Ric Richardson

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.

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

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...

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?

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 .

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

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.

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.

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...

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.

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...

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 mo...

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 wh...

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 nee...

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 t...

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...

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...

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 ge...

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.

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 ra...