Perpetual Innovation

Category: Patents

  • Yeti, cool ideas and lots of patents

    Yeti has a rather cool new cooler out, the Hopper(r) M30 uses a magnetic seal. Although it might be a bit gimmicky, it should work much better than the heavy (klunky) zippers. They say that it is nearly leak proof. GearJunky does a nice review of the M30. For $299.99 at high quality sporting goods stores like Dicks, you too can have one.

    Yeti is a $2.5B market cap company, up about 70% from its IPO. It is hard to maintain a premium brand in an era of knock-offs. But Yeti is and continues to do so.  I got in on the IPO, sold half at a good profit, and held on through the couple rough patches for a consumer product like this. They came out early for better (sane-er?) gun controls, and had NRA members making a spectacle (viral videos) of throwing Yeti coolers in the dump. (That was an ugly couple days for the stock.)

    In Sept. 2019, Yeti has just introduced a major line of coolers for “everyday bags” adventures and the Urban crawler: Crossroads(tm) backpacks and totes! Press release at Reuters. Big purse or a backpack. Not sure if it will replace your Prada, but it should keep your beer in the office cold. (Maybe that’s one reason why Yeti stock popped about 8% on 9/4.)

    “We already offer premium bags designed to excel in harsh outdoor conditions. But even the world’s most extreme adventurers need something durable and comfortable to keep them organized during their daily commute,” says YETI CEO, Matt Reintjes. “Our Crossroads bags offer YETI’s signature durability and performance, but are designed for your everyday adventure.” 

    Yeti is a premium brand with a premium price, and everybody likes to do knock offs. Trademarks are helpful. A big patent portfolio is one way to keep the knock-offs at bay. Here’s Yeti’s patent page by product.

    PatentBuddy summarizes Yeti patents:

    YETI COOLERS LLC AUSTIN, TX
    257 active patents, with 34 applications.
    Updated 9/5/2019.

  • Jury Awards Apple $539 Million in Samsung Patent Case – The New York Times

    Jury Awards Apple $539 Million in Samsung Patent Case – The New York Times:

    The do-over award to Apple from Samsung on the patents law suit (and damages) is down to $539M from the original $1B. Here’s info on the original infringement ruling of $1B. VentureBeat has a good take on this as well.

    The war chest of patents — world wide — is massive in order to play in the smart phone and tablet space!

    ‘via Blog this’

  • PetroCoins, Oil Sands Extraction and Blockchain.

    Oil sands are seriously back in play with patented technology. Combine that with blockchain tech, and you have an investment that you simply gotta get into, or not!…
    Petrotech Energy Inc. is touting both patents and blockchain in a penny, over-the-counter, stock (PQEFF).
    Well, maybe not investing, but here is a hyped-up “sponsored” Ad that looks slightly like an article over at OilPrice.com: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/This-New-Technology-Could-Transform-The-Oil-Industry1.html
    Two things that are interesting in the penny stock that’s now up to $1.50 level. It has patented tech on oil sands extraction that is a closed loop system that sounds interesting. With the dry sands of Utah it apparently has the ability to extract 99% of the heavy oil and leaves only sand as the byproduct. That is pretty cool because oil sand extraction has historically been a very, very dirty and expansive business. They want to expand their patents to the countries where lots of (dry) oil sands deposits live and make a fortune. Unfortunately, two of the biggest candidates are Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Russia and China — not exactly the worlds heaven of intellectual property (IP) protection countries.
    In fact, the bitcoin IP (ICO) backed by oil reserves by Venezuela in an interesting ploy. We thought the initial coil offering should more aptly be called an IKO, for Initial Kleptocurrency Offering.
    A cybercurrency like bitcoin is, however, an interesting way to do business in any world, especially a kleptocratic country. And blockchain is the underlying transaction technology. So the marriage of blockchain to this company has real merit (they call their technology PetroBLOQ). However, bitcoin and blockchain technology are publicly available — open source — technologies.
    Petrotech says that they can produce oil at $22 per barrel. Maybe even as low as $18. That’s impressive for oil sands. Transportation and the extra costs of processing heavy (“dirty” vs “sweet” West Texas type crude) change that dynamic some; but still impressive.
    What’s somewhat funny is this statement: “It extracts over 99 percent of all hydrocarbons in the sand, generates zero greenhouse gases and doesn’t require high temperatures or pressures.”
    Generates “zero greenhouse gases”? It has to be transported, refined, transported to the pump and then burned in a vehicle where it produces between 19 and 20 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon, depending on the type of gas/diesel.
    Yes, more green than the tar sands of Alberta, but certainly not as green as wind or solar. 
    Look, as well, at the trillions of barrels of oil in sands around the world. Even if we could extract it all and burn it, does not mean we should burn it.
    Check out a sister blog on the scenarios associated with the demise of oil (excluding any discussion about greenhouse gas issues).


  • 12 Patents of Christmas Past

    Entertaining to follow some of the patents of Christmas past. Here’s something for you to be entertained by as you look into the new year of 2018.

    12 Christmas related patents by AboveTheLaw. My favorite is the Santa kit, with big boot pattern and special instructions on how to leave out food and drink, but make sure to sample it well, to show proof positive that there really is a Santa, to those young, skeptical minds.

    The USPTO had the 12 days of Christmas, which was pretty entertaining. I went back to review them, only to find that they were gone. Hmmm… Maybe the USPTO is not supposed to have fun.
    But, look for the tweets #12DaysOfPatents …

  • Dodgy YayYo IPO advertised on TV – Business Insider

    YayYo IPO advertised on TV – Business Insider:

    Dodgy is probably the best term for Yay Yo IPO, for the inner circle, and for the product-less crowdfunding approach using the JOBS act.

    In the true spirit of a pyramid scheme, Yah Yo has the promise of a product, but there is little or no “there” there.

    They are selling the business model that they will tie in all the ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft into an integrated interface that gives you the best pricing. They generally imply that the BIG 2 unicorns will happily interface with Yay Yo. However, the two world-wide rideshares have insisted that Yay Yo cease and desist from any implicates of partnership.

    So, they say, they will work with the largest 3 to 100 ride share companies. In the US, Uber is down to about 74% with Lyft at about 24%… leaving about 2% for the other players. (See here how Uber’s fortunes have fallen from 91%, including a #deleteUber campaign based on a Trump backlash.)

    The talking head spokesperson/expert in the video is J Peterson from Sienfeld fame, a show about nothing, seems appropriate… An IPO about nothing.

    Comparing to Uber or Lyft that actually produce something and have lots of intellectual property (like patents and such) at their disposal, seems a bit like a reach. People from near and far, think that the advertising of the investment, not the product, is mostly misleading and far from the truth. Taking excess advantage of the Wild-Wild west for small investors made available for low regulation (near no regulation) IPO thanks to the 2012 Jumpstart our Business Startups, or JOBS Act.

    Want to hear an overview of the investor requirements for this “Regulation A+” investment, straight from Elaine’s dodgy boss from Seinfeld look at the bottom right of this page: https://yayyoipo.com/form/ 
    Consider carefully signing up though.

    There should be no comfort in investing in a guy who was banned from public IPO for 5 years because of wildly risky and/or criminal acts in a publicly traded company in the past.

    You read through the SEC filings to see if this is a IPO scam, a dodgy crowdfund, or simply an uber-risky pink-unicorn investment.

    On the plus side, the Business Insider article that started this blog post, YayYo IPO advertised on TV – Business Insider:, is a wonderful overview of the whole JOBS act and really good uses of it to fund smaller businesses and give smaller investors an opportunity to play. Companies that seem to have real products and interesting market niches are Elio and Knightscope. “Regulation A+ IPOs include Elio Motors, which is working on an inexpensive three-wheeled car, and Knightscope, which designs robotic security systems.”

    Ironically, Uber (global) and Lyft (US only) are both private companies, not public, valued at approximately $68B  and $7.5B, respectively. Real revenues in 2016 of about $6.5B and $700m.

    Uber has 298 US patents in force with 117 applications pending (via PatentBuddy), amassing a serious war chest organically and through acquisition. Not just anybody is gonna go jump into this market.

    Lyft got their first patent issued in Sept 31 of 2016 for music preferences (“jukebox”) and its second patent for “ride chaining” almost exactly a year later. The ride chaining patent is about a pickup and drop-off sequence, weaving through a rough terrain of of (Uber) patents.

    I vote for dodge the dodgy, IPO or no.

    ‘via Blog this’