In a previous iteration of this blog, there was a post regarding idea banks.  A gentleman apparently stumbled on this post and ask an excellent question, which I've added and answered to the best of my knowledge in the forums.  I invite all to the forums, and if you know the answer to the idea bank question feel free to post a comment.  Of course if you have any questions or any other topics you would like to discuss, feel free to post those comments there as well.  Also available in the Pattoo website is a Directory that has been recently updated to include a list of Idea Banks on the Web.

Personally, I'm not thrilled about the RFID (radio frequency identification) trends. Maybe, it is that whole big brother, tracking people, easy access to medical information, "666" thing. I must confess. I do like my speedpass, though. Anyway, this is a blog about patents and apparently Walmart and other companies do not feel the same way I do about RFIDs. According to this article, the maker of Kleenex and Huggies is pursuing the same technology as Walmart.

From perusing the list of radio frequency identification (RFID) patents granted by the U.S.

Primary patent reviewer for MPEG (and a former IBM patent counsel) are accused of stealing patents from small inventors when they were acting as patent counsel for them.

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Apparently, the IBM involvement of the Community Patent Initiative is much larger and more established than I originally realized. There is a Peer to Patent Project website, blog and proposal.

Earlier this year, Professor Beth Noveck, an intellectual-property lawyer at New York Law School, wrote a blog post about the need for the patent office to tap into the collective intelligence online in helping vet prior art. What was needed, she wrote, was something like a wiki, where people could contribute their expertise on various matters. "We're at a critical moment," said Noveck. "We have the social software available with collaborative filtering, social reputation systems, so that we can do online peer review. There is so much dissatisfaction with the patent process; this is a ripe opportunity to move to peer review."

The above quote is from the article The Patent Office's Fix.

Who ever thought patents and the patent system could be so exciting. First, yesterday's news about IBM working with the USPTO. Now, Microsoft's patent on one the most widely used file storage system was still considered valid after a re-examination.

In their latest action, filed last week, the examiners concluded that the company's File Allocation Table (FAT) file system is, in fact, "novel and non-obvious," entitling it to patentability. Now the office is in the process of issuing a "patent re-examination certificate," which signals the finality of the decision, a Microsoft representative said.

As, the News.com article reported this has big implication for flash memory and Linux operating system.