Expert experience

Every new assignment brings interesting challenges, but there is a common thread.  Concentration applied to identifying the important issues, gathering information by research on the web, in the library or in the lab, drafting responses to arguments made by the opposition, then working with lawyers on our side to best and most clearly express these responses. The result is a Declaration which is signed and sent.

Usually, the other side wants to learn how solid the evidence really is, and how well the expert can defend it. Discovery thus includes a deposition - a meeting in which a series of questions is posed by opposition lawyers while the expert is defended by our side's lawyer.  All the discussion is taken down by a court reporter using shorthand or a special typewriter.  Sometimes the depositions are videoed..

Many cases are settled between the lawyers after the depositions of both sides' experts.

If not, a trial date is set, and from the witness box the expert answers prepared questions posed by our side's lawyer.  Cross-examination by the other side's lawyer follows.  Sometimes the judge will ask questions.  If a jury trial, then the jury settles questions or fact while the judge rules on questions of the law.  In criminal cases, witnesses are unreliable and the defendant is probably lying.  It's the jury's task to identify the truth within the testimony which the judge allows.

In civil cases, both sides have some right on their side, both are exaggerating, and the judge must rule on each of the requests of the plaintiff for relief from the defendant. For example, the plaintiff may ask the court to find that the defendant is manufacturing and selling a product covered by the plaintiff's unexpired patent. The relief may include an injunction prohibiting the defendant from selling his product.  Often, financial penalties like all the profits from the infringer's sales will be requested.

  

Impact of Technology on Global Entrepreneurship

Last year I gave a talk at the East-West University with the title of this post.  The importance of understanding the science behind political questions was the emphasis.  Richard Muller at Berkeley's Physics department has written books on energy, nuclear weapons, global warming and cosmology.  "Physics for Future Presidents" is worth buying.  A psychologist's book "Thinking Fast and Slow" describes the danger of impulsive decision making.  Engineers need to apply the scientific method - collect and evaluate data.  Formulate and test hypotheses and trial designs.

My Patents

Many years ago the issue of traffic delay caused by lane blockage during expressway repair was frequently in the news.  Keeping a lane open during its repair by routing the traffic over it with a 4.5 ft high by 160 ft long bridge was the subject of my "MORV" patent.  Issued in 1964, this patent described repair equipment mounted under the "mobile overpass road-repair vehicle", traffic control and throughput over it, and advanced patching techniques.  Although providing a smooth highway with extended life seems important, the politics of highway construction and maintenance are probably in control.

Although patents may only be issued in the name of the actual inventor, one concept I developed for an industrial client was patented by him in his name.  The problem was a noisy, impacting swinging gate.  My solution involved a unique geometry for cushioning both opening and closing of the gate with a single shock absorber.

Patent infringement and mechanical design

Before investing effort in a detailed design, an engineer with a new concept should immediately perform a state-of-the-art search,  www.freepatentsonline.com provides free, key-word access to patents and more.  Older patents showing your concept are not a bar to your manufacturing, but are prior art and a bar to your being granted a  patent.  Sometimes, a professional state-of-the-art search is a good investment even early in the problem definition process.  On one occasion I paid for most of a patent application before traveling to DC and finding a 1940 patent that described my idea almost exactly.  (Several years ago older patents were not available to online searching.)

Today, individual inventors can file a provisional patent at very low cost and effort.  The provisionals aren't evaluated by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), but create a record of invention date.  This gives the inventor freedom to discuss his/her concept without asking for non-disclosure agreements.  For more information please see - www.rollindix.biz.