-- Don't be duped by bounced-check 'protection' -- "Money Options"

-- "If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them." - anonymous

-- "There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out." -- Russian proverb

-- "Who Owns the Patent?" --

-- Patent Infringement Win Against Microsoft
-- "Successfully represented inventor in a patent infringement suit against Microsoft.
-- The suit, filed in Los Angeles federal court, involved a software application that links an Excel spreadsheet to an Access database in a live link fashion. After a four week trial, the jury awarded our client, Mr. Armando Amado, $8.96 million for sales of the software between March 1997 and July 2003. Mr. Amado developed the program in 1990 and then approached Microsoft to sell the program to them in 1992, which they declined to purchase. Mr. Amado received his patent in 1994. The Court will be awarding additional damages for the time period July 2003 to present."

-- "Inventors Assistance League *** Patent, Copyright and Trademark Information Center *** Help Protect and Market Your Invention!" --

-- "The Corporate Bee Comparison Chart" --

-- "State Science & Technology Institute"

-- "Biotech Start-ups in St. Louis Aided by New Initiatives" -- "There are two research and commercialization projects. One is located in a 1,000-acre area of midtown-St. Louis called Technopolis and the other is located in the City of Creve Coeur in St. Louis County. These two areas provide multi-tenant wet labs and related science infrastructure." - "BioBelt -

-- -- NO EXCUSES = MARKETING SUCCESS -- --

-- Independent inventors believe their lack of commercial success is due to not knowing someone in a large corporation or in a government department. If, instead of using this lame excuse, they would ask, "Who knows me or my product?" they would be on the road to a successful marketing.

-- "One of America's greatest living inventors, Ray Kurtzweil, writing in the May 2004 issue of Technology Review magazine, suggests: 'Step one is to write the advertising brochure. This can be a real challenge. It compels you to list the features, the benefits, and the beneficiaries. You will find this impossible to accomplish if your ideas are not well formed.' In other words, change your focus away from your invention and your problems - focus instead on reasons why a potential customer should want to know you or your product."

-- Bill Bazik, Newsletter of the Inventors Connection of Greater Cleveland, Inc.
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-- The Inventors Association of St. Louis is puting together a lineup of programs for its IASL Meetings for 2010. If you have something in mind, including yourself - speaking on: Inventing, Prototyping, Engineering, Patenting, Marketing, Licensing, Financing, Future Planning, Business Start-ups, Manufacturing and Invention-related Legal.

-- The experiences with the above: - Success Stories - Tales of Woe - Invention-related History - Interesting Products - and other subjects that would be of interest to our members - then e-mail: President@inventorsconnection.org
IASL Look At Me

-- Future Big Market - Bill Gates

-- "The ABCs of Nanotechnology"

-- "Altshuller Institute for TRIZ Studies"

-- "Science News and Science Discussion"

-- "I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." -- Galileo Galilei

-- FOOTNOTE: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde

The Entrepreneurial Life: Not So Scary After All

-- It still surprises me when I'm out meeting with people at networking events or conferences and I get the question, "How could you own your own business? That's just too risky?"

-- My reply is, "Not these days." Have you read the paper lately? Large companies are dumping employees in record numbers these days. On average, employees in their 20s will have 3-4 different careers (that's careers, not jobs) before they retire. And we all know people who have walked into work and were blindsided by losing their jobs.

-- Owning your own business a risky proposition? Not these days.

-- Business owners at least control their own destiny. If things start going South, business owners have the opportunity to turn things around. That's the beauty of owning your own business. You are the bus driver and can take your business/life wherever you choose. As an employees, you're the passenger in the back of the bus. When your boss tells you to get off, you must.

-- If you have the financial resources, support of your family and the passion to run your own business, don't let the risk of an unsure future stop you.