Posts Tagged: "skateboard"

Hoverboard raid at CES the result of effective patent enforcement

Future Motion launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the earliest prototypes of the OneWheel on January 6th, 2014. Within 24 hours, the project had already collected 40 percent of the funds it needed for the next phase of development. Within three days, it had secured 85 percent of its funding request and it only took a total of four days to reach the $100,000 pledge goal that Future Motion had initially set out to achieve. All told, Future Motion received a total in excess of $630,000 within 25 days and was able to meet stretch goals for LED lighting systems and mobile app development.

Steve Brachmann

January 24, 2016

Judge Rader Doth Protest Too Much in Media Technologies

Normally, I find Judge Rader, the heir apparent for Chief Judge of the Federal Circuit, to write cogently and persuasively, even in dissent. Witness his withering blast in In re Bilski where he rightly takes the majority to task for the nonsensical “machine or transformation” test. But unfortunately, like the line from Hamlet, Judge Rader “doth protest too much, methinks” without case law support in his dissent in Media Technologies.

Eric Guttag

March 2, 2010

What Inventors Can Learn from Skateboard Icon Tony Hawk

What do high-end jeans have to do with skateboarding? Nothing. Do you think it is a coincidence that Hawk failed at this business? I do not believe it is coincidence, and I really don’t believe in coincidences for the most part. Yes, coincidences do happen, but repeated coincidences cease to be explainable as coincidence and cross the threshold into causative. Time and time again I see people enter businesses they do not know, they have not taken time to learn and the outcome, at least in my experience, is universally uniform — ending in failure. I can say this not only through observation, but also through experience. Perhaps my greatest business failures have come in areas where I didn’t thoroughly know the industry. Tangential knowledge, hard work and dedication can cover up lack of specific knowledge and allow you to convince yourself you can do it, and what happens is you just convince yourself to stay the course longer than you should and lose more than you should. Sticking to what you know doesn’t guarantee success, but it does make it more likely.

Gene Quinn

November 19, 2009

Obscure Patent: Skateboard deck

Composite sports board such as a skateboard deck US Patent No. 6,648,363 [ PDF ] Issued November 18, 2003 The picture gives this invention away. If you guessed skateboard then you are correct! In reality, the disclosure would also be sufficient to cover any type of sports board, not just a skateboard. In fact, the wheels (shown above as 121A…

Gene Quinn

March 7, 2008