Saturday, May 3, 2014
Assignment 12, Blog Post 2: Experience integrating Social Media in the Class
Prompt: Please talk about your experience of using social
media tools for learning, how you used the blog, YouTube, and comments, how
they are different from traditional learning tools, what is the value of using
these tools, and how you can do it even better.
I learned so much from interacting with others, and thus, I
really enjoyed the interactive component of this class. We learn so much from
our peers. Also, overtime, I got comfortable with talking in front of the
webcam and making videos of the material. I enjoy filming myself in general, so
I also really liked that aspect of the class. I thought it was really nice to
have the online component paired with the offline component (discussions in
class). I also think that listening to other student’s videos allowed us to get
to know other students and their interests better, and this also facilitated
having the conversations in class. Social media is convenient because it allows
people to be in different places at different times and still communicate
effectively. I do think I spent a lot of time doing the blogs and making them
detailed. I think something that I can improve on is tying concepts from
different blogs together. I did do that several times (such as with
evergreening of pharmaceuticals), but finding more connections would be nice. I
really hope everyone enjoys reading my blog, because I sure enjoyed reading
everyone else's blogs! J
Good luck on finals everyone!
Assignment 12, Blog Post 1: Experience in the Class
Prompt: Please describe your experience in the class, what
you learned, why this is important to you, what is the value, and in general,
how the knowledge from this class would help you in the future.
I really enjoyed this class! After my undergraduate
education, I want to go into industry for a bit, and I feel that it gave me a unique
perspective on industry and the competition that takes place over inventions. I
feel that I could not have learned about this in as much detail in my other
classes, and thus, taking a class geared towards patents was extremely
insightful. I do hope to invent medical devices (or be part of a team that does
so), and thus knowing how to file for a patent, what can be patented, and how
the entire system works is very useful. I know for a fact that all the
knowledge that I learned in this class is not going to go to waste, but I also
need to be proactive in keeping up with changes in the system. Since I am
interested in the medical devices/ biotech area, I want to also learn more
about FDA regulations. Thanks so much for a great semester!
Assignment 11, Blog Post 2: Silly Patents-- Hands Free Towel Carrying System
The second silly patent I want to talk about is the Hands
Free Towel Carrying System. Here is a brief description:
“A towel of a generally rectangular configuration comprised of
an absorbent material has a loose end, a parallel coupling end, a pair of side
edges and a generally cylindrical neck loop comprised of an elastomeric
material.”[1]
Here are some images:
On the patent, it says that the reason (or more
appropriately, motivation) to have a hands free towel carrying system is to
prevent loss, theft, and contamination. I feel that perhaps this invention
could be useful for someone who goes swimming regularly, and doesn’t want to
lose his or her towel. And I do also understand the contamination problem,
since a large towel is used to wipe all areas of the body and you definitely do
not want to share your towel with a stranger! But I do think that there are
other easier ways to solve these problems! For example, you can just get a
really unique towel with an interesting color pattern. That would also make
your life less bland J
And personally, I would get annoyed of having a towel hanging around my neck
like that, because I would imagine that it would get kind of heavy after a
while. Plus, when would one need this? Definitely not at one’s house. Maybe at
the beach or swimming pool? I am not sure if there would be a social stigma of
carrying a towel like that at the beach. I feel that all these factors need to
be taken into account, because there is no point in inventing something if
nobody is going to use it. This patent also talks about prior art as if the
inventor is attempting to prove that this exact system has not been invented
before. Also interestingly, this patent was published in 2004—wow! I can’t
believe it took so long for somebody to come up with such a simple system. [1] Let’s
look at the criteria now:
Non-obviousness: Hmm…personally, I found this pretty
obvious. Normally, if people want to carry their towel with no hands, they just
throw it around their neck. This is doing something similar, but with something
that looks more like a necklace.
Novelty: I think this could be debatable. I’m sure something
similar must have been thought about before. In fact, in the top picture, it
almost looks like a dress! (some dresses are designed very similarly).
Enablement: I honestly just can’t see a lot of people
buying this, because there isn’t a huge need for this. Even during the time I
was a swimmer, I haven’t heard too many people complain about losing their
towels or worrying about contamination.
Usefulness: Yes, it is useful because it does what it
says it does!
[1] https://www.google.com/patents/US6718554?dq=6718554&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g2JlU8amF8fI8gHhooC4Dw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA
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