Don  Lancaster's Guru's Lair Patent Avoidance   Library
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For most individuals and small scale startups, patents are virtually
certain to result in a net loss of time, energy, money, and sanity.   

One reason for this is the outrageously wrong urban lore involving
patents and patenting. A second involves the outright scams which
inevitably surround "inventions" and "inventing". 

A third is that the economic breakeven needed to recover patent costs
is something between $12,000,000.00 and $40,000,000 in gross sales.

It is ludicrously absurd to try and patent a million dollar idea.

This library explores many tested and fully proven real-world alternates
to patents and patenting.

Many library files require an Adobe Acrobat 5.0 plug in for online
viewing.  Offline, these may be accessed by an Acrobat Reader or
an eBook Reader or any other .pdf" accepting program.

We can start off with these classic papers...

The Case Against Patents  CASAGPAT.PDF       b>For most individuals and small scale startups, any involvement with       the patent system is almost guaranteed to cause a net loss of time,       money, and sanity. Here's why in Don's classic paper.

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When to Patent  WHEN2PAT.PDF       Guidelines for when to patent. Do not even think about       patents and patenting unless you can honestly give yourself       positive answers to all of these key questions.

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How to Bust a $650 Patent  BUSTPAT.PDF        Essential Tools to Bust a $650 Patent. Showing prior art. Showing       failure to disclose. Obviousness to a practitioner. Technical errors.       Procedural errors. Lack of due diligence. The paper blizzard.

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Patent Horror Stories PATNTHOR.PDF       Some Patent Horror Stories. The solar burn. A contest winner.       The Grand Duchy of Fenwick. The night the music died. Ignoring       Sallen & Key. The little engine that couldn't. For more info..

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Tech Innovation Secrets TECHINOV.PDF #68      A major tutorial on the Fundamental Factors driving recent technical      innovation. Decoupling. Accurate replication. Elimination of the      gatekeepers. Computing power beyond awesome. More...             08/08

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At one time, I had a Book-on-Demand published reprint collection
called The Case Against Patents. Which contains much of what you
are viewing here.

I've made The Case Against Patents available here in an eBook format.
I've pretty much left this the way it was, so some of the info may be out
of date, and we are not quite up to modern eBook standards.

But here goes anyway...

The Case Against Patents eBook      Older collection of patent avoidance related reprints. Includes The      Case Against Patents, When to Patent, How to Bust a $650 Patent,       Patent Horror Stories, and dozens of additional resources

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Here are some additional product development and patent avoidance
tutorials and papers in no particular order...

Blatant Opportunists #8 PARADIGM.PDF     Don's tutorial on stalking the wild paradigm. Small scale startups       and tech ventures do best during times of change. Dealing with shifts.       Business as usual. Avoiding sucker bets. Some GoFers.

Click here for instant research answers.
Click here to visit the GuruGram library.

Blatant Opportunist #48  INFOPACK.PDF           Don's secrets of "Cash and Carry Consulting". InfoPack       concepts. Efficiency. Putting the Info into the Pack. Some       mechanics. For more help. Extensive web hot links.

Click here for more InfoPack details.
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Blatant Opportunist #24  RISKDOWN.PDF       The "real" way to "invent" something is to become a purveyor       of risk reduction instead. Using and understanding the idea       mortality curve. Getting paid. Mining fallout. Two examples.

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Blatant Opportunist #25  ELESIMP.PDF       The quest for elegant simplicity. Doing more with less.       The P-38 can opener. Schmidt oscillator. Vortex cooler.        H-P audio oscillator. Duracell tester. NE-2 neon lamp.

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Blatant Opportunist #71 ENERGFUN.PDF      Some energy fundamentals.. Work, power, & energy. Sources,     carriers, sinks. Energy density. Thermodynamics. Efficiency. Exergy.     Hydrogen realities. Electrolysis fantasies, Photovoltaics, more.

Click here for the It's a Gas hydrogen resources.
Click here for ENERGFUN.PSL sourcecode.

Blatant Opportunist #32 RATHOLES.PDF       Avoiding Engineering Ratholes. Charging madness. U-turn insanity       Thermoelectric coolers. Sterling engines. Subsurface radars. High       power piezo. Anti-Qwerty. How to avoid bad engineering

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Blatant Opportunists #7 ADVETORLPDF     Don's unique secrets for Mastering the Advetorial. Understanding      RCF reverse cash flow. How an advetorial works. Dealing with      blatancy. Using the editorial exchange. Avoiding ripoffs.

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Tech Musings #93 Muse93.PDF (october 1995)      More on magic sinewaves, stepper motor driver chips, yet      another patent horror story, mid range Mench computer, a      collection of PCMCIA plug-in card resources.

Click here for Electrical engineering links.
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Tech Musings #95  Muse95.PDF (december 1995)        Superb aviation history book, new RGB to NTSC encoder,        lamps and lighting efficiency, emerging ultra-fast computers,        product development concepts.

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Magic Sinewave Demo Hardware! MSCHIPS.PDF #33      Combined data sheet and application note for the very first available      Magic Sinewave demo/evaluation chips. This MSD28D-04X offers full      3-phase compatibility + best efficiency zeroing of harmonics 2-22.

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Click here to Order MSD-28X chips & source code.

Resource Bin #71  RESBN71.PDF (December 1997 )        My secrets of web based research. Search engines. Ezines,       newsgroups, and newletters, Finding people. Basic research tools.       Finance, jobs, medicine, Acrobat, PIC, humor, more..

Click here for Web Related Books access.
Click here for Basic Web Tools access.

Resource Bin #59  RESBN59.PDF (December 1996 )       Starting your own technical venture. Some essentials. Strategy       and tactics. Getting started. Advertising and promotion. Getting       ideas. Some starters. More information. Three contests.

Click here for our ISMM library.
Click here for our Blatant Opportunist library.

Emerging Technical Opportunities  EMERGOP7.PDF     Another in a continuing series of Emerging Technical Opportunities.     Steplocked magic sinewaves. PostScript as Language. Intelligent web     Technology. Scalable Vector Graphics SVG. Playing with pixels. More..

Click here for the fonts & bitmaps library.
Click for a Magic Sinewave development proposal.

Emerging Technical Opportunities EMERGOP6.PDF        Some more Emerging Technical Opportunities. These include pulse       radio, metalloradicals, "D" cell turbines, carbon nanofiber hydrides,       EIS spectroscopy, RFID, massive FPGA's, and brain parity.

Click here for Pulse Radio tutorials and resources.
Click here for additional Hydrogen information.

Emerging Technical Opportunities  EMERGOP5.PDF        New ways to make a buck on upcoming technology. The baby PIC.       Bodaciously better BOD bindings. Larized phase controls. Three       phase magic sinewaves. New directions for PostScript.

Click here for book-on-demand tutorials.
Click here for bookbinding books info.
Click here for PostScript tutorials.
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Emerging Technical Opportunities  EMERGOP4.PDF       Fourth annual release of emerging technical opportunities.       Push me pull you. The TeraHertz mystery band. PIC microcontrollers.       Magic Sinewaves. Solitons. DNA computing. Binary chain codes.

Click here for Magic Sinewave tutorials.
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Click here for pushme-pullyou Hexapod  links.

Emerging Technical Opportunities  EMERGOP3.PDF          Some more Emerging Technical Opportunities. These include short       haul telemetry, nonlinear editing, the Digital Bogey, FM RBDS,       cheap air turbines, sonoluminescence, and Postscript robotics.

Click here for PostScript robotic tutorials.
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Emerging Technical Opportunities  EMERGOP2.PDF      A second review of emerging technical opportunities. Dye based      solar electricity. Wavelets. GPS navigation. Spread spectrum comm.      Switched reluctance motors. Aerogels.

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Emerging Technical Opportunities  BLAT1-5.PDF       Temporary older file of the earliest five Blatant Opportunist columns.       Book-on-demand publishing. Stupendous stuff sources.  Desktop       Finishing ideas. Emerging Technical Opportunities I.

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Blatant Opportunist #72 FUNSTUFF.PDF      Fun with Stuff.. Bubble accelerometers. HPNA home phone networks.     Tut LR2000T's. Acrobat 5.0 upgrades. PostScript transparency.      Tower fans. Hexapods. Stewart Platforms, Lumeloid, more...

Click here for the Adobe Acrobat library.
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Tech Musings #113 MUSE113.PDF (june 1997)           A superb new color printer. Pager motors and vibrators. An        online patent repository. Two more patent horror stories        PostScript as language. Finding rms voltages and currents.

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Blatant Opportunist #13  RESSCRTS.PDF       Classic Lancaster pre-web tutorial on Insider Research Secrets.       The research continuum. The greatest resource. Library stuff.       Dialog. UMI. tech books. Service info. Networking. Consultants net.

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Blatant Opportunist #42  PRIMREST.PDF       My primary research tools to find who is doing what to whom       in any subject. Trade journals, Ulrichs. Alta Vista. CD ROM phone       books, EITD, data books, amazon.com, Dialog, others.

Click here for web research access tools.
Click here for PIC Microprocessor tutorials.
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Blatant Opportunist #30  FLUTWUMP.PDF        A flutterwumper is an X-Y-Z device that chomps or spits. Key       design secrets include don't sweat the mechanics, minimize chomper       load, no gantries need apply, use two-brainers, PostScript, and PIC's.

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Resource Bin Archive I (1-24)       Early columns includes getting started, ic's printed circuits,       newsletters, secrets of professional prototypes, auto electronics,       trade journals, opportunities in hacker robotics, more...

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Resource Bin #83  RESBN83.PDF (December 1998 )       Having fun with some neat stuff. Build your own microprocessor.       PSD rangefinding. Find that %&$# cat! Luminance probes. Class       D Amplifiers. Load banks. A few new chips. Some other toys.

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For many years, the "IBM Womplex" website was an outstanding
free patent repository. Sadly, this surl is now dark and has rolled over
into Delphion. Which is largely a fee based service. Meanwhile, the
USPTO now has a reasonable and free web presence.

The very first patent I got from the IBM site had ripped off my own
high profile public domain material from a decade earlier! From the
September 1969 Popular Electronics, page 30.

The second patent I looked for was even sadder, since it started with
a 1938 Radio News article that became a mainstay of 1940's industrial
electronics books. And involved stupid gruesome mistake that all modern
electronics texts warn you as Beginning EE Student Blunder #001A.
Did I mention that their circuit is also now illegal these days?

Prior art gets you every time!

Here are a few useful patent repositories and related resources...

Free Patent Repository via USPTO       Official US Patent and Trademark office site offers patent searching.       Images of all patents from 1790. Full text from 1976.

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Fee Based Patent Repository via Delphion       Includes both US and many international patents. Some       limited free services will require preregistration.

Click to reach the Tech Musings library.

Intelectual Property Resources via IP Watchdog       "The source for Intellectual Property, Internet and Antitrust Law.        All of the info can be accessed for FREE".

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Intelectual Property Resources via Patent Cafe       Offers a wide variety of free and fee services including concept       based searches, association directories, IP publications, more.

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Fight bad or invalid patents using BustPatents      "Legal resources and tools for surviving the patenting frenzy of the        Internet, and electronic commerce.

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Free Canadian Patent Repository at CIPO       The Canadian Intellectual Property Office is similar to the US Patent       & Trademark Office. Basic, number, boolean, and advanced searches.

Military Surplus via our Auction Help page.

European Patent Repository at epo.org       Collection of patents from most European countries. Language       selections may be limited.

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A Patent Link Farm from Yahoo       Includes dozens of patent related web links converting everything       from biotechnical patenting to young inventor's international .

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There are many hundreds of inventor's association of one sort
or another around. I seriously question their usefulness. Many
have hidden agendas and ALL perpetuate the utter myths that
surround patents and patenting.

Here's an older tutorial and directory I did long ago...

Blatant Opportunist #18 INVENORG.PDF      A state-by-state listing of Inventor's Organizations. Along with      a comprehensive review of the perils of patents and patenting.      Essential reading for any wannabe product developer.

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A newer list of current inventor's association can be found by using
either Google or These Lists found at http://www.ipwatchdog.com.

Here are some Usenet newsgroups that may be of interest to individuals
doing their own product development...

alt.inventors alt.inventorworld comp.patents sci.electronics.design

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Because I strongly feel that patents are utterly worthless for the
individual or small scale startup and are guaranteed to end up as a
net loss of time, energy, money, and sanity, I cannot in any manner
recommend ANY of these popular patents and patenting books.

But here they are anyway...

Cashing in On Your Inventions (Richard Levy ) Determine If Your Invention Is Profitably Marketable ( James White ) How to License Your Million Dollar Idea ( Harvey Reese ) Intellectual Property: Patents, Trademarks, Copyright ( M. Davis ) Inventor's Notebook ( Fred Grissom ) Patent It Yoursel ( David Pressman ) Patents : A Practical Handbook ( U.S. Dept Commerce ) Patent, Copyright & Trademark ( Stephen Elias ) Patent Fundamentals for Scientists and Engineers> ( Thomas Gordon ) Patent Law Essentials ( Alan Durham ) Patent Pending in 24 Hours ( Richard Stim ) Patent Searching Made Easy ( David Hitchcock ) Patents, Copyrights & Trademarks for Dummies ( Henri Charmasson ) Secrets from an Inventor's Notebook ( Maurice Kanbar ) Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook ( Richard C. Levy ) Turn Your Invention into Millions ( Don Kracke ) Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents ( Kevin Rivette )

Product concept evaluation and similar development
assistance is offered through our InfoPack service.  

Other Guru's Lair library pages of interest include Tech
Musings, Hardware Hacker, Blatant Opportunist, Don's
Resource Bin, Math Stuff, PostScript, GuruGrams, Ask
the Guru, Santa Claus, and Flutterwumper resources.

Ask Don a Product Development question.   Go to the Flutterwumper library.  Explore an Energy Efficiency opportunity.  Find Instant Research Answers.

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