Book Review: The Sun Also Rises

Two nights ago, I finished a book by Hemingway. After reading his most popular work about a fisherman catching a marlin, I was quite hooked on the writing style and simplicity of the prose. As far as novels go, I appreciate a story that focuses on adventure. The main character of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is an adventurer even though they may not acknowledge the fact. As protagonist Jake Barnes travels with friends, first around Paris and later around eastern Spain, we learn more about an odd love pentagon (2 more sides than the traditional love triangle). Michael, Cohn, a previous husband, a new bullfighter, and Jake himself all have an infatuation with an aspect of a particular Lady Ashley Brett. This women represents something different to nearly every major male character in the story. It seems they all rely on her words and actions desperately. Along the way we learn more about why each particular love of Brett's has fallen for her.



(Spoilers ahead)
Whether it was for stability, passion, or fear; the men who fall for her are trying to fill some lackluster part of their own life by having Brett. Unfortunately, we find that 4 sides of the love pentagon do not find what they want in Brett and that she was simply a mirage to the hopes they once placed in her. In the end, Jake finds Brett as his love because he is the first one who treats her (almost) as an equal pattern and a friend). I found the commentary in this story, set in the 1920's, as a great way to compare the operation of interpersonal relations in the modern age.

7.5/10

Vancouver Art Gallery Notes

The Vancouver Art Gallery building is a nice gem of a building only a block away from the downtown Vancouver City Centre stop on the Canada Line metro station.  Similar to the Detroit Institute of Arts, the greco-roman facade outside seems to hide the entirely modern internal architecture. While there are ionic pillars outside, large plate glass rests around the main lobby. I enjoyed visiting this place today with Ally and we got to see a variety of paintings and photographs. One main exhibit in particular featured an artist whose photographs depict an enormous range of emotion and scene.

Link to photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EzAn3r4xrcJ2Au7w8


Stanley Park in Vancouver

Today I visited Stanley Park in Vancouver. I am in Canada to support my girlfriend Ally on her trip here to attend a conference. She works in liver model research at MIT with the Griffith lab. Tomorrow, while she is mostly spending time at workshops and a poster session I will find a quaint coffee shop and attempt to get some work done.





I will lend some remote support to my colleagues in the MIT Rocket Team and start running some Geant4 simulations with the new front end tools I have been using. Also, I will be looking at a project from my work at Shell Techworks and seeing what I can do in that respect.

More photos here
Bridge to Northern Vancouver

From Stanley park looking up river

Totem Poles

Near the seawall

Patent Workshop last Saturday

 Last Saturday in Boston was odd, the temperature was hanging in the mid-60's throughout most of the day. Many of my friends mentioned that this was a statistical oddity driven partially by climate change. This makes sense, the 'weather odds' have been beat all over the world in the last few months with traditionally hotter places getting extreme cold and traditionally colder places getting extreme heat for the season.

Ally and I went to a brunch at The Paramount in Boston that day. It was a neat little place on a nice street near the MGH stop of the Red Line. I got a chorizo omelet and Ally got the western burrito. We'll probably go back there again.


Rocket team stuff, payload looking average


My Notes from patent workshop
Patent law essentials
what scientists engineers and entrpreneurs need to know

saturday 2-6pm EST MIT 56-154

Stephen Hou
Ryan Jin
Julian Pymento

All are electrical engineers, into NYU together, their practice does patent law

Stephen is details, Julian is litigation

people in tech are asking the same questions over and over again

Not allowed digital recording

Who counts as an inventor on a patent?
How that relates to ownership?

Certain requirements any invention needs to make
never gets automatically approved

What is a patent?
A type of property right that enables the holder to exclude others from making using seeling or importing the claimed invention
for a limited term of time
in the jurisdictio that granted the patent

like other property, it may be sold, bequeathed, or licensed
Infringement = "trepassing" on a patent

Negative right, a patent is a negative right, it is the right to exclude others
There are no positive (affirmative) right to practice invention!
"Blocking patent"

Policy rationale:
deal between public and inventor
The inventor discloses the invention, in return the government grants them a limited monopoly
The idea is that this spurs innovation, promotes growth of public technical knowledge, encourages commercialization of inventions, fairly balanced?

Patent term:
When does a US patent expire?
20 years*

*need to pay certain fees
Before June 8th, 1995, 17 years from date of issue

After June 8th, 1995, expires 20 years from earliest effective US filing date, but starts only when patent issues.
WTO agreement on trade-related aspects of inteelectual property rights (TRIPS)

patent pending means provisional patent rights

*Patent term adjustment: ask patent office to adjust term of patent due to delays in approval process

Types of intellectual property:
patents (utility, design, plant)
copyrights: protecting creative works
trademarks: the brand name items
trade secrets: internal company, NDA

Patents
Limited subject matter
<20 year term
public disclosure
long, expensive application process

Trade Secret
Much broader subject range
Unlimited term
no disclosure
no application, immediate effect

What are advantages of patents over trade secrets?
monopoly in return!!!

Uniform trade secret act

Sources of patent law

US Constitution, art 1 sec 8 to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries

Statues
35 USC "the patent code"

Regulations
37 CFR "the patent rules", manual of pat. exam proc (MPEP)

Case Law
precedent

America Invents Act of 2011
Three stages 2011, 2012, and 2013
Sep 16, 2011, Leahy-Smith America invents act (AIA) signed; some provisions immediately enter into force.
Establishment of micro entities
Best mode nearly eliminated
"Human organism" patents prohibited
Patenting tax strategies now much more difficult
"prior commercial use" is introduced as a permissible defense to infrigement"

Sep 16, 2012
PTAB created; post grant proceedings significantly revised

May 16, 2013
"first to invent" "first to file"
"swearing behind" cited prior art no longer permitted
"first to disclose" shield is created
Requirement that some prior art events take place in the US and be in English are abolished
The "secret public use" and "secret on sale" bars may have been abolished
The hilmer doctraine is abolished. Foreign priority can now be both a "sword" and "shield".

March 2013, switch from first to invent to first to file, lots of applications

Three aspects of patent law: prosecution, litigation, and licensing
Prosecution is through the USPTO
Litigation is in the federal courts, three levels: district, CAFC, and SCOTUS
Licensing is in business law, contract law, etc. 
Prudent patent strategy involves all three

The application process:
the applicant goes back and forth with a 'examiner' at the USPTO
Applicant and examiner go back and forth regarding the patentability of the idea
Either get reject or issued patent
if reject, can appeal to PTAB, either affirm reject or overrule
if rejected again,
sue the patent office in federal court
this legal case occurs in court of appeals for the federal circuit (CAFC) 
court can still issue patent is you win

If you get a patent, PTAB can either valid affirm or patent invalid your work through PTAB
failsafes with CAFC and SCOTUS
For infrigement, can take to one of 94 federal district courts
gets messy with back sue for patent invalidation

Looking at parts of a patent
- Name (e.g. pressure sensor)
- Inventor
- Inventor location
- Assignee, person who owns rights at time of issue
- Date of patent (time that you have rights from, on a tuesday)

Drawings: only required if necessary to understand invention
may include graphs flow charts, schematics, blueprints

Specification: satifies written description

Protection is limited to "what is claimed"

Analogous to real property deed defining land ownership

Central claiming "sign posts"

Peripheral claiming "fence posts"

Lot of inventors get confused when application does not get to the 'meat' of the claim but focuses on the fringes.

A claim is always a single sentence. Can be own lexicographer, while a term used in the claims may be given a special meaning in the description of the invention, no term may be repugnant
(used in another way)

"comprising" open ended versus "consisting of" closed ended

Markush group = "the group consisting of x, y, z , w, or h."

Independent claim is a statement not mentioning another claim, opposite is dependent claim

Conception: the formation in the inventor's mind of a definite and permanent idea of the invention including every feature of the subject matter sought to be patented

For joint inventor: to be counted as a co-inventor, person must generally contribute to concenption. Before 1984, must have contributed to every one of the claims, after, not so

Supervisors or funders do not count as co-inventors of patents do not count.

The inventor also holds ownership. 

An improper list of inventors may invalidate a patent. All true inventors and no one else must be named as inventors on a patent application, even when an inventor joint or not.
- refuses to consent to filing a patent app
- is deceased
- is lost and cannot be found

It's the owner, not the inventor that enjoys the rights granted by the patent. Inventorship cannot be negotiatied or transferred. But ownership may be negotiatied or transferred.
Inventorship can never change (except by correction) but ownership may change over time.

Patent inventors must be humans.

Who cannot be inventors or owners of US patents?
- children? No age limit, good to go
- felons? still fine
- contractors for the US DoD? Yes/No messy
- non US citizens? Yes they can

Only one group is restricted, officers and employees of the USPTO cannot file.

What if a co-owner wants to license the patent to company X but the other co-owners do not? 
(United States) Each individual co-owner can decide what they want to let out of the bag

What if a co-owner wants to sue company Y for patent infrigement but the co-owners do not?
(United States) Needs unianimous decision 

Requirements for patentability 35 USC 101
Utility 35 USC 101
Novelty 35 USC 102
Non-obviousness 35 USC 103
Disclosure Agreement 35 USC 112
Enablement, written descriptions, definiteness

Utility: whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter
- must have specific and substantial utility
- threshold is relatively low: even toys have been patented
- biotech: utility does not require FDA approval
- if contravenes scientific principles, rejected as inoperable, a form of 'lack of utility'
- USPTO does not reject on grounds that an invetion is immoral, deceptive, or even illegal

Categorical: whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor,
subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.

Cannot obtain a patent on invention directed to: laws of nature, natural phenomena, or abstract ideas

Cannot enforce patent 35 USC 287 practitioner of patent on certain medical or surgical procedures relieved from liability enacted in 1996

Enablement: how much should an inventor disclose? Policy goal: to put the public in possession of the invention

POSITA: person of ordinary skill in the art

Definiteness: claims must provide with reasonable certainty for those skilled in the art

On Sale bar;
what does it mean for my invention to be on sale

Selling embodiments of the invention different from licensing

Does a mere offer for sale count, even if no one accepts

When does the sale take place? What is completely secret and private?

Pfaff v. Wells US 1998
Nov 1980: engineer Pfaff is asked by TI to design a socket for removing semiconductor chip carriers.
May 1981 Pfaff shows design to TI

Licensing practice tips
- confidentiality and trade secrets agreements
- due diligence on potential licensee

Licensee tips
- clearance studies conducted prior to entering into the license agreement that identify other patents that might form a barrier to exploiting licensed technology
- warranties from the licensor that practicing the licensed technology will not infringe third-party patents

Types of infrigement:
Direct infrigement, makes, uses, offers to sell or sells a patented invention within the US. Imports a patented invention into the US. Infringing device or process must include each element of a patented claim either literally or under the doctraine of equivalance.

Literal infringement: same as

Doctraine of equivalence: for any limitation that is not literally present, the patent holder must show that the differences from the literal claim requirement are insubstantial.

Claim construction: each parties identification of disputed claim terms, each party proposes claim construction on disputed claim, intrinsic evidence (specs), extrinsic evidence (experts)
The Markman hearing, the court may allow expert testimony. 

Defense: inequitable conduct, alleged infringer claims that a party asserting the patent breached its duties of disclosure of candor to the USPTO when the patent was prosecuted. 

A successful inequitable case uses,
reasonable royalty: amount that patent holder and infringer would have agreed to if arms-length license negotiations at a time just before infringement began.
lost profits: compensation for lost sales
preliminary or permanent injunction prevents service

Ex Parte reexamination, any person may request reexamination, 90% of re-exams are the same inventor, used for patent strengthening "flexin on them"

Strategy to re-assure licensee's

Working with a patent practitioner, keep records, be nice, filing

Cost of things

Regular person

small entity: non profit, less than 500 people
micro entity: below 189,000 annual income

fees prior to issue, if regular ~$1,720, if micro entity ~$430
then during issue, regular $13,600, micro entity $3,400

contacts
stephen hou
stephen.hou@law.nyu.edu
ryan jin
hyunjong.jin@law.nyu.edu
julian g pymento
julian.pymento@law.nyu.edu







Back to a Routine with New Perspective

Last Friday I returned from my holiday break at home in Michigan. I think that the change in environment has been helpful for resetting some circuits in my brain. Getting to see my close family and discuss my current setup in life lets me reconfigure my priorities and longer term goals. Such that now, where I am back in Cambridge, MA, I can refocus on these longer term goals in my slightly more natural habitat.

On the left here is me probing the MIT Rocket Team lower electronics DAQ. I need to get an ideal diode IC to get this device to turn on. Which should arrive tomorrow from Digikey.
I noticed in the exit row of my flight back to Cambridge that all the seats in the exit row have screws blocking somebody from using the tray table that is attached to the seat in front of you. Instead, the exit row seats are slightly larger and have tray tables embedded in the arm rests. Cheap fix instead of removing the tray table.

Some groceries, this is what I cook/eat in about a week's worth of time. Minus the meals I get on my work lunch break or out with friends.

My brother got a lot of soap during a Christmas gift swap.

Snow and puffy clouds over my dads house back in Michigan.

Leap Year Benefits

  People don't talk enough about leap day. It's a completely different experience than most days. Because of that added day, sunsets...