Here Are the Biggest Crowdfunding Campaigns of 2015 - Bloomberg Business

Here Are the Biggest Crowdfunding Campaigns of 2015 - Bloomberg Business:

Crowdfunding really hit its stride this year with people just crowding in to jump on the bandwagon of new and innovative ideas. Of course great fundraising ideas are for books and movies, especially those that sequels or follow-ons with an established groupie base. Veronica Mars, the high-school sleuth, is and example from last year on Kickstarter. (See our blog here,)

This years list from Bloomberg Business is very enlightening. Of course there are follow-ons to games and movies. That's a very straightforward use of crowd funding. There are philanthropic approaches, like remodeling historic buildings. And, of course, new inventions.

One that caught a lot of buzz is Flow Hive, that raised ~$12m for a process to put a tap into a bee hive and simply pour honey when you want some (money). This process avoids the pain and suffering of opening the hive in order to get at the honey.

Other things that draw funding include eclectic games and exploding kittens.

No matter how you look at it, however, the Internet (and crowdfunding) is one of the great equalizers of our lifetime. Anyone, anywhere, can raise money for a good idea; simply spread the word in the right settings.

Now, if the idea has intellectual property protection as well (patents, copyright, trademark), then the scaleability of funding and adoption could be off-the-charts.

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Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System on CNN - YouTube

Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System on CNN - YouTube:

Bottoms up! This is an invention that changes the way you think -- I mean drink!

And then combine that with promotionals that can be sold with each cup (designer magnet). Great for brand building for those people who are contemplating the bottom of their cups.

The fastest beer in the world. The most consistent pour.

This could make the absolute perfect black-n-tan too.

CHEERS!

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"Those who do not learn..."

There is an old saying from the 15th century philosopher Santayana, "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it."  Here is a case in point, Polaroid has filed a patent infringement suit against wearable-camera maker GoPro headquartered in San Matro, CA, as indicated: http://fox40.com/2015/11/03/polaroid-suit-claims-gopro-copied-camera-model/.  The suit alleges that GoPro Hero4 Session illegally copies the design of C & A Marketing's (exclusive maker of Polaroid branded cameras)  Polaroid Cube Camera.  At issue is the design, not any functionality, for which C & A was granted a patent in May.  GoPro said it is still waiting for a patent it filed for last year.  (Patent applications generally take 20-24 months from filing to issue or rejection, so, GoPro will likely have to wait some time for a decision.)

To travel back in time, Polaroid's instant camera, which developed a photo in 60 seconds, captivated America when it was first introduced late in 1948.  It seems arcane today when the iphone gives you a selfie on the spot, but back then it was revolutionary.  A roll of Kodak film sent to the company in Rochester, NY for development  took two weeks to process.

Polaroid initially filed suit against Kodak in 1976 when Polaroid alleged that it had suffered losses approaching $4 billion because Kodak had infringed its patents.  Polaroid sought $12 billion in damages  A long, protracted legal battle followed.  Finally, in October of 1990, a Boston court awarded $909 million to Polaroid which was seen by Wall Street analysts as a negative for the winner as it was well below their foretasted award of $2.5 billion.

But, Polaroid won.  It took alot out of the company but it refused to abandon its Intellectual Property.  There's a good chance history will repeat itself with GoPro.

Google and NASA Have A New Quantum Computer

Google and NASA Have A New Quantum Computer:

Quantum Computing. Changes the way you look at doing computing. Running HOT but keeping it cool. If you wanted to compare this joint venture computing effort by NASA, Google, and USRA (Universities Space Research Association) to traditional computing, you might not be overly impressed. But you probably should be. Maybe.

It will be interesting to see if this is the way forward in computing vs other possible methods.

Hitting the brick wall on Moore's Law of computing. Double ever 18 months and half the price has been running hard into the physical limits of silicon chips: approximately 12 manometers. Intel has a lot going on at 14nm in 3D computing.

In 2015, Intel fell short on its historic Tick-Tock trend: one year for the hardware upgrade, the next year for the software. Repeat. But now Intel is taking much longer for their cycle. The cadence seems to be permanently slowing. The clock is running slower, even if the computing is running really fast. Exponential growth is not possible to maintain, at least indefinitely. See 2015 connundrum on the chip/computer rollout discussions here.

Interesting times we have going on in the computing world.:-)

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Uber disruptive innovation

Uber Meets Its Match in France http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-meets-its-match-in-france-1442592333
It seeing how the company has been able to introduce disruptive innovation, into existing and monopolistic type markets. They jump start into the market so that they have a large presence of drivers and customers before the regulators can catch up with them. Of course the services are much better than the existing taxis. Very interesting how disruptive innovation good the interview so quickly into large markets. Doubly interesting is how there's very little barrier to entry and the company über can do so well and be so big.
This is über competition and innovation at its best!

Studio must consider fair use before taking down video, court rules - Fortune

Studio must consider fair use before taking down video, court rules - Fortune:

This is a big win for those people who would like to use copyrighted materials in any way they want.

Simply wind up your baby to copyrighted muzak and press <record>.


Of course it probably does no great publicity to Prince to have law suits against babies at play with his music.


The unanimous vote to allow the mom to use the prince music centers around fair use.

Here's the key quote from this article:

Fair use, as the court made clear, is an independent right that permits people to use copyrighted material in certain situations such as parody or news reporting. Under the law, there is a four-part test for fair use but, for practical purposes, the deciding factors are usually whether the new work is transformative and if it will impact the market for the original work.

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States Act Forcibly to Halt or Limit Patent Trolls

The patent troll condition -as identified- is a relatively new phenomenon/hot spot in the IP world, perhaps one or two decades old.  To be sure, there were isolated cases of troll-like behavior as far back as the 1970s, but nothing like the scope, intensity and frequency of the past several years.  Today's trolls not only find dormant patents also but buy up unused portfolios from companies not concerned with their IP or in need of cash and assert them against other companies.  It has been profitable because many companies would rather pay than play (hardball) because they don't want the publicity or the potential arbitration/litigation costs.

Large companies with massive patent portfolios have complained and campaigned for years to Congress asking for legislation to curb patent trolls.  There has been considerable activity but no results on Capital Hill.  By default, then, this has become a state issue and many have enacted various means to de-claw would be trolls as this article in the Wall Street Journal describes,  http://www.wsj.com/articles/states-move-to-do-it-yourself-patent-reform-1441321066.  As more and more states are encouraged to follow the leaders, it will be interesting to see how Capital Hill reacts, if at all.  From a corporate patent house perspective, either one or both will be an improvement over the present condition.

Google has gotten more fast-track patents than any other company.

Google has gotten more fast-track patents than any other company - The Washington Post:

Google has gotten 875 fast track patents (about $3.5 million dollars extra in patenting fees $4k extra per app), that is 14% of all such rapid track patent processing in the USA. Prioritized examination.

The plan from Google's perspective is to get the patents as quickly as possible. (You don't really own a patent until issued; you can't really enforce/assert it until you own it.)

This is as of 2013, so it would be interesting to find more recent stats.

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The Refractive Thinker® Radio Show: Trademark, Patents, and Perpetual Innovation 07/07 by Cheryl Kulikowski Lentz | Entrepreneur Podcasts

The Refractive Thinker® Radio Show: Trademark, Patents, and Perpetual Innovation 07/07 by Cheryl Kulikowski Lentz | Entrepreneur Podcasts:
(30 minute broadcast on BlogTalkRadio.)
This is an interview with Dr. Elmer Hall about Intellectual Property and the types of information included in the Patent Primer 3.0.

Hall talks about the basic processes that entrepreneurs can take to capitalize on Intellectual Property (IP). This interview is an excellent overview of that the approaches that creators and inventors should consider in bringing IP protection to their creative efforts.

The books (and eBooks) in the Perpetual Innovation(tm) series are:

Hall, E. B. & Hinkelman, R. M. (2013). Perpetual Innovation™: A guide to strategic
planning, patent commercialization and enduring competitive advantage, Version
2.0. Morrisville, NC: LuLu Press. ISBN: 978-1-304-11687-1  Retrieved from: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SBPlan

Hall, E. B. & Hinkelman, R. M. (2015). Perpetual Innovation™: Patent primer 3.0:
Patents, the great equalizer of our time! An overview of intellectual property
for inventors and entrepreneurs. Morrisville, NC: LuLu Press. ISBN: 978-1-329-17833-5  Retrieved from: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SBPlan

Hall, E. B. & Hinkelman, R. M. (2015). Perpetual Innovation™: Patent primer 3.0e:
Patents, the great equalizer of our time! An overview of intellectual property
with patenting cost estimates for inventors and entrepreneurs.  [Amazon Kindle eBook].  ASIN: B010ISU7ZG  Retrieved from: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B010ISU7ZG   

Hall, E. B. & Hinkelman, R. M. (2015). Perpetual Innovation™: Innovator’s  primer 3.0: The basics on intellectual property protection for the creator and inventor.  Morrisville, NC: LuLu Press.  ISBN: 978-1-329-23954-8  Retrieved from: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SBPlan  

Hall, E. B. & Hinkelman, R. M. (2015). Perpetual Innovation™: Innovator’s  primer 3.0e: The basics on intellectual property protection for the creator and inventor.   [Amazon Kindle eBook].  ASIN: B0115BG35I  Retrieved from: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0115BG35I   

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No PTA For Divisional Application... Term Adjustments.. 20 years +/-

No PTA For Divisional Application | PharmaPatents:

When does a 20 year patent turn out to be more than a 20 year patent... Patent Term Adjustments.

Okay, so under certain situations, an extension can be requested to the 20 years that the US has for patent applications after 1995. The idea is that for such applications as pharma the long lead time in all approvals through the PTO and the FDA and more... can significantly reduce the useful life of the patent. So Patent Term Adjustments, PTA, (not to be confused with when your parents got together with teachers and the principal), are sometimes allowed. This is the reason that your friendly Patent Attorney will usually say "a patent is the arrangement with the government to offer a monopoly on your invention for about 20 years when you disclose the invention in the formal patent process".

Okay, so PTAs are sometimes allowed, but the extensions can be very qwerty. In this case, you would think that the term adjustments to the main, parent, application would be afforded to the patent applications associated with dividing that original application. Not so, it would seem.

Very interesting, and a very well written article on the whole issue (POSTED BY COURTENAY C. BRINCKERHOFF)

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Revenue Per Patent A Longstanding Question of Value for Many

In the world of IP, there is a list of questions that never seem to be answered to the satisfaction of all particularly when there is generational change in who is running the corporation.  Foremost among the questions is what is the revenue per patent and is it worth the time, energy and resources that must be applied not only for a patent but protect in the marketplace from infringement that may result in costly litigation.  IAM presents 20 corporations with extensive patent portfolios and the revenues per patent at  http://www.iam-media.com/blog/detail.aspx?g=d37195bc-4870-406d-81cc-f9e74c6e17b8.  Among the points worth noting is that Apple has the least number of patents among the 20, but blows all away in the revenue it realizes for each patent.

All of those listed make sizable revenues.  It is clear that the effort to patent from beginning to end is of demonstrable value to the corporation.

Prepare to have your mind blown as bridge is 3D-printed over Dutch canal - AOL.com

Prepare to have your mind blown as bridge is 3D-printed over Dutch canal - AOL.com:

Like (printing) a bridge over troubled waters.

There's some really KQQL additions in this technology. First, it is thinking outta the box. Taking the printer out of the box allows it to build endlessly using robot technology.

So the plan is to build the bridge as you go.

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First Solar Achieves World Record 18.6 % Thin Film Module Conversion Efficiency | Business Wire

First Solar Achieves World Record 18.6 % Thin Film Module Conversion Efficiency | Business Wire:

Wow.

The technology is really moving up. FirstSolar's thin film is really working its way up. That means you can produce more power with a smaller foot print. Or produce much more power with a bigger footprint.

Very cool to see solar gaining on wind (and, of course, non-renewable sources of power).

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Miami No. 2 in startup activity, Kauffman report says | Miami Herald Miami Herald

Miami No. 2 in startup activity, Kauffman report says | Miami Herald Miami Herald:

This is a very interesting, but telling report.

Miami is way up there in startups, about 250 per 100,000 people. Cleveland, not so much so, with less that 100 per.

It is a little surprising that Orlando fell 12 ranks down to 33rd. Makes you wonder if it is Orlando losing ground or other metros gaining very rapidly. I would guess mostly the latter.

I'm sure this also has a lot to do with how mature in the turn-around from recession each area is as well.

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Nation’s Startup Activity Reverses Five-Year Downward Trend, Annual Kauffman Index Reports | Kauffman.org

Nation’s Startup Activity Reverses Five-Year Downward Trend, Annual Kauffman Index Reports | Kauffman.org:

Business Startups are up.

That's great. Entrepreneurship and new business formation is a great advantage to the economy.

The olde adage:  the worst time to start a business is at the onset of a recession. The correlate to that is: the best time to start a business is at the end of a recession. Well, it has taken 6 years but the end of the Great Recession has finally past. Those people who had jobs didn't want to give them up. Now maybe they are willing to step out on their own. Those people who didn't have jobs, may have formed companies out of necessity, not out of strength.

It is interesting that 63% of the new startups were by men. Part of that would be because of the rebound in construction and factories where men dominate. But also, women are generally more risk averse than men. Maybe they will just take another year of healthy economy before they take the plunge.

Minorities, especially Hispanics were up. Blacks and whites, not so much so.

They are saying that 3 out of every 1,000 adults started a business in 2014. That must be annually. (Something said monthly which seems very high; that would be 3.6 out of 100.)

No matter the number, better and more quality businesses that survive and thrive is always better than a large number of startups when most of them fail.

It is always good to see strong healthy signs of progress in an economy that is sputtering a bit.

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Intel science winners... cool inventions... and patents

Meet the teen who just won $75,000 for inventing a system to keep germs from spreading on airplanes http://wapo.st/1d3L2Eo
Wang, the young winner, created a way to give everyone on an airplane their own space, with kind of  air walls around them.
His simulation shows a 55 times reduction in the air transmittable diseases. The retrofit for an existing airplane? It takes one evening and cost a whopping $1000! With the reduction in sick time, the airlines will make it back from employees in one single trip.
And what does Wang want to do when he grows up? He wants to go to college and study engineering and business!

Moore’s Law Shows Its Age - WSJ:

Moore’s Law Shows Its Age - WSJ:

This is a great story of 50 years of computing with geometric growth in speed and halfing price of costs.

Of course the cost of a factory has gotten a little bit pricey!...

Here is a sister article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-promise-at-technologys-powerful-heart-1429310535?KEYWORDS=moore%27s+law

There are some physical limitations that really kick is as very small levels, say 12 nanometers. Getting smaller at that point is no longer as "easy" as it has been.

Many people think that Moore's Law is going to Peter out. Other's like Ed Jordan (2010) in a Delphi Study found that the technology will likely need to change in the future. That the limitations of silicon will require a move to other technologies to reach that next BIG jump in smallness.

Jordan's 2010 study of computing technology experts found that,

"a technology to replace silicon dioxide would most likely
emerge sometime during the next 30 years" likely within 15 years... "the emerging
technology would mostly likely be biologic, probably protein based." (Hall &amp; Jordan, 2013, p. 110)

Hall and Jordan (2013) talk about the next big leap in computing technologies and what impact that will have for computing intensive companies and those companies that make computing products.

It seems like about 50 years since we have had a truly disruptive technology innovation!...
Well, maybe 3-D printing... We will see.

References

Hall, E. B., &amp; Jordan, E. A. (2013). Strategic and scenario planning using Delphi: Long-term and rapid planning utilizing the genius of crowds. In C. A. Lentz (Ed.), The refractive thinker: Vol. II. Research methodology (3^rd Ed.). (pp. 103-123) Las Vegas, NV: The Refractive Thinker® Press. 

Jordan, E. A. (2010). The semiconductor industry and emerging technologies: A study using a modified Delphi Method. (Document No. 3442759, University of Phoenix). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 184. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/853641948

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Rise of the Rest - Entrepreneur Tour. 5 Cities at a time.

World Stock Markets:

Steve Case from AOL fame is one of the judges going round hitting up start-up business ideas, 5 cities at a time. The south of USA is next.

Revolution, Google for Entrepreneurs, and UP Global

This UP Global initiative is an interesting approach by Google ventures and others to identify and fund new venture ideas.

A very cool approach to jump starting innovation anywhere and everywhere around the world. That the winner gets a boat-load of money and and a blast of publicity is a rather nice perk to the whole process.

See Google Ventures here: http://www.gv.com/about

See Case Foundation here: http://casefoundation.org

I Like the title of an article on the Case Foundation web site: "Running business as if the future matters."

Steve's come some distance since the time when the guppy-eat-the-whale daze of the DotCom error when AOL bought out TimeWarner. This buy-out-merger resulted in one of the greatest indigestion from over-eating of all time.

Read about this Maalox moment in a 2005 book: "The failure of the AOL-Time Warner merger is the subject of a book by Nina Munk entitled Fools Rush In: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner(2005)." (Steve Case, 2015, Life and Career, para. 10).

Steve has had a very impressive log of ventures and philanthropic organizations since the AOL days.

Reference

Steve Case. (2015, March 12). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:34, March 16, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steve_Case&oldid=651091501

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Do Cryptocurrencies Such as Bitcoin Have a Future? - WSJ - Crappy currencies

Do Cryptocurrencies Such as Bitcoin Have a Future? - WSJ:

This is a good discussion about bitcoin, a cryptocurrency.

At the current exchange rate, $261 US equals about 1 bitcoin, or 1 USD equals .003 BTC.

During the Great Recession all countries worked hard to devalue their own currencies. A great way to stimulate the domestic economy is to reduce the value of the currency such that exports are stimulated. All right, not a great way, especially if every country in the world wants to do the same. So the currency decisions world-wide were a "race to the bottom" to achieve the most worthless currency fastest.

Of course the whole process is a little more complicated than that, the central banks (the US Federal reserve) can make hard decisions quickly, whereas congress, can't make any reasonable decisions, ever. Decades of federal deficits and trade deficits result in a devaluation of the currency (as the world economy/currencies move to equilibrium)  provided you don't intervene somehow and manipulate the numbers.

China started out with a massive undervalued currency decades ago so that it could grow based on export expansion. Their HUGE savings rate has offset the US low savings rate by subsidizing our Walmart products imported from China. For half a century. At peak times, the yuan has been arguably 40% undervalued against world currencies; however, they have slowly but steadily let the yuan rise. As a result of the persistent trade imbalance, China has ended up with massive amounts of Yankee Dollar$, much of it going to fund the US Federal Debt (US bonds). They have however, been systematically dumping their US Dollars by buying up massive amounts of real estate (mines and factories and homes) around the world.

Japan has had a really strong currency that they finally devalued into submission. They devalued from about 80 yen to the $1US to about 120 today. That's a 50% devaluation of the currency over about 2 years. So now Japan can export again.

The Russian ruble is in rubble. For lots of reasons, but mainly because their income is mainly from oil and gas which has plummeted. Combine that with embargo types of penalties associated with their invasion(s) of Ukraine. Same problems for all oil export countries (OPEC) like Venezuela.

The Euro is in the toilet for lots o reasons, but now they are cranking up the quantitative easing efforts that the US has exercised so ?well? for the last 6 years. One of the last strong currencies in the world is the Swiss Frank, They finally abandoned all hope of sticking to the Euro and their currency revalued 20% overnight in mid January.

So, with all these crappy currencies out there, how is it that the USD is least crappy of the world currencies. One reason is, that as bad as the Dollar is, it is substantially better than the alternatives. Who wants to do business in the Yuan, or the Euro. There has been talk of a currency block by the BRIC countries: Brazil (with the real dropping), Russia (in rubble), India trying to get its country back on strong footing), and China (where everyone worries about a political uprising if/when their growth really does slow).

The US economy is growing strongly, so that's one good reason for having a stronger dollar; but only one. The rest have to do with the USD as the best of the worst. It is good to be less crappy than the rest of the world's currency, but not something to really brag about.

Since the USD is still the worlds choice for purchasing and global transactions, when the USD strengthens it crushes commodity prices. Therefore, the price of oil (in petrodollars) drops. That's not the main reason, but it helps. Even gold drops.

Gold, the best possible alternative currency is worrisome that it doesn't blast from $1,200 way past $2,000 per (troy) ounce. Gold is a great hedge to inflation-prone currencies. It seems like it should be harder to manipulate gold than all the other currencies of the world. But no, everyone is dumping their "safe" money into US treasuries where the return does not cover inflation. And, of course, the US stock market where the dividend yield tents to more than cover inflation and still leave room for upward capital appreciation (stock price going up).

No question, there is a bubble built on quantitative easing around the world. No question it will unwind. For those people/institutions who think it will happen gracefully, history has demonstrated that graceful re-balancing of bubbles is rarely the case.

That said, the US economy appears to be far stronger than most people give credit.

Sometime, somewhere, people are going to get tired of having their currencies and their welfare associated with it manipulated. That's gonna mean a rise of Gold and cyber-currencies as an alternative. Or, maybe everyone will go on believing that all is good in the fairy-tail land of Oz and there is no such thing as a crappy currency? I'll bet you can't wait for the Greek drachma to come back when the EU finally gets tired of their fiscal irresponsibility and kicks them to the curb?

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ARM Takes Its Chip Business Beyond Phones - WSJ

ARM Takes Its Chip Business Beyond Phones - WSJ:
ARM Holdings, $ARMH, is one of the great intellectual property engines of our time. They make the chips used in cell phones and other computing devices. Or, stated more accurately, they invent the chips, and then license out the manufacturing, sales and distribution of them.
One thing that has made them such a dominant force is low power use technologies, exactly the kinds of things you need for mobile technologies.
When you look at the financials of ARMH, don't be deceived and compare them directly with a company like Intel or AMD. ARM has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 60 to 70; Intel has a PE of only 14 to 16. Intel has the $ billion factories. ARM has only the development labs for inventing stuff.
And, speaking of stuff; ARM is now setting their sights on the-internet-of-stuff. Billions of new items will be connected to the internet each year. Appliances, pet monitors, and more...
Let's see how that evolves.
In the mean time, keep your eyes on this company that utilizes IP better than pretty much any other. It gets is reviews in the form of royalty payments wired to the bank. Nearly pure profit.
It's a beautiful thing.
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Apple Loses Patent Infringement Suit, Ordered to Pay $533 Million | Rolling Stone

Apple Loses Patent Infringement Suit, Ordered to Pay $533 Million | Rolling Stone:

It seems apropos that Rolling Stone would have a great report on the iTunes (Apple) law suit loss to the tune of 1/2 billion dollar$. The loss rules that Apple did infringe on the 6 patents related to the storing and accessing of songs, videos and games.

In the suit that might well be called the the Apple vs. the Troll, the ruling was that Apple not only infringed, but willingly did so and consequently results in the terrible treble-damages penalty that makes patents such a powerful weapon.

The other company is Smartflash. This is a non-practicing entity (NPE), that might unkindly be called a patent troll.

Apple plans to appeal. Smartflash is aiming for the iPhone and iPad sales/profits because those devices actually play iTunes music that is subject to the infringing patents.

Imagine how many billion paid downloads from iTunes it takes to make up a $0.5B to pay the fine.? WoW.

This could get uglier and uglier.

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Apple trolled by Smartflash

Apple was found guilty of infringing three patens owned by Smartflash LLC and was ordered to pay $533 million.http://fortune.com/2015/02/25/apple-pay-patent-infringement/  The patents were infringed in the itunes system invoving music storage and downloads.  This is yet another instance in the continual "patent troll" saga, according to Apple, in which a company (Smartflash) obtains patents for the sole purpose of citing infringement(s) against a manufacturing entity to obtain royalties or court judgement.

As indicated, Apple said it would appeal.

Has DOW gotten its groove back? | Watch the video - Yahoo Finance

Has DOW gotten its groove back? | Watch the video - Yahoo Finance:

Interview on Mad Money of Andrew N. Liveris, Pres., Chair and CEO.

Dow chemicals is now a innovation, high-tech company?

That's right. The olde staunching company now has two-thirds of its products in with intellectual property (IP). Proprietary products are 66% of their products. !

Was 100% petrochemicals (kindof).

Here you can find out about their products: http://www.dow.com/products/

They are creating massive facilities in the USA, taking advantage of the low costs of production here were we are swimming in nat gas (and petro chemicals).

But the really BIG project is in Saudi. The size of the factory is about 1,000 football feilds BIG. With some 60,000 employees at peak construction. Coming onboard this year.

Wow.

They are taking advantage of the US energy boom in a way that no other company can (or does)!:-)

Wow.

They are coming out of an aggressive "activist" investor action and seem pretty good for the wear.

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SU Labs | Singularity University ... Accelerating innovation

SU Labs | Singularity University:

Check out Singularity University... Exponential growth in information and technologies.

Here is the introduction of the Singularity University at the TED conference by Ray Kurzweil in 2009: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMYVH-hBGWg

Very cool

This is interesting changes in technologies and technologies.

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Patent Law Changes Bad News for Corporat Portfolios

"The patent market is in a deep recession and there is no reason to think it will change any time soon."  This is a quote from the article, http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/detail.aspx?g=cc718b2d-407c-4840-a9d7-41ff77321943 Patent Law changes in US mean there are potentially billions of dollars of write-downs on public company balance sheets... 

In the past two or three decades, the asset structure of F-500 companies have shifted from predominantly physical  to intellectual assets.  Estimates frange from 60% to 80% + on the intellectual side.  This precipitated major increases in the importance of a corporation's patent portfolio, its emphasis on obtaining and protecting patents and its care and handling of other forms of IP.  Large companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire patent portfolios for aggressive and/or protective purposes.  This has given birth to the "patent troll" a unique form of entrepreneurial ethics.

The consequences of these and other changes along with a flood of corporate money that went to Washington to motivate Congress, padded with several ugly Supreme Court rulings, has turned a competitive advantage for many into an asset disadvantage.

Yet another in a long corporate list of self-inflicted wounds.

The Toll of the Patent Troll by any other name: Intellectual Property - Bloomberg

Symantec, Microsoft, Blue Cross: Intellectual Property - Bloomberg:

A patent troll, by any other name, may not be called a "patent troll" in court.

This would be funny, if it weren't true. The often called "patent troll" company Intellectual Ventures LLC, can not be disparages by such names as "patent troll" in court the presiding judge says. IV -- a play on the vampire concept of draining all the blood from the body of otherwise living and productive entities -- does not produce anything and has a monster war chest of patents which it brings out only during the stealth of night.

In the case of an entity that buys up patents but doesn't invent and doesn't produce anything, the company is often referred to unkindly as a "patent troll". In the real world, like cell phone makers, someone producing a product is exposed to other producer's patents, and vise verse. The players are forced to work together, license and cross-license in order for anyone to produce anything.

But the troll has a wonderful vantage point. Any product produced is fare game, and the real players in the game don't have much recourse if they want to produce anything and run a productive business.

Non-Practicing Entity (NPE) is another name for the troll, but it is not nearly so accurate.

IV was rated #1 troll in 2012 in the kingdom of patent trolls: here.

And, of course, the targets of the NPEs are larger and more innovative companies like AT&amp;T and Google. In 2013 the "troll" toll in terms of law suites were up 19% from the prior year. (Fortune article on this topic.) It will be interesting to see what the stats for 2014 are since there has been a big drop in several types of law suits based on benchmark legal rulings.

For now, a patent troll, by any other name, will have to be by a nicer name, at least in court. I wonder if Patent Vampire, or intellectual property parasite is acceptable?

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