[Dean's World] Ron Coleman: Patently good fun

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Posted by Ron Coleman:
Patently good fun
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1165449422.shtml


   Laying pipe If you have any interest in patent law -- no, please! Keep
   reading! It'll be okay! [1]Some patent stories are good! -- you are a
   regular reader of Dennis Crouch's [2]Patently-O blog. He was the first
   or second blogger to link to my own blog, and he stands astride the
   field like the pencil-necked geek he and his kind are.

   He did a [3]cool little experiment. A professor of law at Boston
   University and a practicing patent lawyer, he'd be the first to admit
   this is entirely awful demographic / sociological statistical
   technique, but it's still pretty good cocktail party nosh:

     Name and contact-information is available for registered US patent
     attorneys. This weekend, I took a quick look at that database and
     compared it to [4]US census data. You see lots of law firms with
     odd names headlining the banner, and I wanted to see whether
     attorneys with uncommon names were rising to the top â or, instead,
     if patent attorneys just have uncommon names. I also wanted to see
     whether the rate of various names could help us deduce anything
     about minority representation before the PTO.

                           [PatentlyO2006010.jpg]

   Go, Cohens, go! [Myron_Cohen.jpg]

References

   1. http://www.likelihoodofconfusion.com/?p=657
   2. http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/
   3. http://www.patentlyo.com/patent/2006/12/whats_in_a_name.html
   4. http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/names_files.html