• "We think your idea has great market potential."
• "Our company has licensed a lot of invention ideas successfully."
• "You need to hurry and patent your idea before someone else does."
• "Congratulations! We've done a patent search on your idea, and we have some great news. There's nothing like it out there."
• "Our research department, engineers, and patent attorneys have evaluated your idea. We definitely want to move forward."
• "Our company has evaluated your idea, and now wants to prepare a more in-depth research report. It'll be several hundred dollars."
• "Our company makes most of its money from the royalties it gets from licensing its clients' ideas. Of course, we need some money from you before we get started."

Why?

Because

• "We think your idea has great market potential." Few ideas - however good - become commercially successful. If a company fails to disclose that investing in your idea is a high-risk venture, and that most ideas never make any money, beware.
• "Our company has licensed a lot of invention ideas successfully." If a company tells you it has a good track record, ask for a list of its successful clients. Confirm that these clients have had commercial success. If the company refuses to give you a list of their successful clients, it probably means they don't have any.
• "You need to hurry and patent your idea before someone else does." Be wary of high pressure sales tactics. Although some patents are valuable, simply patenting your idea does NOT mean you will ever make any money from it.
• "Congratulations! We've done a patent search on your idea, and we have some great news. There's nothing like it out there." Many invention promotion firms claim to perform patent searches on ideas. Patent searches by fraudulent invention promotion firms usually are incomplete, conducted in the wrong category, or unaccompanied by a legal opinion on the results of the search from a patent attorney. Because unscrupulous firms promote virtually any idea or invention without regard to its patentability, they may market an idea for which someone already has a valid, unexpired patent. In that case, you may be the subject of a patent infringement lawsuit - even if the promotional efforts on your invention are successful.
• "Our research department, engineers, and patent attorneys have evaluated your idea. We definitely want to move forward." This is a standard sales pitch. Many questionable firms do not perform any evaluation at all. In fact, many don't have the "professional" staff they claim.
• "Our company has evaluated your idea, and now wants to prepare a more in-depth research report. It'll be several hundred dollars." If the company's initial evaluation is "positive," ask why the company isn't willing to cover the cost of researching your idea further.
• "Our company makes most of its money from the royalties it gets from licensing its clients' ideas. Of course, we need some money from you before we get started." If a firm tells you this, but asks you to pay a large fee - up-front or to agree to make credit payments - ask why they're not willing to help you on a contingency basis. Unscrupulous firms make almost all their money from advance fees.
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Photo Credit: stock.xchnge

I don't know. Someone please tell me if they do know. However, numerous heart shaped objects and Valentine's Day card ideas have been patented. In honor of Valentine's Day here are a few articles of interest:

• The History of Valentine's Day
• Heart Shaped Patents
• Gallery of Valentine's Day Cards
• Patenting of an Aphrodisiac
• History of Chocolate

St Valentine Day has roots in several different legends that have found their way to us through the ages. One of the earliest popular symbols of the Valentine day is Cupid, the Roman god of love, who is represented by the image of a young boy with bow and arrow. Valentine Factoid: In the 1840s, Esther Howland (1828-1904), a native of Massachusetts, began to sell the nation's first mass-produced valentines.

Trademarks of Love

Can love be trademarked? I did a search for love at the Patent and Trademark Office and I found eight thousand, two hundred and sixty two word marks alone with love involved. A few of my favorites were: True Love, Make Love Not Dinner, Love and Marriage, That's Amore, Starting New Love Affairs Daily, Luv Bites, I Love Lucy, I Love You Honey, and Love You To Death.

The mark to the right comprises the stylized term "love" and design and is registered to the Apon Record Company. Photo Credit: Tooga/Getty

One man that could be named a "father" of the iPod is Tony Fadell. Tony Fadell wanted to invent a better MP3 player. After being turned down by RealNetworks and Phillips, Fadell found support for his project with Apple Computers. Tony Fadell went to work for Apple in 2001 as an independent contractor, leading a team of thirty people to develop the iPod. The formal codename for the project was P-68, but informally, the team used the term "Dulcimer".

My Favorite iPod History Factoids

• Apparently, Tony Fadell is quite a character. He was once asked where he would be in life if he'd grown up before computers were invented. Fadell's response was "In jail."
• According to Fadell's website, Tony Fadell's first job was selling eggs to his neighbors in Rochester, New York. Fadell was an enterprising eight-year-old at the time.
• What was the first song played using Apple's iTunes? It was a house-music dance tune called Groovejet (If This Ain't Love).
• The first generation iPods had scroll wheels that physically rotated. Post 2003 iPods (third generation) have touch sensitive wheels. Fourth generation (2004) iPods have buttons integrated onto the wheel.
• The iPod's wheel technology can measure changes in position greater than 1/1,000th of an inch.

By definition music is "an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner." Learn about the inventions behind the music and discover who invented the piano, clarinet and other musical instruments. Illustration: Free Photos