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US Patent Office Grants 'Photography Against A White Background' Patent To Amazon from the maybe-someone-at-the-office-checked-the-wrong-box? dept The US Patent and Trademark Office is frequently maligned for its baffling/terrible decisions... and rightfully so. Because this is exactly the sort of thing for which the USPTO should be maligned. Udi Tirosh at DIY Photography has uncovered a recently granted patent for the previously-unheard of process of photographing things/people against a white backdrop... to of all companies, Amazon. I am not really sure how to tag this other than a big #fail for the USPTO, or a huge Kudos for Amazon's IP attorneys....

Washington (CNN) – The heated debate over the Washington Redskins name has now moved beyond living rooms and corporate offices to the U.S. government itself, with one agency making an unequivocal ruling that the term "Redskins" is offensive slang. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected an application to trademark the name "Redskins Hog Rind," writing that the term "Redskins" is "a derogatory slang term that refers to, and is considered offensive by, American Indians." The agency cited five definitions from online dictionaries - from The Oxford Dictionary to Yahoo – that labeled the word as offensive or disparaging. In...

It is axiomatic that the struggling U.S. economy is slowly climbing out of its hole. President Obama and our elected representatives regularly wax eloquent about job growth, innovation and the opportunity and future for the once-great United States. But the recovery, critics say, given the depths of the worldwide economic melt-down of 2008, is far too anemic, and job growth too stunted, all because of cumbersome, growth-stifling laws and policies. It is also axiomatic that most, if not all, net job creation in the U.S. today comes from small, entrepreneurial companies less than five years old. As Kauffman Foundation economist...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. patent office has reportedly granted a patent for an anti-gravity device -- breaking its rule to reject inventions that defy the laws of physics. The journal Nature said patent 6,960,975 was granted Nov. 1 to Boris Volfson of Huntington, Ind., for a space vehicle propelled by a superconducting shield that alters the curvature of space-time outside the craft in a way that counteracts gravity. One of the main theoretical arguments against anti-gravity is that it implies the availability of unlimited energy. "If you design an anti-gravity machine, you've got a perpetual-motion machine," Robert...

Officials kick up fuss over horse and rider trademark By Ilene Olson rep3@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - A battle over rights to Wyoming's bucking horse and rider trademark is brewing between the Secretary of State's Office and a Texas organization. Pat Arp, deputy secretary of state, told the Joint Appropriations Interim Committee earlier this month that office will need money to fight a challenge of Wyoming's right to the trademark. The challenge came from the Texas Stampede, an organization benefiting two medical centers that care for children in Dallas. That organization has been using the bucking horse...

James E. Rogan, who represented parts of the San Fernando Valley in Congress before losing in one of the most expensive House races in history, announced Tuesday he will leave his Commerce Department post and return to Southern California. Rogan has served as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office undersecretary since 2001. He intends to leave Jan. 9, but said he does not know where in Southern California he will live. In a telephone interview Tuesday, Rogan -- who represented a Burbank-Pasadena district for two terms -- said he plans to complete his autobiography, "Rough Edges," about "what it was...

GOTTA FREEP THIS - Operation Accountability Please help FReep the Commissioner for Patents and the US Patent and Trademark Office who have not used logic or accountability and have not followed the authority of the US Constitution. There are at least two very important reasons why this important. REASON 1. At the present time, with the United States at war against terror, energy measurement, energy generation, and energy storage -- including alternative methods -- are crucially important to the United States for both its economy and for its security. Meanwhile, the US Patent Office under the Commissioner for Patents Godici...