Inventors who die poor are more the rule
than the exception. I am told that the likelihood of an arbitrary patent paying
its owner more than the owner paid to prosecute the patent is about one
percent. Today, if you use an attorney or agent, it costs about ten grand to
get an average patent through the USPTO. About one grand of USPTO fees, and
the rest for the attorney/agent.
I did the prosecution myself (you can do
that too) and it cost me about one grand for prosecution, and another two grand
to pay maintenance fees late. So you can get a better deal, but you have to
understand patent litigation to do it right, IMHO.
At this point, there is a lot of need for
semantics patents. Subtle solutions to well known problems using semantics is
a wide open area for IP development.
JB, I just visited your web site and I see
you have a book on emerging linguistics applications. Could you give a brief
review of the book and its subject matter?
Thanks,
-Rich
Sincerely,
Rich Cooper
EnglishLogicKernel.com
Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Bottoms
Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2012 2:08
PM
To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Self Interest Ontology
John,
As I understood it, Tesla sold his patents to Westinghouse for a significant
amount of money. Westinghouse later came back to him and explained that he
didn't have the funds to develop the patents, and Tesla returned the money
minus what he owed on his lab.
That sounds like someone more interested in his contribution and legacy, rather
than an issue of financial management. ("Tesla:
Man Out of Tim" by Margaret Cheney).
He died in his room at the New Yorker hotel in midtown. Ironically, the NYC
power company, ConEd, was built upon the technology of his patents.
-John Bottoms
FirstStar Systems
Concord, MA
On 4/7/2012 11:19 PM, John F Sowa wrote:
Tesla was the paradigm of the rare genius who makes a discovery
that nobody else could duplicate. He also had the good fortune
to team up with George Westinghouse, who built the company to
make his motors and generators. For a while, Tesla was wealthy,
but he was inept at financial management and died in poverty.