… about government grants and loans… I’ve had a bit to do with a lot of stuff so hopefully I can share some insights as someone who has been around for a bit.

Would be great to see you.

Ric

PS: Details on how to get there are at the registration page. Oh and BTW there will be light drinks and nibbles too as it is a sponsored event by the University.

Chilean surf film with eco theme

2010-07-23T23:14:00.001+10:00

My missus and I were having lunch today at a nice restaurant near Lennox head when a confident young Chilean girl asked for some of our time having recognized us from the Australian Story episode.

Kaz (Karen) good naturedly accommodated her as she explained her passion for her home country and a film she and her partner were working on… I spent a little time coaching her on her plans and promised to try and think of some contacts or angles to help in her success…

Later she sent an email with a link to a trailer for the film that will include music artist Jack Johnson working with a famous Chilean musician with lyrics based on Chilean poetry…

The short just overflows with authenticity and ethnic awareness and is well worth recommending to my visitors… hope you enjoy it…

Customizable and expandable auto speed cruise control…

2010-07-23T22:30:00.001+10:00

Cruise control kits, (even add-on kits – see bottom of article) have been around for a while but most of these were designed for the good old days where you got on the highway and sat on 110k’s (or 70mph in the states) until you got to where you were going…

… these days with traffic and speed zones that change all the time maybe more is needed…

Thus this invention– a customizable and expandable SMART vehicle cruise control.

[Click to enlarge]

Its just like any other cruise control kit, except you select buttons to set the cruise control speed…

Why? Why not use the old “adjust your speed and reset” type cruise control technique?

Because that reset requires constant tweaking of the speed up and down on the set controls to dial in your desired speed. With this invention you see a 60 sign and you hit the 60 quick select button and your vehicle settles into that speed…. the box 3even has a tap button to turn on the backlit display so you aren't driving around with buttons glaring at you during night driving…

But this is where the fun starts. Because of what I've built into the box….note the USB expansion port….

Plug-ins

Yes. This little box is in fact a mini computer waiting for additional functions to be added to the cruise control system… for example….

A radar range finder that overrides the cruise control to match the speed of the car in front if its going slower than the speed set by the cruise control.

What about an optical character reader optimized for detecting and reading road side speed signs that automatically set the cruise control?

Or what about a limited range directional radio based speed control system where a solar powered speed transmitter is attached to every road sign and a receiver on your dash is attached to the smart cruise control and tells the car to slow down based on the limited range of the transmitter. Such a system could use wifi, laser or simple radio band.

Or even still, what about a GPS based system that is updated with all the speed zones and simply changes speed based on the cars location?

This is going to be a fun project.

Example of existing simple cruise control system below:

Remail2Aus: Latest front page for the site

2010-07-22T16:31:00.001+10:00

This article relates to the ongoing project called Remail2Aus which is being designed to make it cheaper for Aussies to get stuff re-mailed to them from the US.

Hopefully this iteration makes more sense to you all… with so many people showing an interest in the service I hope this helps explain better how the site/ service works…

This version show the simple 3 steps involved in getting your goods re-mailed to you. To have a look click on the image above or click this link.

The back end for a service like this is relatively simple once you get the strategy right so your feedback would very much be appreciated…