I truly did a dredge of the job market. Only those in sheer desperation or unavoidable debt would consider said offerings. Insurance sales and work-at-home rip-offs. Even WorkForceOne allows the shysters to operate on their sites. I figure I’ve seen worse days than this, so the Tat and I are going to watch the rerun of “Avatar”. Isn’t that what unemployed people do? Watch television all day and claim there are no jobs to be had? The library was quiet for once, well, except for that big shot up at the information desk with the “booming voice”. He could go. It took enough books and research, but I am slowly peeling away the mystery around the design patent as intended for my puzzle invention. The fact is, I’ve found all “how-to” books about patents to be useless. They don’t get to the needed specifics and keep dwelling on the point of getting a lawyer, oblivious that you are out to avoid doing just that.
A design patent lasts for 14 years. It only covers the cosmetic appearance of the work, not the functionality. Good. Thus a design drawing must be filed, a written description is not sufficient. One-tenth of all patents filed in this age are design patents. The current fee for self-registration is $340. In addition, the puzzle title [which I’ve changed] should be trademarked which gives protection “as long as the product is in use”. Copyright does not appear to be useful, as each individual puzzle would have to be registered.
Proving one again that even on the information highway, there is still no place to get a straight answer out of anyone. It has been some four months, first mention of the puzzle was November 12, 2009. In the end, I have not gotten one shred of help on the matter (except for a single report from Wallace pointing out he had somewhere already seen the original title of “Yoiks”). That title was abandoned for several reasons.
Trivia: While boning up on trademarks, I learned that Levi Strauss, the blue jeans people, were the first in history to sew their garment label on the outside of the article. Goes to show when you are on a roll, you can get right radical. Did you know that cotton is still the most common fabric in the world, and that cotton is 25% stronger wet than dry? Could that be why she looked so much better wading out of the creek in cut-offs than when you married her six months later? Or could it have been the triplets?
