Thursday, January 22, 2015

"I can make a better one."

Business:

Businesses, businesses, and more businesses.  I am absolutely loving the experiences of visiting businesses that are in so many different industries.  Many of these businesses have made me really look deep into what I really want to do with my life after graduation.  I cannot say I have figured that one out yet.

Andew Hammod with Valea was out first stop of the day.  Valea was founded in 1894 and is a patent
company.  This company does work in classic patent/tradework handling world wide, design and domain name matters, searches to map market areas, license agreements, agreement disputes, and litigation.  Andrew is an European Patent Attorney.  He actually has a background in engineering and law.  Due to the set up of the company it is almost required to have this type of background.  The engineering background helps with designing or fixing flaws in ideas.  The law background obviously is for the attorneys to understand the laws for each patent and what products can have what patents.  It is definitely a difficult business to be in.

In the initial process of becoming a patent attorney there is a three day exam that needs to be passed.  From what I understand it is a great thing that the test is only once.  Of course, there are some classes and test that need to be taken while in the industry.  Laws change and the attorneys need to be up to date.  Otherwise they are going to have some pretty upset customers when they promise a patent to pass and it does not.

Valea has around 100 employees and are located in five locations.  These locations are Goteborg, Linkoping, Lund, Malmo, and Stockholm.  Besides Goteborg, all of these locations are pretty far away.  We asked why they were located in Goteborg with all of these other locations.  Andrew's response was that, "The customers want us here."  I would say that is a pretty valid point.  A good amount of their top customers are located either right in Goteborg or just right outside of the city.  Because they only do work of the highest quality they need to be close to their customers.  In 2013, Valea had sales of 185 MSEK.  This is a great number when taking into consideration that they do not discriminate against anything when it comes to their customers.  No matter the size, or any other matter, they will accept a customer if they see that there is an idea that will help mankind.

Some of Valea's customers consist of SKF, Volvo Cars, Getinge, Ericsson, St. Jude Medical, and
Volvo AB.  Just to name a few of the big companies.  The money that backs these companies are in the millions to billions.  Clearly, they do not have an issue with paying for patents and the attorney fees for them.  For those who are not as fortunate are able to get funding from the government.  The government in Europe actually has money set aside for inventors.  The ideas from these people who need the funds have to have an idea that is of commercial use. 

With some ideas it can be tricky to determine if it is an invention or a discovery.  Some might argue that fire is an invention.  This would be incorrect.  Fire is a discovery.  How to create fire on the other hand is an invention and can be patented.  An example would be matches as an invention.  Some very famous inventors are Leonado DaVinci, Alfred Nobel, and Steve Jobs.  These are only a very small few.  DaVinci invented the helicopter and the parachute.  Alfred Nobel is actually from Sweden and invented dynamite.  Most of us know who Steve Jobs is.  He is the master mind behind all the computer technology in mobile phones. 

For a couple of inventions that were not so popular.  Someone tried to create a dog hanger.  If a customer did not want a dog to get the inside of the car dirty they could hang the dog outside of the car.  I do not know how anyone could have thought of that.  The first thing in my mind was safety issues.  The dog could easily get killed and then what?  Not the best idea in my opinion.  Then there was someone that tried their hand at hands free mobile.  What they did was use a rubber band and attach a cell phone to it.  This went right around the person's head.  I can only imagine the marks those people would leave with on their foreheads.  People have tried to come up with some great ideas, but they all still needed some work.

As we can see, an invention can either be a tangible product or a method of how to obtain that tangible product.  I am not sure if this next item is a product or method.  It could potentially be both, but most will argue that it is a product.  A thirteen year old girl in Sweden came up with an amazing idea.  For athletes it gets difficult when they want to fill up their water bottles and the faucets are only do deep.  This young girl thought of the idea of having an opening on the side of the bottle to fill it up.  She came up with the name Binibottle.  Bini is actually a latin term for pair or twin.  Which fits because of the fact that the bottle has two openings to it.

An idea this simple would cost someone around $25,000.  This cost also covers the patent in five to
six other countries.  Even with a patent as simple as this, it is not that simple.  In today's games patents have to be very specific.  If they are not people can find loop holes and end up earning more money on your product than you are.

This is why the list of things that can be trademarked is so long.  A trademark can cover a name, word, logo, slogan, symbol, number and/or letter combo, jingle, color, smell, or even a sound.  The largest trademark in the world right now is Coca-Cola.  The trademark is simply for the name.  It is crazy how much Coca-Cola could sell only the name for.  Probably a couple billion.

Hasselblad company was founded in 1982.  The name itself was started in the 1940's during the second world war.  The Air Force came to Victor Hasselblad, the founder of Hasselblad, and asked if he could create an aerial camera that would help them fight.  The Air Force actually found a crashed German aircraft that had a camera, like the one the air force was looking for, on it.  They asked Victor if he could replicate the camera.  He said no, he could make a better one. 

Victor initially started out just enjoying photography.  Never really thinking about creating a business
out of designing them.  He enjoyed taking pictures of the birds in flight.  Back in these days that was very difficult because the cameras did not adjust and snap pictures as fast as they do now.  Especially with still having a good picture that is not all blurry.

In 1945, Victor decided that he wanted to make a camera for the citizens, not only the military.  The very first camera he ever created though was in 1943 and a second one in 1944.  The first few models were actually made from wood.  Today they are made from aluminum.  Designing the cameras was not enough for Victor.  He started to design the film as well.  He did not want to only take black and white photos, he wanted to take color photos as well.  The only difference here being, he wanted to be able to change the film quickly on the site.  He succeeded in that.

The prices of these cameras range from 8600 euros to 30000 euros.  It is even more expensive in American money.  Due to the fact that they are so expensive they are not normally sold to the average citizen.  These cameras are sold to places like the military, NASA, and very famous journalists.  NASA actually used Hasselblad cameras on the moon.  They bought around thirteen to fifteen cameras and only one returned.  There is one camera that is still on the moon by the first foot print.  The rest are floating around in space somewhere.  Who knows maybe one day we could get them
back.  Might be interesting.

Leisure:

SWEDISH TASTE!!!!!!  We finally got to cook a real four dish dinner.  We were split up into groups and were given different dishes that needed to be made.  My group got the starter dish.  The starter dish had the reindeer.  Unfortunately, I had to prepare the reindeer.  It was not as bad as I thought it was.  It tasted a lot like steak.  The dish turned out great with reindeer, beets, egg, and a sauce.  It was great.  Even the chefs said so.

Another group had soup which was delicious and I am not one for soup.  The third group had the main dish.  This was actually roaster, mashed potatoes, and onion.  The fourth group did an amazing job.  They made the dessert.  The dessert was sponge cake, sorbet, caramel nuts, whipped cream, and these very citricie berries.  I do not think I have ever been so full in my life.  I could not believe how delicious the food tasted and how we made it, not the professional chefs.  The fact that they thought it was delicious too just added so much to the experience.  We even got to keep our aprons.  This was definitely a once in a life time opportunity and now I can say that I can COOK!!!!!

Daily Reflections:
  • I guess I can cook a little bit.
  • I wish I had money for a patent.
  • There is so many different foods that go into making a single dish.
  • I will always enjoy working in teams.
  • Too much garlic Tanner.

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