One of the questions I regularly get asked when I’m out trying to raise money from VCs for my latest brainstorm is whether I have a patent behind the idea. I’ve never bothered as I don’t really think that the majority of the businesses out there are successful because they’ve protected their intellectual property with a patent, but rather because they just out-compete their competitors. Plus new businesses have a habit of radically changing as you put them together which can easily invalidate the defense a patent provides. Plus I’m a fan of open source…and so on.

What I didn’t realize until I read a post in the Patent Law Blog on the cost of maintaining a patent (after shelling out all the cash to get it in the first place) is that maintenance feeds are rather pricey - especially if you aren’t making money from the patent and have to write a check from your personal checking account.

For most categories of patent owners, the maintenance fees after issuance are $980, $2,480 and $4,110 at 3.5 years, 7.5 and 11.5 years, respectively (I did wonder about the reason for the 0.5…). If the fee is not paid, the patent is forfeited and this cost results in a of patents expiring before their time.

Something to think about before you take that napkin into your lawyer for a quote. I wonder if this is why Lego lost its patent years ago? Perhaps they forgot to pay the bill.

I spent a few minutes this afternoon browsing around Tiger.com checking out computer components. My home server is getting a bit old and I’m thinking of doing a complete upgrade.

Then I stumbled upon this video of a very serious computer build that includes a 24 SSD drive array. So…no moving parts and scary speed. I so want one (but am not a Google founder unfortunately). I wonder what things will look like 10 years from now?

I recently got one of those emails that are making their way around the net but in this case rather than simply deleting it I actually read it. And you know what, it make more sense than most of what I’ve read in the main stream press about why my stock portfolio is worth half what it was six months ago.

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A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on markets worldwide. No one really understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed. Nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.

One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager (subsequently of course fired due his negativity) of the bank decides that slowly the time has come to demand payment of the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi’s bar. However they cannot pay back the debts. Heidi cannot fulfil her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.

DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %.

The suppliers of Heidi’s bar, having granted her generous payment due dates and having invested in the securities are faced with a new situation. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor. The bank is saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties.

The funds required for this purpose are obtained by a tax levied on the non-drinkers.

‘Cause she is going to get to play with stuff like this. Very very cool…I want them already.

Created by MIT graduate David Merrill and called “Siftables”, each block is its own interactive computer with a color screen, infrared communication, accelerometer and Bluetooth radio. The number of neat things and games you can dream up with these little computers and a good development kit would be just about endless. Add WiFi to the mix so they can interact with the net and the package would be complete.