Ric Richardson

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!

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 ...

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.

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 yo...

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

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=

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 r...

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 t...

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.

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 .

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 .

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

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.

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.

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.

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 ...