The Mickey Mouse Protection Act

When you hear The Mickey Mouse Protection act, you are probably thinking about how to keep the mouse’s tail out from under the heavy boots of the Florida State Governor. But the Law that is informally called the Mickey Mouse Protection Act of 1995 extended copyright protection for an additional 20 years, giving Disney until November 2024 before the first copyrights on Mickey Mouse begin to roll off copyright protection.  This means that by Christmas of 2024 you can start to borrow and modify aspects of Steamboat Willie’s 1928 movie including the world-famous Mickey Mouse figure. HOWEVER, step softly around the mouse because Disney does have dozens of trademarks, so what comes into public domain on the one four-fingered hand, might still have intellectual property protection on the other. 

Samsung Takes over from IBM in the US Patents issued in 2022

Samsung Electronics received the most US patents in 2022 for the first time since 1993. IBM, which had held the top spot for 29 consecutive years, came in second place.

Rank	Company	Patents
1	Samsung Electronics	6,248
2	IBM	4,398
3	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing	3,024
4	Huawei Technologies	2,836
5	Canon	2,694
6	LG Electronics	2,641
7	Qualcomm	2,625
8	Intel	2,418
9	Apple	2,285
10	Toyota	2,214

 In terms of the total "assigned" patents, IBM has also lost #1 position to Samsung.

See prior posts about the Patent King, IBM: https://www.intellzine.com/2021/03/the-patent-king-ibm-for-28-years.html

Oil & Gas Spills in North America Since 2010

This was posted over in SustainZine originally, but it does pertain to Innovation. The costs of the old systems of fossil fuels are far greater than the price we all pay at the pump. Plus they are crazy subsidized (one estimate is 1% of GDP directly and about 6% indirectly).

But here's the article. *** SustainZine ***

A question I sometimes ask of people who think that fossil fuels are here forever more and that electrification of everything will never happen... 

Has there ever been an oil spill in Yellowstone National Park? If so, how many?

Innovative Countries -- Global Innovation Index

 

This is a great summary of innovation by country from Visual Capitalist. See the Global Innovation Index (GII) map here:https://www.visualcapitalist.com/most-innovative-countries-2022/

We, at Strategic Business Planning Company, www.SBP.com, are always interesting in all aspects of innovation. Sometimes we hear from a layperson or an executive that the most innovative country in the work is ...  

Israel and Ireland were mentioned in recent years.  One executive said that "all innovation comes from Israel". All right, admittedly, Israel is a great source of innovation and invention, but it is a very small country (population, GDP). In absolute terms, Israel is not even close, but in relative terms (adjusted for size of country), Israel is a very respectable #16 in the world (GII score of 50.2).

Giving Season is Here!

It is giving season, with Giving Tuesday coming up after the long Thanksgiving weekend. Now is the best time of the year to reach out to your Donors and make sure that they are thinking of you as they give thanks for the year and give donations into the end of the tax year.  GivingTuesday.org  #GivingTuesday

First, it is a busy week starting on Thanksgiving.

Misery Index (and Pain Index)

The Misery Index hasn’t been talked about much since the 1970s when unemployment was really high and inflation was double digit. The argument is that high unemployment is painful, and high inflation is painful, so when you add the two together you get a good measure of the misery throughout the economy. Both presidents Ford and Carter had average Misery indexes of 16, but Carter when out of office in 1980 leaving a Misery Index of almost 20 to Ronald Reagan.

Pain Index

Wikipedia does a great job of organizing information and trends related to Misery Index by country over time. The article presents 2013 as an example year, just a couple years out of the worldwide Great Recession of 2007-2008. Several countries had Misery Indexes of 60 or more (Venezuela, 79.4 and Iran, 61.6).  The US had a Misery Index of 11 in 2013, predominantly because of persistently higher unemployment, inflation was below 2%.) High inflation, or even hyperinflation, is usually associated with an unstable economy.  In 2019, Venezuela had a Miser Index that was basically unmeasurable because of inflation that was 1000% or far higher.

OZ, by any other Name, could be a Profitable Opportunity!

Opportunity Zones present a hidden opportunity for Real Estate (RE) investment that should be widely utilized across the US. Why not? (View Interactive HUD Map here.)

There’s a spectacular investment tool that was associated with tax cuts of 2017 by the Trump administration. Along with the massive tax cuts, there was a non-partisan tax break to funnel private investments into underdeveloped communities around the nation.

Is Trade Secret a Good Strategy? A Trade Secret Assessment

The most widely identified Trade Secret is, of course, Coke Cola. (The original formula included caffeine and cocaine – thus the name – but that is a different discussion!) In 1903, cocaine was removed, leaving caffeine as the sole stimulant ingredient, and all medicinal claims were dropped. But the Coke-a-Cola trade secret lives on. Sections below:  Most Widely Acknowledged Trade Secrets.  Our Trade Secrets Assessment Tool. Trade secrets definition and law (UTSA).

The Patent KING: IBM for 28 years

IBM is again the leader in patents issued. That's 28 years and running.  IBM had 9,130 patents issued in 2020, compared to the next highest, Samsung with 6,416.  There's about 15 electronic and manufacturing companies with 2,000 to 3,000 patents issued. Note that all the top 10 are electronics and/or chip makers.  Forbes has a nice article by Roberts about the top 20 patent recipients of 2020. 

Apple, the largest company by market cap ($2.1T), is 8th with 2,792 patents. Apple is starting to get serious about batteries and autos.

Stop Gaming GameStop, Robinhood. Hold em, or Fold em?

What’s up with the Stock Market(s)? Feb 8, 2021 the various stock market indexes all hit all time highs. Wow. First off, Trump was very business friendly – some would argue too business friendly (at the expense of the environment and labor. But the market has chugged happily upward based on the likelihood of a Biden win and the certainty of it after the election. Markets don’t like uncertainty, and Trump has been a wildcard on many things like trade and certain industries. But historically the markets have gone up after a presidential election no matter which party wins. Of course, there are sector winners (renewables) and losers (oil, coal and gas).