2012 Innovation Quotes #6

Our Favorite Quotes

On the Language of Innovation - The Patent Argot - The more things change, the more they stay the same.

“The difficulty of forming a clear conception of the subject is increased by the fact that while we have to deal with novel and strange facts, we have also to use old words in novel and inconsistent senses.”

-Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1873, Discussing how even the intelligent and well-informed continued to find the technology surround the telegraph inscrutable.
 

And

"An idea does not pass from one language to another without change."

-Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (1864 - 1936), The Tragic Sense of Life, 1913

And

“In patent applications and legal documents, too, the inventors had reason to think about their topic in the broadest possible terms: e.g. The giving, printing, stamping, and otherwise transmitting signals or the sounding of alarms, or the communication of intelligence.  ...Confusion inspired anecdotes which often turned on awkward new meanings for familiar terms.” 

-Describing inventions in the time of the telegraph - The Information by James Gleick, 2010

2012 Innovation Quote #5

Our Favorite Innovation Quotes

On Trade Secrets and Red Herring Conversations...

It doesn’t count as a trade secret if it’s left out in the open. The law would say one cannot put the burden on someone who happens on the information inadvertently, ... 

You can’t sue someone for overhearing what you say in a crowded elevator.

- Susan J. Kohlmann, Partner at Jenner & Block LLP, NY Times October 23, 2011.

And on the same day...

...a close competitor, sitting right next to your colleague, flashing sensitive information right in front of your face - are you sure he wasn’t trying to fake you guys out?

- Ariel Kaminer The Ethicist, October 23, 2011 - NY Times.

This year we bring you a compilation of some of our favorite quotes on innovation, innovation, inventors, and patent insanity as part of our year end wrap up.  Send us yours at feedback@waybetterpatents.com and we'll publish them and add them to our collection.

2012 Innovation Quote #4

Our Favorite Quotes

Innovation is unruly.

- Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures and Microsoft Fame

He ought to know.

This year we bring you a compilation of some of our favorite quotes on innovation, innovation, inventors, and patent insanity as part of our year end wrap up.  Send us yours at feedback@waybetterpatents.com.com and we'll publish them and add them to our collection.

2012 Innovation Quote #3

Our Favorite Quotes - 2012

If the inventory of ready-made words in our language determines which concepts you are able to understand, how would you ever learn anything new? 

- Guy Deutscher
Honorary Research Fellow, School of Languages, Linguistics, and Cultures at the University of Manchester.

This year we bring you a compilation of some of our favorite quotes on innovation, innovation, inventors, and patent insanity as part of our year end wrap up.  Send us yours at feedback@waybetterpatents.com and we'll publish them and add them to our collection.