Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Google search on Nokias
Nokia has announced that Google's popular search engine will be integrated with the Nokia Search application. The integration will begin in select markets with the Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 6220 classic. Google search will be extended to additional Nokia handset models in the future. Ultimately, Nokia will make Google search available to its customers in over 100 countries around the world, serving mobile owners speaking more than 40 languages.
Nokia Search, now with Google, offers fast and easy access to web information from the handset. In addition, Nokia Search also makes it possible for users to search content on their device and use local search engines for a complete search experience. Nokia Search is available on many devices and provides direct access with one click from the active standby screen, saving users time and steps in their searching. Once users have found the information they are seeking, Nokia Search enables users to act on that information by engaging device assets such as maps, messaging or the browser with just one click.
"Adding Google to Nokia Search provides mobile users with fast, relevant and comprehensive search experience that will be familiar to the people who use Google to search the web from their desktop," said Google's VP of Engineering and Products for Mobile Vic Gundotra. "Google search combined with the high quality applications on Nokia devices help make information available to Nokia device users wherever they are and provide an excellent overall experience."
Nokia Search, now with Google, offers fast and easy access to web information from the handset. In addition, Nokia Search also makes it possible for users to search content on their device and use local search engines for a complete search experience. Nokia Search is available on many devices and provides direct access with one click from the active standby screen, saving users time and steps in their searching. Once users have found the information they are seeking, Nokia Search enables users to act on that information by engaging device assets such as maps, messaging or the browser with just one click.
"Adding Google to Nokia Search provides mobile users with fast, relevant and comprehensive search experience that will be familiar to the people who use Google to search the web from their desktop," said Google's VP of Engineering and Products for Mobile Vic Gundotra. "Google search combined with the high quality applications on Nokia devices help make information available to Nokia device users wherever they are and provide an excellent overall experience."
Saturday, March 8, 2008
How To: Protect An Idea
We live in a world where everybody’s looking for their golden goose -- that thing that’s going to take them from obscurity. We all want to contribute, we all make our world better and whether you’re a musician, a writer, a visual artist or you’ve invented the world’s first inflatable dart board, there is nothing better than finding that one idea that could change the world and set you up for lifelong success.
But if you think everything that comes out of that gray matter between your ears is gold, think again. Chances are that 99.9% of your ideas have already been thought of and that it has been done better by someone way smarter than you for more money. There’s nothing worse than coming up with an idea and spending all that time and money developing it, only to find that someone else already owns the rights to it.
You can save yourself a lot of headaches by doing a patent search that will show you all the patents in existence from 1971 onwards. Anything before that and you’ll have to visit your local patent and trademark depository library and search their electronic database while shelling out $30 to $80 an hour. If you can’t find your idea, it may not be because it’s special and unique, but because it’s so dumb no one was stupid enough to market it. So before you unleash that inflatable dart board on us all, do some market research and make sure it will garner the cash you think it will.
If you can surmount these major hurdles, it means you truly do have something special -- something that needs to be protected from opportunistic individuals. Here are some tips on how to protect an idea and reap the benefits.
Know what you need
An idea man’s biggest barrier to putting his brilliance on record comes in not knowing the difference between copyright, trademark and patent. To protect an idea, you need a copyright if you’ve developed a piece of creative work like a play, novel, TV show or piece of music, which gives you the right to copy and disseminate the work along with the credit for creating it. A trademark is used to distinguish the source of a product or service coming from one particular entity over another. It protects elements of marketing, such as a logo, a slogan, a symbol or a well-known characteristic against infringement. Finally, a patent is for inventions, like a product or a process. It allows the inventor to prevent others from selling, offering, importing, or using their invention.
Determine if your idea can be protected
Alright, smart guy, you know what it takes to protect an idea, but that doesn’t mean you’re protected against every clown who steals your concept. A copyright only protects the hard copy form of the way an original idea, like a script, is distributed. There’s also this little thing called “fair use” that allows the use of intellectual property for educational or nonprofit purposes, criticism, tribute or inspiration for a new and original work. Fair use also applies to a trademark. Someone can describe a competing product as purely clean because that description is protected by the First Amendment as long as they then don’t start claiming that description as a trademark themselves. They can also describe your product accurately in their own advertising.
Patents can not be acquired for natural processes or products and business methods are also off-limits. Once a patent or copyright expires, it reverts to the public domain and anyone can use it, so protect an idea by ensuring you've renewed the patent.
Document the development of your idea
If you have any hope of replicating your idea for the masses, you’re going to need to document its development. But there’s another crucial reason why you’ll need to monitor your idea’s creation so closely. You know those guys who were so supportive in helping get your idea off the ground? Well, your “partners” are going to be the first ones claiming that your billion-dollar enterprise was their idea first -- and they’d get away with it since they were there for every step, unless you do something about it. That means, videotaping, recording or otherwise documenting every interaction you have about your concept.
To protect an idea, have everyone who sees your blueprints sign and date them along with a nondisclosure agreement. Be careful, though: Some countries, like Australia, won’t even grant patents if you showed your idea to anyone, and some companies will get you to waive your rights before you show them any confidential information.
Hire a patent attorney
Patents are long-winded and complex documents. Any variation in the wording curtails their effectiveness in enforcing the rights you’re entitled to. That’s why it’s best to hire an attorney specializing in patent and copyright law. Not only can he go over your idea, determine if it’s marketable and make sure you’ve filled out all the documents properly, but he can also represent you when you’re taking on some opportunistic schmo in a courtroom. Patent lawyers charge a pretty penny, but when you’re raking in your cut from the copycats, it’s all worth it.
Pay the fees and apply
Before you can apply for a patent, you’re going to need to know how your idea is going to work. While you’re shopping your idea around you can apply for a provisional patent, which comes with the lower price tag, it’'s easier to fill out, and the drawings and the language used don’t have to be as perfect as in the full patent. However, the provisional patent only gives you a year to get your concept together before you have to protect it with the real thing. Even though the filing fees for patents and trademarks are relatively cheap. Copyrights are cheaper for basic papers, but depending on your requirements your papers and shipping of your work could run you hundreds of dollars.
Sue
What’s the point of getting your idea protected if you’re not going to enforce it? Inventors and creators make their money from the royalties and sometimes stock options offered as part of licensing requests by larger companies, but there are even more people who won’t ask permission and that’s when you have to hand out “cease and desist” orders. If you want to protect an idea, remember: No one is going to watch your back but you, so get yourself a lawyer (and maybe some muscle) for some exercises in creative persuasion. Most infringement cases don’t even make it to court, so if you hire a shark who can flash his teeth once in a while, you’ll always be collecting settlement money too.
bright ideas
Get through all these steps and your idea is guaranteed to be unique enough and marketable enough to have you rolling in dough for the rest of your life. There’s still heavy competition in a world where originality is the new conformity and all the sharks are looking to pounce on the next big idea.
But if you think everything that comes out of that gray matter between your ears is gold, think again. Chances are that 99.9% of your ideas have already been thought of and that it has been done better by someone way smarter than you for more money. There’s nothing worse than coming up with an idea and spending all that time and money developing it, only to find that someone else already owns the rights to it.
You can save yourself a lot of headaches by doing a patent search that will show you all the patents in existence from 1971 onwards. Anything before that and you’ll have to visit your local patent and trademark depository library and search their electronic database while shelling out $30 to $80 an hour. If you can’t find your idea, it may not be because it’s special and unique, but because it’s so dumb no one was stupid enough to market it. So before you unleash that inflatable dart board on us all, do some market research and make sure it will garner the cash you think it will.
If you can surmount these major hurdles, it means you truly do have something special -- something that needs to be protected from opportunistic individuals. Here are some tips on how to protect an idea and reap the benefits.
Know what you need
An idea man’s biggest barrier to putting his brilliance on record comes in not knowing the difference between copyright, trademark and patent. To protect an idea, you need a copyright if you’ve developed a piece of creative work like a play, novel, TV show or piece of music, which gives you the right to copy and disseminate the work along with the credit for creating it. A trademark is used to distinguish the source of a product or service coming from one particular entity over another. It protects elements of marketing, such as a logo, a slogan, a symbol or a well-known characteristic against infringement. Finally, a patent is for inventions, like a product or a process. It allows the inventor to prevent others from selling, offering, importing, or using their invention.
Determine if your idea can be protected
Alright, smart guy, you know what it takes to protect an idea, but that doesn’t mean you’re protected against every clown who steals your concept. A copyright only protects the hard copy form of the way an original idea, like a script, is distributed. There’s also this little thing called “fair use” that allows the use of intellectual property for educational or nonprofit purposes, criticism, tribute or inspiration for a new and original work. Fair use also applies to a trademark. Someone can describe a competing product as purely clean because that description is protected by the First Amendment as long as they then don’t start claiming that description as a trademark themselves. They can also describe your product accurately in their own advertising.
Patents can not be acquired for natural processes or products and business methods are also off-limits. Once a patent or copyright expires, it reverts to the public domain and anyone can use it, so protect an idea by ensuring you've renewed the patent.
Document the development of your idea
If you have any hope of replicating your idea for the masses, you’re going to need to document its development. But there’s another crucial reason why you’ll need to monitor your idea’s creation so closely. You know those guys who were so supportive in helping get your idea off the ground? Well, your “partners” are going to be the first ones claiming that your billion-dollar enterprise was their idea first -- and they’d get away with it since they were there for every step, unless you do something about it. That means, videotaping, recording or otherwise documenting every interaction you have about your concept.
To protect an idea, have everyone who sees your blueprints sign and date them along with a nondisclosure agreement. Be careful, though: Some countries, like Australia, won’t even grant patents if you showed your idea to anyone, and some companies will get you to waive your rights before you show them any confidential information.
Hire a patent attorney
Patents are long-winded and complex documents. Any variation in the wording curtails their effectiveness in enforcing the rights you’re entitled to. That’s why it’s best to hire an attorney specializing in patent and copyright law. Not only can he go over your idea, determine if it’s marketable and make sure you’ve filled out all the documents properly, but he can also represent you when you’re taking on some opportunistic schmo in a courtroom. Patent lawyers charge a pretty penny, but when you’re raking in your cut from the copycats, it’s all worth it.
Pay the fees and apply
Before you can apply for a patent, you’re going to need to know how your idea is going to work. While you’re shopping your idea around you can apply for a provisional patent, which comes with the lower price tag, it’'s easier to fill out, and the drawings and the language used don’t have to be as perfect as in the full patent. However, the provisional patent only gives you a year to get your concept together before you have to protect it with the real thing. Even though the filing fees for patents and trademarks are relatively cheap. Copyrights are cheaper for basic papers, but depending on your requirements your papers and shipping of your work could run you hundreds of dollars.
Sue
What’s the point of getting your idea protected if you’re not going to enforce it? Inventors and creators make their money from the royalties and sometimes stock options offered as part of licensing requests by larger companies, but there are even more people who won’t ask permission and that’s when you have to hand out “cease and desist” orders. If you want to protect an idea, remember: No one is going to watch your back but you, so get yourself a lawyer (and maybe some muscle) for some exercises in creative persuasion. Most infringement cases don’t even make it to court, so if you hire a shark who can flash his teeth once in a while, you’ll always be collecting settlement money too.
bright ideas
Get through all these steps and your idea is guaranteed to be unique enough and marketable enough to have you rolling in dough for the rest of your life. There’s still heavy competition in a world where originality is the new conformity and all the sharks are looking to pounce on the next big idea.
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