Perpetual Innovation

Category: innovation

  • BioLite BaseCamp Stove | Turn Fire into Electricity by BioLite. Saving lives, one stove at a time. Kickstarter Funded project.

    Repost from IPzine…
    BioLite BaseCamp Stove | Turn Fire into Electricity by BioLite — Kickstarter:

    I love it. But only 62 hours to get in on the KickStarter offer. They are at twice goal with $800k+ and 3,000 backers.

    Yes, it was DARK in Miami, when Hurricane Andrew came through South Miami/Homestead on August 24, 1992. Well, afterwards really. It would be weeks before most of us would get power. So bar-b-q grilling was the norm. That was not quite as much fun after a week or two without baths and without air conditioning. Little or no ice and warm drinks. Muggy and humid.

    You did want to cook, obviously, but all the heat from the grill was the last thing we needed.

    But a really cool cooking stove popped up in New York. A tiny stove the burned wood (or charcoal) and produced focused head for cooking. No need to cook the cook too.


    This technology works wonders in countries where there is little or no electricity, and wood is often scarce, and the smoke from open cooking causes some of the world’s worst health issues (probably only exceeded by water/sanitation).

    You gotta see how far the technology has come. This is a BIG stove, relatively, that generates electricity (USB power) and has battery. It has an internal fan, to fan the fire so it can produce some serious heat possibilities — especially given the ability to focus the flame.

    This version comes with an LED light so you can see what’s cooking at night.

    As they say, this is the first version of the BaseCamp that is crowd designed. When you jump in on the crowd funding at KickStarter (BaseCamp) you will get a free carrying case.

    You also get the warm-fuzzy feeling of knowing that this technology will save millions and millions of lives in energy starved countries.

    All very very cool.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • The belief that our patent system is broken is patently false | freep.com … Broken as designed?

    The belief that our patent system is broken is patently false (guest column) | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:

    This is a very interesting article by David Kappos (IP attorney and director of the USPTO). Intellectual Property, especially patents, is a critical foundation of the US economy and of our entrepreneurial proficiency.

    But we shouldn’t take it for granted.

    That’s why some of the IP, Hi-Tech companies have joined together into an American alliance of innovation: Partnership for American Innovation  http://partnershipforamericaninnovation.org/.

    Companies need to take advantage of IP and use it aggressively both domestically and abroad. Especially if we are in the US where we do have strong rule of (IP) law. We must avoid allowing countries with lax IP laws to overrun us on our own strengths, our strengths to innovate.

    We need to aim for Perpetual Innovation(tm). Hall & Hinkelman talk about Perpetual Innovation(tm) in their 2013 book on Patent Commercialization argue that many companies are broken-as-designed. They are not designed around managing their intellectual assets; they still operate as if most of their assets and most of their value comes from physical assets.

    The US Patent system may not be broken, but many companies are. And IP is a critical part of all innovation and the pipeline of new products.

    Hall, E. B. & Hinkelman, R. M. (2013). Perpetual Innovation™: A guide to strategic planning,
    patent commercialization and enduring competitive advantage, Version 2.0    .
    Morrisville, NC: LuLu Press. Retrieved from: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SBPlan
    Hall, E. B. & Hinkelman, R. M. (2013). Perpetual Innovation™: Patent primer 2.0:
    Patents, the great equalizer of our time! An overview of intellectual property
    with patenting cost estimates for inventors and entrepreneurs.      Morrisville, NC: LuLu Press. Retrieved from: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/SBPlan
    (or Kindle at http://tinyURL.com/IPPrimer2) 

    ‘via Blog this’

  • PWC, What you get when there's too much Booz in the baby naming process.

    I fear that PWC was boozing it up a little too much when the rebranded their subsidiary to be now called: “Strategy &“.  And what, you ask?

    Booz & Co is a buyout subsidiary of Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC), the large accounting/consulting firm. It seems only right that the division with the boozy name should be revamped as something else, Right? But, in a drunken stupor, they couldn’t really come up with what the division will do.

    Actually this kind of a trick appears like an emerging pattern for PWC when they have an asset (division) that they are planning to sell or spin off. In this case the buyer of Booz & Co and determine what the “and” is themselves.

    If they were going to use some strange code name for the spin-off target, they could have used something like April First, or Monday. Oops, no can’t use Monday, already did that.

    Check out the story here: http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/2337955/pwc-completes-acquisition-of-booz-co 
    Or here: WSJ article

  • The STEM shortage: Crisis or myth? | Spring 2014

    The STEM shortage: Crisis or myth? | Spring 2014:

    Wow, give a look at this on STEM jobs and education. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education).
    So how do we (u.s.a) stem the STEM shortage?
    This is an interesting article about the STEM PIPELINE that has a lot of leaking
    couplings. 

    This is an original article in UoP’s Faculty Matters magazine.

    Keywords: school, university, training, innovation,  STEM, jobs, economic development,
    ‘via Blog this’

  • Phosphate World and Patent World. Sir John Bennet Lawes, Father of Fertilizer!

    Check out the post at our sister blog SustainZine.com: Phosphate World.

    This blog talks about the phosphate industry in Florida and the nice resort being built out of the rubble of past Phosphate mines over in the Tampa Bay area. That actually is pretty cool, but the point that phosphate fertilizer from mines is non-sustainable, and consequently is a broken business model. Peak Phosphate in the world could arrive by 2030.

    Innovation in preserving and recycling phosphate is critical. More sustainable uses of fertilizer is essential and a responsible way forward.

    But this blog looks at one of the key patents and technological breakthroughs that built the phosphate industry — and consequently, modern farming as we know it.

    Sir John Bennet Lawes is credited as the father of artificial fertilizer. He developed what is referred to as the superphospate fertilizer…. (Many politicians can make such a super fertilizer, only without the patented processes.)

    The inherited owner of the Rothamsted Manor in England, John Bennet Lawes, is credited with inventing the process for extracting useful phosphate from phosphate rock using sulfuric acid. In 1842 he obtained a patent on the process. (This must be only a UK patent since it seems hard to find in the USPTO.)

    Britannica had this to say about Sir John.
    “Lawes inherited his father’s estate, Rothamsted, in 1822. In 1842, after long experimentation with the effects of manures on potted plants and field crops on his estate, he patented a process for treating phosphate rock with sulfuric acid to produce superphosphate. That year he opened the first fertilizer factory, thus initiating the artificial fertilizer industry. The following year, the chemist J.H. (later Sir Henry) Gilbert joined him, and they began a collaboration lasting more than a half century; Lawes considered 1843 the year of the station’s foundation. Together, the pair studied the effects of different fertilizers on crops. They also researched animal nutrition, including the value of different fodders and the sources of animal fat.”

    There are several patents/applications within the last few years related to phosphate (fertilizer). Check out this one, first filed in China, related to extracting phosphate from low-grade rock using a microbial strain.

    And, of course, virtually all GMO seeds/plants are patented — Monsanto, Dupont, a university, etc. 

    Here’s a longer look at Sir John’s life history from Oxford’s DB.  The Rothamsted Research center is still active today, including GMO research.