Original Contract Establishing Apple Computer Sells for $1.6 Million
“A three-page contract that established Apple Computer Co. (AAPL) sold for $1.59 million at Sotheby’s (BID) in New York today, soaring past the presale estimate of $100,000 to $150,000.
The bidding started at $70,000 in a half-empty room attended by about 20 people and almost as many Sotheby’s staffers manning the phones. Six telephone and online bidders competed for the lot, which finally went to Eduardo Cisneros, chief executive officer of Cisneros Corp., according to Sotheby’s.
The contract, signed on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, was initially owned by Wayne, who met Jobs while working at Atari Inc. Wozniak, a friend of Jobs, worked at Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) Jobs enlisted Wayne to persuade Wozniak to join Apple. His success in doing so earned Wayne a 10 percent share in the new company.
Eleven days after signing the contract, Wayne withdrew as a partner. The move is documented by a County of Santa Clara, California, statement and an amendment to the contract, both of which were included in the Sotheby’s lot. Wayne received $800 for relinquishing his 10 percent ownership of Apple, according to the document. He subsequently received an additional payment of $1,500, according to Sotheby’s.
Based on Apple’s market capitalization today, Wayne’s 10 percent stake would be valued at more than $36 billion.”
Ouch.
World’s First IP Exchange coming in 2012
“Today marks an exciting step forward for IP rights and the accurate valuation of patents. Article One congratulates IPXI and President & CEO Gerard Pannekoek on their announcement that the Exchange will begin in 2012.
This news comes as IPXI secures both founding members and funding partners. The initial members will include Philips, the University of Utah, Northwestern University, Rutgers University, and Com-Pac International. The $10 million of funding is supported by Phillips and the Chicago Board Options Exchange. The founding members will drive the Unit License Rights (ULRs), with the goal of bringing a new level of efficiency to patent licensing and valuation.
According to the IPXI website, “ULR contracts transform private licensing of technology into consumable and tradable products, allowing for improved market transparency, smooth technology transfers, and increased efficiencies.” In essence, ULR contracts provide an opportunity for patent owners to quickly, efficiently, and accurately license their technologies in a secure marketplace.”
Steve Jobs’ Patents on Display in the Form of an Art Exhibition
More than 300 patents lodged by Mr Jobs throughout his life are being showcased in an exhibition sponsored by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Virginia. Some of them – such as the infamous iMac ‘hockey puck’ mouse – were duds, but some of them went on to be worldwide hits. Steve Jobs famously helped create the first Apple computer, the Macintosh, the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. David Kappos, director of the Patent and Trademark Office, said: ‘This exhibit commemorates the far-reaching impact of Steve Jobs’ entrepreneurship and innovation on our daily lives. ‘His patents and trademarks provide a striking example of the importance intellectual property plays in the global marketplace.’
America Invents Act: First to Publish?
In a recent newletter article America Invents Act To Publish or Not To Publish? Stephen M. Beney, a partner in Bereskin & Parr LLP’s Software & High Technology practice group, with Student-at-law Joanna Ma, highlights the potential effects of the new provisions of the AIA on technical disclosures as a defensive publishing strategy.
…when an inventor publicly discloses an invention, and assuming no prior disclosure from a third party, that inventor effectively reserves a right to apply for a patent for that invention within one year even if a third party independently makes a similar disclosure and application during that intervening year. The new law appears to encourage inventors to disclose as soon as possible in order to secure a prior right to apply for a patent, and perhaps even to the point of racing their competitors to public disclosure in order to foreclose their competitors’ ability to obtain a patent.
In the fast paced world of software development the AIA can put a twist on strategies that, to-date, have relied on developing in secrecy before applying for a patent. Public disclosures of inventions before filing may become desirable.
Read the full article in the newsletter posted on the website of Bereskin & Parr.
EPO Patent Information Conference 2011
If you need to stay up to date with the latest developments in patent information from the EPO then the Patent Information Conference is for you.
This year, at the invitation of the Irish Patents Office, the Patent Information Conference takes place in Kilkenny, Ireland, 18-20 October 2011.
The highlights in 2011 include:
- the role of patent offices in open government
- what it takes to keep the world’s biggest patent database on track
- machine-translation for patents
- the EPO’s EPOQUE search engine
- co-operative patent classification – a common classification system for Europe and the USA
- insights from professional patent searchers on specific issues
There will be a special workshop on Monday, 17 October 2011 at 16.00 hrs for expert users of European patent information. The EPO will send several of its database specialists to take part in the discussion.
The workshop is an opportunity for high level discussions on EPO patent databases and patent information products. Discussions will be at a high level and it will be assumed that participants have considerable experience in using EPO databases and are able to contribute usefully to the discussion. The discussions in the superworkshop should provide inspiration for the EPO, and any commercial database producers attending, to improve their products and services in line with users’ needs.
For users, this is an occasion to discuss ideas and concerns on very technical issues with other highly experienced experts, to get answers to difficult questions, and perhaps to influence a little the future of patent information in Europe
IP.com includes in its intellectual property database free patent information from the EPO.
This page provides links to browse the European Patents publications by week starting with those made available recently.
This page provides links to browse the European Patent Application publications by week starting with those made available recently.
Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) Meets in USA
Founded in 1926, the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada (IPIC) is Canada’s pre-eminent association of professionals who specialize in intellectual property: patents for inventions, trade-marks, copyright, and industrial designs. IPIC is committed to the protection and promotion of intellectual property in the Canadian economy.
IPIC is the only intellectual property association in Canada to which nearly all patent agents, trade-mark agents and lawyers specializing in intellectual property belong. IPIC members work all sectors of the Canadian economy including major Canadian law firms, private practice and corporations. IPIC members can be found in all areas of the Canadian knowledge economy, such as biotechnology, e-commerce and information technology. They include professionals with expertise in scientific and engineering disciplines together with thorough knowledge of the legal aspects of intellectual property.
Today, the 85th Annual Meeting of IPIC kicks off in Chicago, Illinois.
One of the highlights of this year’s meeting of IPIC will be the session with David J. Kappos Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, who will speak about building a 21st century patent system in the digital age, a topic made especially timely by the America Invents Act passing Congress and awaiting signing into law by President Barack Obama. Among the many patent reforms included in the pending comprehensive reform of US patent laws, the adoption of the “first to file” regime that is the rule for patent priority in most other jurisdictions, including Canada, will most certainly be a topic of much discussion at this year’s meeting of the IPIC in Chicago.
IP.com includes Canadian Patents and Patent Applications in its multinational databases of prior art, including patent and non-patent literature. For more information about the scope of our coverage of Canadian patent data see this page, which contains information regarding the data sources and coverage for the Canadian patent and patent application publications.
America Invents Act, Prior Art & Technical Disclosures
Jason Rantanen, Associate Professor, University of Iowa College of Law, co-author of PatentlyO, considered by many of us to be the leading patent law blog in the United States, writes about the effects of the America Invents Act on Technical Disclosure, a topic of great interest to IP.com and users of our Prior Art Database as an important tool for a defensive publishing strategy. He writes:
The shift to a first to file system is central to the America Invents Act. Along with that change comes a revamped set of novelty rules – a complete rewrite of Section 102. Gone is 102(a), and the concept that prior art must precede the date of invention. Gone too is 102(b) and the one-year statutory bar. Instead, we will soon (i.e.: in eighteen months) have a new 102(a) under which a variety of things (i.e.: patents, printed publications, public uses, invention being on sale, etc.) that predate the patent’s effective filing date constitute prior art, a much more potent statutory bar than presently exists.
This new rule comes with a major exception, however: prior art does not include disclosures (which I interpret as referring to any of the categories of prior art discussed in the new 102(a)) made within one year of filing if “the subject matter disclosed had, before such disclosure, been publicly disclosed by the inventor or another who obtained the subject matter disclosed directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor.” (proposed language of 102(b)(1)(B)) (The section also contains an exception for disclosures by the inventor or another who obtained the subject matter from the inventor). In other words, inventors will have the ability to negate any prior art from the one-year period prior to filing by engaging in public disclosure.
This provision has the potential to encourage early disclosures of information by the inventor. Although on the surface it seems to provide no more ability for inventors to engage in disclosures than the existing one-year statutory bar, under which an inventor was free to disclose whatever it wanted for the one-year period prior to filing, it perhaps may result in more disclosures than under the present structure.
Read the post in its entirety on PatentlyO, for additional insights and context, and join in the discussion in the comments on the original post.
For more information about Technical Disclosures see the Free Downloadable Guides from IP.com
- Defensive Publishing Via Technical Disclosures
A Field Guide to Understanding Strategies And Tactics
- Writing and Publishing Technical Disclosures
Everything you need to know to write and publish a Technical Disclosure
IP.com Patent Landscaping
Our Research and Analytics division has added a new page to its website that highlights our Patent Landscaping service. This service identifies and illustrates key patent relationships and trends within specific technology sectors, or among specific competitors. There is also a free PDF brochure you can download to learn all about patent landscapes and our service in great detail.
Boogie Board Rip, LCD Writing Tablet Re-invented
We’re big fans of cartoonist Hugh MacLeod, whose creative insights at gapingvoid.com have inspired us for years. You might have read one of Hugh’s books, Ignore Everybody and Evil Plans, which are highly recommended for inventors and other creative minds. For a daily dose of creative inspiration, subscribe to the gapingvoid.com newsletter. We get Hugh’s newsletter, which featured the drawing above about a permanent state of re-invention. It got us thinking about tossing a cube grenade to our friends at Kent Displays.
Kent Displays recently announced the introduction of the new and improved Boogie Board Rip™ LCD Writing Tablet, the latest innovation in paperless, environmentally-friendly eWriters from Improv Electronics that utilize Kent Displays Reflex™ No Power LCDs. The Boogie Board Rip tablet (Rip stands for Record Image. Preserve.) combines the exceptional writing experience inherent of all Boogie Board tablets with the ability to save notes or illustrations and then transfer them to a computer for editing, organizing, archiving and/or sharing. Saved images are stored as .pdf files in the tablet’s internal memory and can be uploaded to a PC through its micro USB port.
“The introduction of ePaper as a paper replacement, both in its most recognized use as a dedicated eReader, and now as a dedicated eWriter, is a momentous step forward not only for Improv Electronics but for environmentally- conscious consumers all over the world.” said Improv Electronics/Kent Displays CEO Dr. Albert Green. “Since the introduction of the original Boogie Board 8.5 LCD Writing Tablet in 2010, we have been inundated with requests to make a version with the ability to save what is written or drawn on the tablet’s writing surface. Because of the high demand, other entities announced plans of their own to launch a similar product. These plans failed to materialize, and we are very excited that we are the first to bring a product of this type to market.”
The Boogie Board Rip tablet’s paper-saving and productivity benefits will have the most pronounced impact in education and workplace environments, where note taking activities are most prominent. It will replace wire-bound note books, loose-leaf paper, work books, essay books, composition books and sketch pads.
Wait ’til Hugh MacLeod gets his hands on one of these!
IP Research and Analytics for Innovative Companies
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IP.com research and analytics professionals consist of engineers and scientists with backgrounds in physics, optical engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, materials science, chemistry, and life sciences. All our research professionals have many years of experience practicing in their respective industries as well as several years of experience performing intellectual property research.