Week 4 Blog 8: No More Fancy Oscar Parties

With the Academy Awards night coming up, bad news for those who wanted to celebrate their own red carpet party. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has succeeded in preventing theEventLine.com from selling or renting any more 8-ft long fake Oscar statues. The Academy has been very strict with protecting its copyrights and trademarks, and the Oscar statue became such a significant symbol of the prestigious award that no mock-up should be allowed in a party room of just "normal" people.

The Academy Awards night has been a momentous event in the film world, and even though many people may be disappointed that they won't be able to play with the golden statue this weekend, it may be important to maintain the prestige and symbolic mystic presence of Oscar for actors, directors, and other filmmakers alike. For those who've sanctified the annual event and have worked hard to win these awards, fake Oscars may be an insult to their career.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-74531175/

Week 4 Blog 7: 3-D World

Earlier this week, Kickstarter introduced the latest project that caught the world's attention, collecting over $1.5 million dollars in less than three days. With the latest discussion of intellectual property lawsuit between 3D System and Formlabs, we will soon have access to a 3D printing pen. Using ABS plastic that almost instantly solidifies from the tip, the 3Doodler opens up a whole new world for engineers, artists, and the concept of rapid prototyping. The technology of 3D printing is a still a very new one, with the "affordable" Form 1 model arriving soon at a costly price of $2300. However, one can spend $50 for a pen you can create outside a machine cube.

What does this mean for the current owners of the 3D printing business, 3D System and Formlabs? Although I'm not certain which specific patents belong to who as of now, 3Doodler will probably have to meet its rivals at court. Even with people's support on Kickstarter and its simple and genius idea, as the world familiarizes itself to the endless possibilities of this market, many will want a piece of what 3Doodler can do.

Week 3 Blog 6: Used Goods

When people need some extra cash or want to clear some room in the attic, they use eBay or craigslist to sell their "gently used" items to other people. However, once you buy an ebook or download an album of your favorite band, you just upload it to your kindle or iPod, and that's pretty much it. Right? Well recently the U.S. Patent Office has granted Amazon a patent for a Secondary Market for Digital Objects, allowing them to run a marketplace for people to sell and buy their used ebooks, images, or audio files to each other. I hope you're all as confused and dumbfounded as I am.

The biggest question in this ruling is what defines a "used" digital object because these are intangible and invisible until you upload it onto your computer or mobile device. Are the text files going to be broken since they're "old and worn"? Are the mp3 files going to be in lower quality because they're retro and vintage? Frankly, I think there will be a lot of problems regarding quality assurance of these "used" goods, and I have no idea how Amazon will be able to regulate this market. I thought the entire point of digital versus analog meant "everlasting" and "non-perishable". Especially since it's so easy to copy and share digital files on the internet, I don't know how people would interpret the logic of buying cheaper used mp3 files, but this is definitely a clear sign that the market is trying to completely digitalize our daily lives.

http://singularityhub.com/2013/02/16/will-you-soon-be-able-to-buy-used-ebooks-and-digital-music-amazon-moves-in-that-direction/

Week 3 Blog 5: Secret Trade Secrets

I've heard many rumors regarding Apple and its extreme measures to keep their latest projects classified. One of the recent talks about Apple and what happens inside its campus was the rumor that the company would assign fake projects to its newer employees to see if they're trustworthy. The idea was that a company would actually be willing to spend its resources to interview,  hire, and pay its employees just to see if they would leak company projects. While this may sound absurd and has been disproven after a survey of current employees, I don't find it so surprising that people will come up with such extreme conjectures.

Even though in a typical technology company it's the engineers and designers who create all the Macbooks and iPhones, people must realize that marketing has just as much or more part in the production cycle of products. In many cases, the marketing team surveys and analyzes the latest customer demands and trends, and the engineers usually end up working with a certain list of pre-determined specifications in its next design. The idea is to sell the products, and in order to attract customers, Apple has done a great job grabbing everyone's attention, even by "accident" such as leaving an unreleased iPhone in a public area. By shrouding itself in mystery and making the general public question and talk amongst themselves, coming up with ideas like the fake projects, Apple has always been a popular topic of discussion in technology. Frankly, I believe this patent lawsuit may also be helping with its marketing because by claiming that their products are original and worthy of being copied by others, the public will naturally be more interested in what makes them original and noteworthy.

Week 2 Blog 4: the New(Old?) Kid on the Block

In between watching the Super Bowl last weekend with my friends, I was glad to hear the news of an old friend I haven't heard from in a while. It used to be the symbol of smartphones in the early days, when almost every businessman was expected to carry one with him. Long gone are the days when people would part saying, "BBM me!" ever since the iPhone was introduced. However, last weekend I saw the commercial of the new Blackberry 10. For a while it has been acknowledged that the legendary Research in Motion's Blackberry smartphones have been pushed out of their own league by iPhones, Android, and even Windows phones because of their rather "user-unfriendly" and outdated design of their mobile OS (operating system). However, they're back with a new trump card.

After doing my own research, I realized that Blackberry has announced their own OS platform since mid-2012. While the company is hopeful their new BB10 series will be able to squeeze into the tight space market in the smartphone market, I'm kind of scared to see how the new old kid will fare on the block when the big boys are already busy fighting for their own territory. With Google's recent purchase of Motorola Mobility and its own suitcase against Microsoft, as well as the infamous ongoing Apple vs. Samsung, Blackberry may little time to really show off their new weapon and win its old fanboys back before the big boys start praying on it with picky patent infringement patents too.

Week 2 Blog 3: Of Trademarks and Men

Since the last lecture covered a few variations of intellectual property, I wanted to look further into a very important subset of IP called trademarks. In essence, the difference between patent law and trademark law is that while patent law protects inventions that are new and useful, trademark law is all about appearance and presentation of what symbolizes the company. Trademarks are used to associate something to the very idea of a certain product. Usually something visual like logos or symbols, they can conjure up inside a consumer's mind the image of a big fat burger as soon as he sees a yellow letter M or a girl in red ponytails. Apparently, you could try licensing non-conventional trademarks such as sounds (jingles) or tastes.

I recently encountered a relevant article about Apple finally trademarking the design of its retail stores. Apple claims the rights to a certain layout like this:

"Rectangular tables arranged in a line in the middle of the store parallel to the walls and extending from the storefront to the back of the store. There is multi-tiered shelving along the side walls, and a oblong table with stools located at the back of the store, set below video screens flush mounted on the back wall."

I'm not sure how this specification would play along in court (assuming Apple starts targeting most retail stores) because quite honestly, all retail stores seemed pretty much the same to me. At least until now. Lawyers might have a hard time arguing over the smallest details to protect their clients. I can understand that Apple has always wanted to lead with its own unique feel and experience for its customers, but at this point I'm wondering if Apple is just getting tired of being the trendsetter and encouraging others to come up with something that will really challenge their designs. Either way, I don't know how much more of these "newest," "innovative," and "state of the art" design and technology I can handle. With so many things changing like the facebook layout and the outraging cries of its users complaining every time, maybe sticking to what they already have may be a good idea, and Apple may need a break from spewing out their so called latest groundbreaking ideas.

http://www.winbeta.org/news/weekend-discussion-apple-trademarks-its-retail-store-design-and-layout-should-microsoft-be

Week 1 Blog 2: IEOR 190G

I like inventions. I respect creativity in a person over almost anything else. We all struggle with finding originality in our daily lives and even more so for a writer, a painter, or an engineering student with deadlines to meet for his design project. This is why the following quote is one of my favorite made by the U.S. patent commissioner in the year 1899,

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles Duell

I love this quote not because I have a similar thought everyday, but because of how history has proven him so wrong since the moment he made this statement. Most of humanity's best inventions, from airplanes to microprocessors, were introduced during the past century, and Duell would never have imagined the world we live today. When today's world is individually equipped with the latest ground-breaking technology in their pockets, and with the possibility of an even newer and faster smartphone being released the next day, let's face it: people want to make the most money out of it while they can. With a big fat label called patents.

Today's technology has been evolving at a rate even I have a hard time following anymore, and frankly, I've been scoffing at every latest development of the current Smartphone Patent War. I found full grown adults bickering about who gets the credit for rectangles with rounded corners simply hard to watch. I thought I would see better arguments between two six-year-olds over a toy. However, this is no ordinary child-play. It just so happens to be a billion dollar child-play. For this reason I've been intrigued by the idea of patents. How could some small design detail be worth thousands of dollars?

IEOR 190G is a course that will discuss wireless and mobile device patents, but instead of the legal aspects, I assume we will be focusing more on what engineers or inventors should know about these stacks of papers. I hope to take this class as a taking new perspective from being cooped up in the dungeons of Etcheverry worrying about what to build to taking a step back and seeing the value of what we engineers do and the overall picture of its effect on the rest of the world. I have plans of pursuing a future beyond engineering as well, so I hope this course will be a great eye-opening experience.

Week 1 Blog 1: Hello My Name is ...

Born and for the most part raised in New Jersey, I'm a 3rd year Mechanical Engineering undergraduate in UC Berkeley and still getting used to the Californian sun. While my major focus and research is in controls and robotics, I keep myself sane through hobbies like swimming, golf, photography, and music.

I love shooting street photography with my film camera, and no matter how many times my friends tell me it's not efficient to use film instead of digital, I will always have a soft spot for the results I get with in black and white on the busy streets of NYC and sunny SF.

I am also constantly exploring different genres of music for listening pleasure as well as for producing my very own. This was an accidental discovery when I was taking a course here in Berkeley during my second semester. When the professor asked for any artistic rendition of a certain chapter of the German epic, the Nibelungenlied, I decided to make a little soundtrack of the main character's death scene. I had a lot of fun with that project, drawing influences from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack, and got an A too. That's how I began to play around with music software more and create my own.

Creating something completely original can be a very tough and time consuming and challenge, but it's the process of developing the moment I captured on film and the reaction of my friends listening to my new tracks that really helps me explore my creativity beyond the limits of the physical world of engineering.

There may be more about me that you'll find out along the course of the semester, and I hope to get to know those who visit my blog too.