Innovation Network Technology

When a company called Allied Security Trust came out of hiding in late June, it caused new light to be shed on the increasing popularity of patent pools involving high tech titans. It’s less than clear, though, whether these pools are benign defensive organizations or trade-restraining innovation killers.

Allied Security Trust is just the latest consortium of large technology companies created to purchase and pool critical patents. The idea of a patent pool is simple: Companies coordinate their intellectual property efforts by buying critical patents and granting all members of the consortium non-exclusive licensing rights to use them. First used in the 1800s, patent pools minimize risk and cost for participating firms by avoiding expensive litigation.

In recent years, technology firms have been increasingly using patent pools to do just that. Besides Allied, whose members include Verizon, Google, Cisco and others, there are a number of other technology patent pools, each with a slightly different strategy and roster of players. Open Innovation Network, a pro-Linux group counting Novell, IBM and others as members, was organized in 2005. Intellectual Ventures, said to be backed by Microsoft and Intel, has been acquiring its patent portfolio since 2003.

Battling Trolls

Companies involved in these organizations claim they are strictly defensive, combating other companies whose sole business is to buy intellectual property and hold it hostage. These so-called trolls are at once loathed and feared because litigation can be expensive, time consuming, and distracting. More favorably called PLECs, patent licensing and enforcement companies, these trolls patrol the intellectual property landscape seeking overlooked patents that have wide-ranging applicability to the technology world. Once they own intellectual property they consider to be infringed, they contact users of the patented technology and demand payment. In a friendly transaction, the PLEC licenses the technology to other companies. In an adversarial situation, litigation ensues. Continue Reading

Anil Kamdar of Godhara, Gujarat, India had very little knowledge of designing machines when the idea of building a buttonhole stitching machine struck his mind. However his determination made him to study and observe the sewing machine’s parts and their connections more closely. By the time when he actually succeeded in making his desired buttonhole stitching machine, he had also developed ideas on improving various other processing of the sewing machine like a thread cutting, gear mechanism, better way to lubricate parts of the stitching machine. He was also able to find problems with the Japanese and American buttonhole stitching machines. He used all these knowledge to improve his own innovation.

How Anil Kamdar’s Buttonhole Stitching Machine is different

This grassroots innovation has multiple additional features:

• The machine is fully automatic and can do 100-120 buttonholes per hour.
• Its speed can be varied and has auto lubrication facility.
• It has timer mechanism for easy shifting of gears for different stitch pattern and the gearbox for timer has been positioned to maximize the ease of operation.
• Its cutter-unloader mechanism provides easier and accurate fault identification.
• It has auto-stop mechanism to stop the machine when needle or thread break.
• It has light mechanism for working in nights.
• Its thread trimming, thread tension and spring-loaded material clamping system makes its thread handling quite easy.

Recognition and Support for Anil Kamdar’s Innovation

Anil had invested 4-5 lakhs rupees behind his dream in the hope that one day he would be able to make money and improve his financial condition using the new technology. Anil contacted the Gujarat government to sell his technology and since then GIAN (Gujarat Grassroots’ Innovation Augmentation Network) and its national level associate body, National Innovation Foundation (NIF) are supporting his innovation. GIAN has given financial assistance to Anil to modify and improve his innovation and has also filed a patent application for the innovation. Continue Reading