blood on my pillow, pain in my cheek, caused by you, you

I was awakened at 5 AM by a strange sensation...

my right cheek was wet.

Lyrics from a song written in my birth year sprang to mind.

"Tears on my pillow,

pain in my heart,

caused by you-u-u,

you."

I can count on my mental jukebox to bring forth the right tune for the occasion, usually.

That was as close as it could get for the bright red spots on my pale pink pillowcase.

The chemical cauterization from yesterday had failed, causing my scraped mole to weep blood.

My efforts to staunch the flow failed, leading me to call the dermatologist's office in distress.

LP-C Byrne worked me in for 1 PM, at which time she had an assistant perform an electric cauterization.

That was certainly a different smell.

 

After that, I needed a distraction and a treat, not necessarily in that order.

Alisia was only too happy to set me up with my AMC birthday treats - a large tub of popcorn and a large drink from the Coca-Cola fountain.

That was just perfect, as I planned a double-header for this afternoon!

I didn't bother going for anything new on the screen.

I wanted tried and true, and that's what I got!

First up was a repeat of "The Sheep Detectives" - light, fun, and reminiscent of films from my youth. 

I followed that with another "Project Hail Mary", with its charming dose of science fiction, physics, chemistry, and dancing.

Yeah, that's right: dancing.

Grace and Rocky didn't even need music to shake their booties.

(smile!)

And now I feel much better... and I even completed my A*List with four movies this week.

Good.

March 7, 1876: start of the modern world

Saturday will mark the 150-year anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell receiving a patent for his invention of the landline telephone.

That was four days after his 29th birthday.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office issued patent 174,465 for his discovery.

The USPTO issued patent 11,217,118 to me for my invention, the Periodic Table For The Visually Impaired, on January 4, 2022.

I was 60 years old when my application was filed for it in 2018.

I was midway between 63 and 64 when I finally received it.

 

Today, the USPTO held a seminar to honor Bell's invention. 

I registered on February 20th, the day I received the email about the talk, to be part of the ZOOM audience.

They wanted to mark the importance of IP - Intellectual Property - as part of the USA's 250th anniversary.

I wanted to hear the story of how he obtained his patent.

 

Lots of people were there in Alexandria, Virginia, and many more - the count was over 400 shortly after the seminar began - were there virtually.

Some of the speakers were even ZOOMing in to give their talks!

A hundred years ago, the person who received the patent was the one who first demonstrated, in public, whatever they had discovered.

On that 7th of March of 1876, Bell and two cousins sent the sound of their singing down the telegraph line for several miles, to the line tied in and run to the house, and into the house where the excited listeners awaited - wow!

A few days later, he arranged to have use of the telegraph line for another experiment, this time designed to be a 30-minute back and forth conversation between two parties several miles apart.

So many people wanted to be part of the venture that the phone call lasted three hours!!!

That's pretty incredible!

And what had been his purpose for creating this device?

He knew the value of spoken words over written words, as speech allows inflections and tones that simple text does not.

He wanted people to have the option of actually speaking to friends down the road in a neighboring town, without having to rely on the blank tone of a telegraphed message.

Wow.

I can certainly understand why he would want that.

Anyone in this modern world who has ever sent an email or a text message that was misunderstood due to its lack of tone can understand the importance of spoken words and the extra meaning given by voice.

That was a good seminar.

It's time to get my Periodic Table into the hands of those who need it.

Last year was the three-year mark and I had to pay a fee to to the USPTO to extend the patent.

Unfortunately, I didn't find out until late summer when they sent me a letter, as well as the bill for a $300 late penalty tacked onto the fee.

Yes, I need to get this done.

Thanks, USPTO, for this timely talk. 

wish i knew this back in 2016

Today was the first day of Invention-Con 2025 at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.

Its stated purpose was "Empowering American Ingenuity and Innovation".

I signed up for this free event hoping to learn how to get my invention into the hands of the blind students wanting to learn chemistry.

That isn't quite how it worked out.

What I learned was that I did not possess the money to market my Periodic Table that I designed - and got patented! - for blind and low-vision students.

What I learned was how long it takes to not only go through the patent process, but also how much time is involved in getting the invention to market.

I was not the only one learning that lesson.

Six hundred others were online with me, watching and hoping.

 

The first session was titled "Fireside Chat: An Inventor's Story".

The guest speaker was John Adler, Jr., inventor of the CyberKnife, a surgical tool used for targeting radiation therapy.

It took 20 years for his invention to reach the health market for use.

 

The next session had two guest speakers for this USPTO conference.

The title of the segment was "A Spark Of Creativity: Key Strategies For The Innovation Journey". 

Jack Elston, in the upper right panel, invented an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for sampling severe convective storms.

In other words, he has weather drones that successfully fly into tornados and gather data for analysis.

The lower panel shows Ben Johnson, who worked with his father, Chad Johnson, to invent the Grain Weevil, a robot designed for management work in grain bins, a place extremely hazardous for humans.

Both of these young men made this point about becoming an inventor: tackle a problem that's close to you, to solve a problem in your own community.

That's exactly what I had done in the summer of 2016!

I was teaching introductory college chemistry to a blind student that term and found he had hardly any resources.

There was an electronic system for the Periodic Table, but it was very expensive.

Determined to help him, I set about to make something tactile, inspired by a community fundraiser for a blind child in elementary school. 

My first attempt was done by placing raised letters on a wall poster-sized Periodic Table; that didn't quite do the trick.

So I broke the Periodic Table into pieces, concentrating on the Representative Elements first, as that would help explain valence electrons and Lewis Dots.

That was critical for my student's understanding of bonding, which was all part of the first part of the course.

Not only did that work well for him, but the file folder protected the attached raised letters and numbers when it was placed into his bookbag.

Success!

Well, success on my part for making the variation for him and showing him how to use it.

Sadly, like most summer students, he didn't apply himself to studying, even admitting to me that he had not.

Still, my invention had worked... and I was encouraged to get it patented.

Ah, but first there would have to be a patent search to make sure no one else had already created what I had... and that revealed my tactile Periodic Table was unique!

Good to know that was money well spent on my part!

I then proceeded to expand my tactile Periodic Table, adding the Transitional Elements on an extension that fit precisely onto the original invention. 

Within a year, I had a provisional patent on my invention, protecting my intellectual property from any others that might have the same notion.

Early in 2018, For Sale By Inventor - the firm handling my patent application - had created a video to tell others of my Periodic Table - hooray!

Later that year, a government shutdown stopped movement forward at USPTO, with naught else done there about my invention until the following spring.

Another slowdown occurred when the pandemic struck, but it looked like movement toward getting the long-awaited patent on my invention would proceed in August of 2020.

So, that's three years after I paid $16,000 to start the patent application process.

However, by the luck of the draw, the reviewer assigned to grant passage to my patent turned out to be one of the most persnickety ever, slowing the process again.

No one had ever warned me about such a person at the USPTO.

Such a disappointing time that was!

Then, at last, it was finally approved!!!

The date was January 4, 2022.

Five and a half years had elapsed from the time I received the provisional patent to the granting of the industrial patent on my invention.

I had no idea it would take so long.

As I learned today, that's more typical than I'd known at the time.

 

The third, and final, session of this convention was titled "From Pitch To Powerhouse: Turning Big Ideas Into Bold Brands".

Rawand Rasheed, in the upper right, developed Helix Earth, a retrofit HVAC system that cut energy use while also improving indoor air quality.

The lower left of the screen is Chad Johnson, again talking of Grain Weevil.

The lone woman is Aisha McCain, a three-time cancer survivor, who was inspired by her own experiences to obtain several medical patents, including ones for Drain Care Wear, Smart Sleeve, and the Everyday Hero app.

They all talked of the importance of marketing to not only move the product into the world, but also to get the funding to pursue a patent.

 

Afterward, the convention held three breakout 'rooms' to allow attendees to obtain more information about the three topics of the sessions.

I went to each, hoping for an answer to my question.

"I have a patent already, but have stalled out, financially, on how to get it to market. Is this the panel that can help get my educational tool for the blind into the market?"

Each time, I was referred to the Small Business Association.

That doesn't sound like the place I need.

I need one that would protect me from dealing with scam artists. 

I've already had dealings with several of those, starting just two weeks after my patent was made official.

I'm hoping the sessions tomorrow from USPTO will be more helpful.