Who'd have thought patent annuities could be so interesting? I was fascinated when my old friend and running companion James Olcott launched a blog telling a weekly story about his father, Bernard. Readers of this blog will of course have little or no interest in Bernard's many marriages, the family history, the Third Avenue El or many of the other matters with which James has regaled readers - well, actually, you will be interested in all those things, but as we are approaching this from the intellectual property side they should be put to one side ... and you should read about patent annuities. Having met Bernard, who died a few years ago, I have been reading avidly and waiting eagerly for the new week's instalment (which appears on Thursday evenings UK time).
James has been extremely informative about New York in the fifties and sixties, long before I visited the place, and he's made me realise how much has changed in the world during my lifetime. Anyone with an interest in the patents field will also learn (from some of the postings) how much has changed in the past 50 or 60 years. Bernard was a serious inventor, and it was his technical background that brought him (via evening classes) to the law, to patent practice, to computers and thence to automating the payment of patent annuities. Intellectual property aficionados will enjoy reading about his discussions with Marks & Clerk, which led not to collaboration but to the creation of CPA with which Olcott International remains in competition (or vice versa), and other reminiscences about the patent world of years ago. When I teach students, or train lawyers, about intellectual property, I constantly remind myself that newcomers to the subject are picking it up as it is: I feel a duty to ensure that they understand also what it used to be like, so they can understand how it came to be what it is now - and, I hope, to recognise not only those respects in which it is superior but also those respects in which it used to be better. James's work also serves to maintain that important perspective.
There's more to write about this subject - but it's for a different blog, I think ... let's try to keep this one for intellectual property.
James has been extremely informative about New York in the fifties and sixties, long before I visited the place, and he's made me realise how much has changed in the world during my lifetime. Anyone with an interest in the patents field will also learn (from some of the postings) how much has changed in the past 50 or 60 years. Bernard was a serious inventor, and it was his technical background that brought him (via evening classes) to the law, to patent practice, to computers and thence to automating the payment of patent annuities. Intellectual property aficionados will enjoy reading about his discussions with Marks & Clerk, which led not to collaboration but to the creation of CPA with which Olcott International remains in competition (or vice versa), and other reminiscences about the patent world of years ago. When I teach students, or train lawyers, about intellectual property, I constantly remind myself that newcomers to the subject are picking it up as it is: I feel a duty to ensure that they understand also what it used to be like, so they can understand how it came to be what it is now - and, I hope, to recognise not only those respects in which it is superior but also those respects in which it used to be better. James's work also serves to maintain that important perspective.
There's more to write about this subject - but it's for a different blog, I think ... let's try to keep this one for intellectual property.
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