-- 1920-2009 -- -- THOSE BORN 1920-1979
-- AND BE SURE TO READ TO THE BOTTOM FOR QUOTE OF THE MONTH BY JAY LENO. IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING ELSE --- IT'S VERY WELL STATED
-- TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!
-- First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
-- They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
-- Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
-- We had no child proof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
-- As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
-- Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
-- We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
-- We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and NO ONE actually died from this.
-- We ate cupcakes, white bread with real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because
-- WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
-- We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
-- No one was able to reach us all day. And we were OK!
-- We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ridedown the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes, after running into the bushes a few times. We learned to solve the problem.
-- We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chatrooms.......
-- WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
-- We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
-- We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
-- We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes. ;-)
-- We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
-- Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. - Imagine that!!
-- The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
-- These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
-- The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
-- --> We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! - And if YOU are one of them - CONGRATULATIONS!
-- You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
-- While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
-- Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
-- The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
-- "With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
Subject: The Positive sideLiving on Earth is expensive,
But it does include a free trip
Around the sun every year.
How long a minute is
Depends on what side of the
Bathroom door you're on.
Birthdays are good for you;
The more you have,
The longer you live.
Happiness comes through doors you
Didn't even know you left open.
Ever notice that the people who are late
Are often much jollier
Than the people who have to wait for them?
Most of us go to our grave
With our music still inside of us.
If Wal-Mart is lowering prices every day,
How come nothing is free yet?
You may be only one person in the world,
But you may also be the world to one person.
Some mistakes are too much fun
To only make once.
Don't cry because it's over;
Smile because it happened.
We could learn a lot from crayons:
Some are sharp, some are pretty,
Some are dull, some have weird names,
And all are different colors....but
They all exist very nicely in the same box.
A truly happy person is one who
Can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
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-- -- The Difficulties in Licensing --
Once an inventor has completed an invention; been through the rigors of obtaining a patent; and then endured the process of making multiple marketing presentations, the time has come for what may be the most difficult step of all – negotiating and completing a license agreement with a business interested in commercializing the inventor’s invention.
For those unfamiliar with a license agreement, a license agreement provides a licensee with the right to make, use, and sell an invention. Without a license agreement, a maker, a user, or a seller of a patented invention would be guilty of patent infringement.
As an exchange for a promise not to sue for patent infringement, a licensee pays a royalty to the owner of the patent. Such royalties are most often based on an agreed upon royalty rate multiplied by the net sales of the patented product.
There are no generally accepted printed forms for an invention license agreement; however, many invention licensee agreements contain similar sets of clauses. Such clauses include;
1. Limitations, if any, on the licensee’s ability to make, use and sell an invention;
2. The royalty rate to include payment and sales reporting terms;
3. The manner of effecting a transfer of the technology;
4. The assistance provided to the licensee by the inventor;
5. Confidentiality of any proprietary information;
6. Predetermined behavior which may result in termination of the license agreement;
7. Pursuit of un-licensed infringers;
8. Defense of claims of patent infringement against the licensee;
9. Marketing activities of the licensee; and
10. An array of legal terms generally found in a contract (“boilerplate terms”)
All the foregoing parts of a license agreement must be negotiated. Typically most contentious is the royalty rate.
While many think that royalty rates in an invention license agreement are standard, such is not the case. There may be a down payment of advanced royalties paid to the licensor. Royalties paid may be limited by a floor (minimum royalties paid) or a ceiling (maximum royalties paid). Royalty rates may increase or decrease over time or change based upon sales. In some cases royalty rates are paid into an escrow account only to be opened if certain conditions are met.
A licensor will want to maximize royalties paid to enable recovery of the costs of invention development, patenting and an invention marketing program. A licensee will want to minimize royalties paid to recover the costs of invention development, manufacturing preparation, and a marketing program. Further cost recovery by a licensee may be necessary when there is a need to obtain approvals or endorsements from testing or consumer protection agencies such as Underwriters Laboratories or the United States Consumer Products Safety Commission. Once a license agreement has been signed, many licensors expect to find a continuous stream of checks written for ever increasing amounts in their mailbox. Unless a product is a run-away hit in the marketplace; the amount of money received in royalties is often disappointing to many creators of new products. The reason for this disappointment is a simple matter of arithmetic.
When a retailer sells a new product, the retailer seeks to achieve 50% of the retail price as profit to pay for the store, the employees and all other overhead items. Thus, the manufacturer-licensee receives about 50% of the retail price. Subtract taxes, the cost of returns, and sometimes shipping from what the manufacturer receives to arrive at a net sales number. It is the net sales number that is multiplied by the royalty rate, typically 1%-5%. Many inventor-licensors see only the size of their royalty check and feel that they are not receiving their fair share of sales. However, these inventor-licensors often overlook the cost of materials, the cost of marketing, and the profit that must be made by the licensee.
Even after doing the math some inventor-licensors still feel as if they are not receiving their fair share. In this case most license agreements contain an audit clause where the licensee must provide substantiation for the numbers appearing on the royalty checks.
In other cases, some inventor-licensors believe that the licensee is not doing an adequate job promoting the sales of the licensed product. In this case, some license agreements contain a “best efforts” or a sales minimum clause which allows the inventor-licensor to take an invention to another licensee. While taking an invention to another licensee may be worthwhile in the long run, the inventor-licensor is starting a whole new round of negotiations of terms to be included in the new license.
No matter how detailed or how binding the terms of a license agreement may be in the development, manufacture, and marketing activities of the licensee, the foundation of a license agreement is one of trust. Thus, no matter how good the terms of a license agreement, it is the mutual trust in the relationship between a licensor and a licensee that causes each party to look back on what they have done and call it a good deal.
IP Education Center
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