News, Views and Muse

Women lagging behind men in the technology revolution

Small Business News, Tips, Advice - Small Business Trends reports “fewer than 5 percent of tech start-ups are women-owned, and even among employees, only 25 percent of the tech industry is female. Businesses owned by men get 95 percent of the VC money…” Scott Shane, Ph.D. (Case Western Reserve University) thinks many of the reasons behind this can be traced back to universities. How? Join Scott in a timely BVR webinar on May 16, How Universities Fail Women Inventors.

Patent application from Microsoft tips their strategic hand with respect to portable devices

CNET revealed details of Microsoft’s patent application for a transparent screen attached to a portable device for “augmented reality.” Potential uses? Overlay the picture of a new dress on a mannequin in Macy’s onto your frame… let the computer “see” the chess board and help you with your next move… label photographs … get details on real estate … etc.

Maker’s Mark wins trademark case

We can all rest easy now. Noting bourbon's "unique place in American culture and commerce," the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a 2010 District Court opinion allowing Maker's Mark to stop rival liquor companies from using decorative seals similar to their trademarked red dripping wax seal.

Abraham Lincoln filed for a patent for “Facebook” in 1845, so the headlines claim

Nate St. Pierre supposedly followed a whimsical, historical trail and uncovered a fascinating document in the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL, the Springfield Gazette, an appendix to a patent application filed in 1845 by Abraham Lincoln. The Springfield Gazette (which the Lincoln Museum curator doubts the existence of) was one page only, and all about Abraham Lincoln, compiled by Abraham Lincoln.  It had his picture, interesting anecdotes, updates on what was going on in his life at the moment (between the dissolution of his law firm and his entering Congress), books he was reading, poems and quotations that intrigued him.

St. Pierre sums up his "discovery:" “Put all that together on one page and tell me what it looks like to you. Profile picture. Personal information. Status updates. Copied and shared material. A few longer posts. Looks like something we see every day, doesn’t it?”

To make it difficult to check, the patent office supposedly turned down Lincoln’s application.

Good story.  Fun reading.  Not true.