The Red Queen’s Race

A Rule 312 amendment, making a minor correction in an allowed case, appeared on my Expedited docket this week, and I dealt with it. I also did Office Actions on two of my existing amendments, so I’m now down to three amendments on my Amended docket, and one Board of Appeals decision on my Special Amended docket.

I also wrote an Office Action on the one Request for Continued Examination case on my Regular New docket, and am now searching the prior art for my oldest non-RCE Regular New case.

Dean Kamen Interview

I think I first learned about Dean Kamen from a Sixty Minutes article many years ago, before I ever expected to work at the Patent Office. On Tuesday, I saw and heard him as part of the USPTO Speakers Series; Director Iancu asked him a few questions, and he spoke. In addition to being a notable inventor, he’s the founder of FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. His first patent, of more than a hundred, was for the autosyringe, back in the 70s, when he was still a college student.

He talked about children not liking science, but enjoying science fiction like Star Wars. I was tempted to say that there was very little science in that, and I speak as an sf fan, but I wasn’t on stage being interviewed; Dean Kamen was.

He said that he didn’t do very well in school; he wasn’t dissing school, but it was too abstract for him. His older brother was a pediatric cancer specialist with an M.D. and Ph.D. Dean heard about babies and small children with cancer, and invented the autosyringe for them, which later led to insulin pumps. His firm, DEKA, now has 800 engineers, mostly medical. The Segway was just a spin-off of the iBot, an improved wheelchair that can climb stairs, etc.

We don’t have an educational problem, he said, but a cultural problem, that children don’t like science and engineering. People in school are taught not to fail; if the answer isn’t known, the question isn’t asked. Children are typically passionate for sports and entertainment, and FIRST is trying to direct that kind of enthusiasm to science and engineering.

He defended intellectual property, both patents and trademarks, recounting some of his testimony before Congress. He also talked about FIRST Global, which has participants from 191 countries. We saw some video of a FIRST contest, with young participants from every country in Europe and the Middle East, including both Israelis and Palestinians.