Imagination is more important than knowledge
Invention News
What’s the Purpose of it All? Determining Invention Disclosure Privilege
The CAFC has set forth two categories of communications “seeking legal advice” in the context of communications between inventors and attorneys: (1) seeking advice on patentability and (2) obtaining l…
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A culture of invention grows at FIU
Professor Stavros Georgakopoulos (pictured above) exemplifies FIU’s inventing culture. The College of Engineering and Computing faculty member started with a novel idea: integrate the principles of th…
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Keeping a Good Invention Notebook Still Makes Good Sense
Every invention starts out with an idea, but you cannot patent something that is merely an idea. In order to obtain a patent, the idea must mature into an invention. Think of it as crossing over the i…
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The Invention of Childhood
Summary
The introduction of the Poor Law in the late 16th century, which introduced principles that would later become par
Necessity Is Not The Mother Of Invention, This Is
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Posted: Dec 27, 2018 11:16 AM
Necessity is not the mother of invention, contrary to what the well known adage says. Everyone suffers under the same necessity for a given circumstance or relevant state of technology, and most people just accept the limitations of the present, adjusting their lives to them. Most people don’t invent, they just make the best of a situation. Others, however, are not satisfied with the way things are and want to find a better way.The real mother of invention is vision. Inventors don’t just see what is, they see what could be. Perhaps “inventor” is too restrictive a term. Innovator is a more generalized term, someone who makes anew, who doesn’t follow the old pattern, but makes a different, hopefully better one. It might be a consumer product, but it could just as well be a new business process to make a company more efficient or effective. It could be a scientific breakthrough that opens up whole new avenues for progress, but innovation itself doesn’t have to be ground shaking. The way that most products improve from crude but usable ideas is through tweaks and adjustments.I recently came upon a little gadget by accident, but it caught my attention. Guitar strings need to be changed periodically, and the process of turning the tuning keys is long and tedious by hand, having to turn the key many times. Hand winders that attach to the key and make the winding easier have