Author: Sammy G

In business, there are players with talent and there are those without talent who compensate for their lack of talent by gaming a system. In this case, it happens to be the U.S. patent system, a system which is broken.

Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of BlackBerry, settled last Friday its five-year patent dispute with a one-man Virginia firm NTP, averting a possible court-ordered shutdown of the BlackBerry system via a $612.5M payout. NTP was co-founded in 1990 by an engineer who claimed to create a system that sent e-mails between computers and wireless devices. According to NTP, RIM stole their idea. Throughout the dispute, NTP tried to play up the David vs. Goliath message in the media, because NTP was an office of two people.

Could it be more obvious that NTP wasn’t trying to build a business around its invention or licensing its invention? NTP was trying to cash in on one of many patents sitting in its arsenal.

Much like surveyors ran out across the great Western prairie and laid claim to whatever land they could grab, NTP is a firm that speculates in virtual estate. They collected broad ideas and pushed them through the docile U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. They build a catalog of patents for such things like, ‘send an email from a computer to a wireless device.’ Then they sit around and wait for someone else to develop a popular business and sick the legal dogs, claiming that sole right to the core invention in the form of a patent. And they are not alone.

The player with talent, RIM, worked to build a business. RIM demonstrated in court how their engineers created their Blackberry system in isolation. No matter. Because of the U.S. patent system the legal right for using that system belonged to NTP.

Maybe we should be doing the same thing. Maybe we should join the group of patent-mongers scrounging to gain exclusive control of what seems like a non-obvious invention today, much like downloading music from the internet was provided a patent several years ago. After all, we wouldn’t have to work at actually providing a service or growing a business, but instead wait for another fool enterprise to do all the dirty work. How about: Patent Squatters, Ltd.? First patent: receiving telephone calls through a car steering wheel. I’ll get the paperwork started.

NTP didn’t build anything. They didn’t grow anything. They didn’t spend years creating consumer value. NTP simply gamed a system.

Never one to bemoan an issue without at least trying to provide a solution, I would first start by limiting the validation of patents by stricter first use clauses. Then, I would carve out sub-industry classifications for patents, so that an invention or process wouldn’t blanket the entire universe. Finally, I would limit the life of a patent by instituting a continued use clause, so that a patent holder would have to continuously demonstrate economic gain from use of the patent.

Does anybody else out there give money to pledge drives for public broadcasters?

I’m frequently subjected to Minnesota Public Radio pledge drives. As of today, I am predicting that within two months MPR will re-organize as a fully private operation or become the target of legislative changes to disrupt their public funding.

Here’s why.

For those of you who don’t know, a lot of the national programming to which you listen via your NPR affiliate is out of MN. Besides just the MPR stuff, PRI, a syndicator of original programming for NPR stations, is also HQed in MN. Because of this, I bought into the fact that the MPR mothership needed to coordinate lots of pledge drives to cover the costs of putting on these shows. I understood the rationale behind asking the listening public to pony up some kessev.

Then, about one year ago, MPR went out and bought a radio station. This wasn’t any little acquisition. It wasn’t a purchase of a local broadcaster to repeat the MPR signal in a rural area. Instead, they bought a radio station known for its alt-rock, funky approach. MPR put a lot of marketing behind it this station, including a huge billboard on the highway. I found this interesting, considering that MPR still was asking the public for money right after the acquisition went through. What kind of taxpayer-supported operation has the right to go out and make a splashy acquisition and then continue to ask the public and government for more money?

Through a newspaper editorial yesterday, the listening public was made aware that the top executive at MPR makes $551,144 in annual compensation. That’s just the top exec. The editorial was in support of a proposed law forcing all MN nonprofits that receive state funding to disclose the top 3 amounts of exec pay if the exec pay is greater than the pay of the Governor.

Now, I can foresee MPR people fight back against the scrutiny surrounding this law by pulling out comparable salaries to other media/radio execs. The problem with that argument (again, which hasn’t happened yet) is that those other execs work for public companies with shareholders that get to vote on exec pay and on who oversees the exec pay. This is why I absolutely support the law. Even though I am addicted to MPR/NPR, I don’t like the fact that my tax dollars are getting funneled to media operations that don’t disclose their exec pay, that make acquisitions and that ask for individual contributions from the very listening public that makes less than the nonprofit execs and don’t know where their individual contributions PLUS tax contributions are going.

“This American Life” is brilliant.

With one more day remaining in the XX modern Winter Olympics, I would like to express my opinion as to why these series of sport are lackluster:

-The outcome of many Winter games is influenced by who performs the prettiest. -The world’s most popular sports are not included.

Particular to the Winter games, I don’t like watching a competition in which a performance is judged on prettiness. We’re not talking about an athlete completing a set distance in the fastest time or moving a certain object the most reps. We’re talking about artistic performances adjudicated by interpretive opinions of human judges. I wasn’t around over two thousand years ago, but the ancient Greek Olympics had nothing to do with prettiness. I’m sure if we thawed out some Greek Olympian from ice and showed him (only men competed in the main events back then) today’s games, he would fall over laughing at the bastardization of sport. Besides, back then there was only one winner and no such thing as second or third. You win for your city-state or go home a failure. That’s sport.

The other thing that renders the modern Olympics as lackluster is that the Olympics do not include the world’s most popular sport(s). Right now, the majority of Europeans don’t care nearly as much about the Olympics as they do of the upcoming World Cup. The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world. Where is soccer in the Olympics? Not there. The absence of baseball, American football and cricket is also noticeable, and I’m sure it’s because the international federations overseeing that sport don’t want their prominence weakened by inclusion in some lesser event. I would never consider waking up in the middle of the night to watch the snowboarding mogul but you better believe I’ll be setting the alarm for any U.S. Men’s World Cup game that kicks off in the early AM. My point is that the Olympics don’t have the world’s most popular and biggest sporting events and so its position as the chief international sporting competition is…well, not.

That is all.

I would like to present Reasons 1 through Thirty-Six Point One Three Billion why the U.S. is currently fighting a war in Iraq:

DALLAS (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. posted record profits for any U.S. company on Monday — $10.71 billion for the fourth quarter and $36.13 billion for the year — as the world’s biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from high oil and natural-gas prices and solid demand for refined products.

Sammy G was not a happy camper when yesterday’s mail brought a letter from the U.S. District Court emblazoned with the words, “Juror Materials.” Yes, yours truly has been selected as a potential juror for a federal court case, and I am delighted to be provided the opportunity to come forward and represent my fellow citizens by participating in this country’s great judicial system.

Included was a questionnaire to get the jury selection process rolling. They want answers bubbled in with a #2 pencil. I’m using a red pen.

Question #1: Are you a citizen of the United States?

Thanks to the defendant, whom I personally know, yes.

Question #2: Do you read, write, speak and understand the English language?

Buenos dias. Me gusta el defendant.

Question #3 Are you 18 years of age or older?

When can we get to the part about the death penalty?

Question #4: Do you have any physical or mental disability that would prevent you from serving as a juror?

My pancreas becomes infected when I get near lawyers.

Et cetera.

Found out about Waxmail (www.waxmail.biz) this morning. A neat idea for those who are slow typers or prefer to communicate by voice. I tried it for the first time this morning.

Basically, this is a plug-in for MS Outlook that allows anyone with a microphone and internet connection to attach voice recordings to their outgoing emails. I liken this to the ‘send voice mail’ function on phone systems that allows people to send a voice mail, rather than directly call. In general, this ‘send voice mail’ function leaves me annoyed when I’m the recipient. You didn’t want to talk to me so you’re avoiding a conversation by leaving a voice mail?

I think attaching a voice recording makes sense for email, especially when you can blast to multiple recipients. The obvious problems are quality of recording and attachment size. I would hate to be constantly sending 1MB+ emails to people. I’m told that in most workplaces IT policies are still capping inboxes at 50MB.

It makes sense to buy a licensed version if you’re going to become a consistent user. Buy purchasing direct, the hyperlink tag is removed from the outgoing emails.

I recently noticed that I’ve turned into my father. Is this happening to anyone else?

-I look forward to mowing the lawn. -I wait to watch the garbagemen take the trash each week to make sure they get everything. -I get worked up when I see strangers walking near my lawn because preserving the perfect nature of my grass has become more important than people. -I don’t like people. -I don’t like talking to people. -When forced to talk to new people, the only conversation topic that excites me is the weather. -I wake up in the middle of the night. -I wake up in the middle of the night and check the thermostat to make sure that no one has increased the heat. -The heating bill causes me stress. -When it rains, I go down to the basement to make sure that nothing is flooding. -I’m using the exact same expressions as my father. -I fall asleep at 8:30pm watching Law & Order reruns. -I fall asleep at restaurants. -I fall asleep at friends’ houses, sometimes while friends are talking to me. -When other people fly, I like to log onto the web and watch their flight updates online. -Driving to the store has become a major episode. -I drive below the speed limit. -On long road trips, I drive above the speed limit because the most important thing is getting between two places in record time. -On long road trips, I hate stopping. -We look exactly alike.

Here’s what I love about today’s home and office printers: you’re really paying for the ink. Similar to the blades-and-razor deal, printing is more about the ink then about the hardware. In fact, I came to the realization that it’s cheaper to buy a new printer off the shelf then to pay for ink cartrdige replacement.

Enter ‘draft’ option. Printing with this option prolongs the life of ink catridges. How many times do your print jobs really need to be in a ‘text’ or ‘photo’ version? Aside from digital camera pics of the fam, most print jobs don’t need to be fully inked.

Another option is to buy a monochrome printer. These printers are cheap and the toner can last six months minimum on a ‘draft’ option.

Also, I discovered the ink refill places. Retailers have told me not to use the ink refill places. Meanwhile, ink refill places cost about half as much as buying inks new off the retailer shelf. Plus, I’ve heard reports that not all off-the-shelf ink catridges are filled completely. For instance, the ink is only filled 70% when you buy a new printer.

Anyway, the Epson all-in-ones are great. I don’t even talk hardware specs anymore. I focus on $0.0X ink charge per page.

I’m accustomed to auto insurance ads on TV. I’m used to auto insurance ads showing up in the mailbox in the form of junk mail. However, I’m never seen a sales pitch for auto insurance come from the Office of the Vice President for Institutional Advancement from an accredited university; in this case, the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Yesterday, I got a letter from a Vice President of my old school asking me to switch from GEICO to Liberty Mutual. Sheldon Caplis wrote me a nice bulk mail piece giving me a basic to-do: call Liberty Mutual to save on auto insurance. Since starting my business, I’ve become adept and experienced in developing direct mail campaigns for garnering improved business results. This was a classic direct mail letter that included all the features: personal story, service action, strong post script, didactic language, and credible outcomes.

What the h*^$ is my school doing pushing auto insurance? Are they an academic instutition or a mob shop front to negotiate large discounts? I can understand the intent, but let Liberty Mutual send out the letter, and not have it come from an officer of the school.

This is not to say that I haven’t been taking advantage of the arrangement. Since graduating college ten years ago (yikes!) I’ve been given a discount through GECIO for my involvement in the UMBC alumni association. That’s a tidy, little perk for having spent thousands of dollars to collaborate with Ben, Weed, et al in an on-campus apartment designed to throw parties, play music and meet girls, the outcome of which took the form of a college diploma. I appreciate the eventual savings on auto insurance.

But let the offers come from the insurance companies. Don’t let the offers come from the school. I hope the professors aren’t starting off classes each day asking kids if they’ve seen how much they can save on their auto insurance…

I just read a stat putting half of U.S. households paying at least one bill via online banking. Which leads me to ask: how many of you are paying bills with an online bill-pay service?

I don’t know much about paying bills via the internet. At one time, I thought that you set up a bill-pay account with your bank, and then the bank did the work of collecting all the monthly bills and presenting them to you through their web portal. I’ve been told that this is not how it works. I’ve been told you have to personally set up each and every repetitive bill with the vendor, not the bank.

For the last couple of years I’ve been holding out, waiting until the vendors started offering a discount incentive for paying their bills online. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened. Banks offer it for free and vendors now charge a fee for wanting to pay by credit card. Maybe writing out all those checks by hand and paying postage isn’t worth it anymore? Especially considering the first class rate is hiking to $0.39 on 1/1/06.

Is online banking for real? Somebody hook a brother up with the 411.