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IP.com is already the best place to do free online patent and non-patent literature searching, and now IP.com has entered a partnership with Peer To Patent, in which “Peer To Patent peer reviewers will be provided direct access to many of IP.com’s valuable prior art databases by logging in here with their Peer to Patent project credentials.” This is a great step forward for the growing movement of public assessment of patent claims. Here’s a little more about Peer To Patent:

Peer To Patent is a historic initiative by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that opens the patent examination process to public participation for the first time. Peer to Patent is an online system that aims to improve the quality of issued patents by enabling the public to supply the USPTO with information relevant to assessing the claims of pending patent applications.

This is a great step forward for peer reviewers of patents and other intellectual property.

Have yourselves a Friday Patent Poem, inspired by Systems and method for orthogonal frequency divisional multiplexing, in the Abstract, no doubt.

Orthogonal Freq

Systems and methods
systems and methods
what is the frequency of
systems and methods
when your orthogonal embodiment is in division
and you feel your modem go cold

De-modulate!

A true multi-carrier uprising
receiving symbols from the plurality
the spectrally overlapping modulations
signals coupled to the transmitter
processors controlling data controlling processors
Fourier on all fours with his symbols

Payload data!

If I ever get out of this orthogonal overlap
buy me a drink and give me a slap.

If you need to do a little patent searching, the best choice just keeps getting better: IP.com‘s free patent search engine. Not only is the design better and the page loading time faster than most other free patent search sites, but IP.com has more databases in place and more on the way (including China PRC and Chinese in English translation already in place), from patents and patent applications to prior art publications and now IBM Redbooks. And IP.com’s handy “more like this” feature on every patent page is a great semantic matching tool that no other search service has.

Here are a number of patents and patent applications that are all about the process of searching for patents:

• Technical classification method for searching patents
• Web-based method and system for identifying and searching patents
• Method for searching patents utilizing IPC classification
• System and method for searching patents based on a hierarchical histogram
• Patent searching method and patent searching system using the same
• Method for inspecting patent search result
• Repetitive fusion search method for search system
• Data searching apparatus capable of searching with improved accuracy
• Method, apparatus, and system for searching based on filter search specification
• Patent searching program automatic installing refreshing system and method
• Reliability verification method of patent retrieval data
• Enhanced search results
• Dynamic image content search information managing apparatus
• System and method to enable searching across multiple databases and files using a single search
• Pay-per-patent-proof system and method
• Full text search system
• Multilingual patent information search system
• System and method of placing a search listing in at least one search result list
• Search system and method based on search condition combinations
• Using hyperbolic trees to visualize data generated by patent-centric and group-oriented data processing
• Patent searching method and patent searching system using the same
• Method for inspecting patent search result
• Expanded patent search
• System and method for searching patents using DNA fragment number
• Patent searching system and method
• System and server for providing information, user terminal device, contents display device and method
• Display method for patent search
• Patent retrieval method and system
• Patentability search / novelty search

I have tried a bunch of services for patent, non-patent and trademark searching, and IP.com definitely has the best free patent search service I’ve come across. Give it a try.

We get a lot of inventors here at Wordlab looking to name their new inventions, and we’re always studying the language of patents and trademarks. So, as a reference tool, here are Wordlab’s Top 12 free online patent search services:

1. IP.com
2. USPTO
3. WIPO
4. Google Patents
5. Patents.com
6. FreePatentsOnline
7. Patent Lens
8. Faqs.org
9. FreshPatents.com
10. PatentStorm
11. Patent Genius
12. GetThePatent.com

Patently Apple writes that Apple Wins Patent for Smart Garment, and shows this image from Apple’s “smart garment” patent:

Illustration from Apple's "Smart Garment" patent

What does this “smart garment” (“true shoe”?) do? According to Patently Apple’s analysis of the patent:

A sensor authenticated to a garment transfers information, either wirelessly or wired, to an external data processing device. Such information includes location information, physiometric data of the individual wearing the garment, garment performance and wear data (when the garment is an athletic shoe, for example). The external data processing device can be portable digital media players that are, in turn, in wireless communication with a server computer or other wireless devices. In the real world, Apple’s Patent is associated with Nike + iPod – Though the detail of the running shoe illustrated below actually suggests that Apple and Nike could be working on yet a more sophisticated runner.

[Apple credits Brett Alten and Robert Borchers as the inventors of the Smart Garment (Patent 7,698,101), originally filed in Q1, 2007.]

I guess Apple is “hitting the ground running” in the new smart garment market, working from “the ground up”. So, Wordlabbers, what names would you give to this “smart shoe” (from gum shoe to smart shoe?) and other potential “smart garments”? Use the comments on this post to share your suggestions. And don’t feel under any pressure to offer only good names — the worse the better, as long as they’re funny. We could could call them, “Dumb Names for Smart Garments”. Any takers? If you’re not yet a member of Wordlab, sign up for a free account, and then you can comment here and post to the Forums. Put on your smart garment and let ‘er rip.

Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1052(a), bars the registration of trademarks that are deemed “immoral” or “scandalous.” “For the past few years, the USPTO has been on a Section 2(a) rampage, and this decision is the latest step in the PTO’s quest to become the commercial morality police,” says law professor Marc Randazza.

Here’s an interesting article on BobMarley.com discussing the adaptation of the classic reggae anthem “One Love” as the tourism theme for Jamaica.

“One Love,” which adapts several lines from Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” was originally recorded in 1965 by Bob alongside fellow Wailers Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh and was produced by Coxsone Dodd for his legendary Studio One label featuring the jaunty tempo that typified the era’s ska music. However, much better known is the more melodic interpretation of “One Love” that was included on Bob’s 1977 album Exodus (cited as Time magazine’s Album of the Century). With its slower reggae beat and cheerily plunked piano chords, the Exodus rendition of “One Love” was selected by the Jamaican Tourist Board as its theme song in the early 90s and continues to be used by the organization to promote the island within the competitive travel industry.

“One Love” symbolizes the message of Jamaica to the world through tourism as we seek to promote peace and harmony and tolerance of all people,” explains David Shields, Deputy Director of the Jamaica Tourist Board. “The song has been used repeatedly by the tourist board to promote Jamaica and in recent research, our consumers have indicated that not only does the song resonate positively but as a destination Jamaica resonates positively through the song. So Bob Marley’s iconic presence and his music continues to represent Jamaica and our work in a positive way and in all of our campaigns we continue to use ‘One Love’ and reggae as one of our unique selling propositions to the world.”

On a somewhat-related note comes news from a Seattle Trademark Lawyer, reporting on a recent lawsuit filed in the United States by an American rock band called The Wailers. They’ve been performing as “The Wailers” since 1959, and they registered their band name as a trademark in 2003. Now they complain about the registration of the domain name wailers.com and allege that The Wailers in Jamaica have infringed and diluted their trademark for the band name and are causing confusion among music lovers everywhere.

The Wailers was a ska, rocksteady and reggae group formed in Kingston, Jamaica in 1963, consisting of Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, Bunny Livingston (aka Bunny Wailer), Bob Marley, Peter McIntosh (aka Peter Tosh), and Cherry Smith. They were called variously The Teenagers, The Wailing Rudeboys, The Wailing Wailers, and finally The Wailers.

Hmmm…wonder what Bunny Wailer would think about all this.

What your hands do, it’s your own eyes that ‘ve seen. So, won’t you judge your actions, to make sure the results are clean? It’s your own conscience, that is gonna remind you, that it’s your heart, and nobody else’s, that is gonna judge. So, be not selfish, in your doings, pass it on. Help your brothers, in their needs, pass it on. Live for yourself, you will live in vain. Live for others, you will live again.

Peace. One Love.

The original Billy Goat Tavern location was “born” in 1934 when Greek immigrant, William “Billy Goat” Sianis, purchased the Lincoln Tavern. Billy Goat bought the tavern for $205, with a check that bounced but was later repaid with sales from the first weekend. The tavern was located across from the Chicago Stadium (now United Center) and attracted mainly sports fans. Sianis became known as “Billy Goat,” when a goat fell off a passing truck and wandered inside. Sianis adopted the goat, grew a goatee, acquired the nickname “Billy Goat,” and changed the name of the bar to the Billy Goat Tavern.

Infamously associated with da curse of the Billy Goat, the Billy Goat Tavern is famous now for bringing together some of the biggest names in the trademark lawyer game. Above are Ron Coleman, Marty Schwimmer and John Welch, who got together for a meetup with other trademark law bloggers this week in Chicago. Go Cubs!

Update: John Welch, who grew up in Chicago and is a died-in-the-wool White Sox fan, let us know through Marty Schwimmer that our apparent support for the Cubs really got his goat.

On the Wordlab blog we discussed “trademark bullies” last year, when Leo Stoller sued over the use of the word Stealth as the title of a movie.

At the TTABlog, John Welch continues extensive coverage of the trials and tribulations of Leo Stoller, informing us that a court has recently ordered the cancellation of all the “stealth” trademarks held by companies associated with this infamous trademark licensing entrepreneur. Deeming the case to be “exceptional” the judge awarded costs against the complainants, declared them to be “vexatious litigants” and barred them from instituting “any lawsuit or trademark opposition” without prior leave of the court.

Subject to the inevitable appeal by Leo Stoller’s trademark companies, or their trustee in bankruptcy as the case may be, that probably shoots down his case against Sony Pictures, too.