Date: 2 Jan 2003 06:32:23 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: I'm writing to you to ask for clarification of UIC's policies regarding a recent idea of mine. I just read your office's web pages advertising the Online Measurement System (CR18) invention. My new idea involves a level of creativity similar to the level displayed by that invention, and has a much wider potential market. Perhaps UIC is interested in obtaining a patent on this idea, and promoting transfer of this technology to an industrial partner, for the benefit of both UIC and the general public. The invention is a Soap Saver Dish. The Soap Saver Dish is a plastic holder for soap. It has several prongs reaching up out of a tray. Soap can sit on top of the prongs, while soapy water collects in the tray. The prongs reach higher than the edge of the tray, so that water collected in the tray does not touch the soap. The prior art includes two types of soap holders: * A soap dish is a tray. It holds soap in place, and collects soapy water, keeping the soapy water off the underlying surface (unless the soap dish overflows). It does not prevent the soap from resting in water and turning to mush. * A soap saver has several prongs reaching up from a flat surface. It holds the soap in place above that surface, preventing the soap from turning to mush. It does not collect soapy water. The Soap Saver Dish combines the advantages of soap dishes and soap savers. It appears to be new. The closest prior art I have found in my market research is a soap dish with prongs at the same height as the top of the tray; this fails to keep the soap out of the water when the tray is full. The Soap Saver Dish avoids that problem. Specific questions: 1. Does this idea constitute ``intellectual property'' under the University of Illinois Policy on Patents and Copyrights? Please explain your answer in enough detail that it can be independently verified. 2. As I recall, I came up with this idea in the shower one morning. Am I correct in concluding that, under the University of Illinois Policy on Patents and Copyrights, the university does not own this idea? Please explain your answer. 3. Am I correct in concluding that I am under no obligation to report this idea to the university? Are there any relevant factors here other than the location in which I came up with the idea? Please explain your answer. 4. Whether or not disclosure is required, I could assign patent rights in this idea to the university. Is UIC interested in this idea? How does your office make these decisions?

Date: 3 Jan 2003 08:29:24 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: I am writing to you regarding another recent idea of mine. I have the same questions here that I had regarding the Soap Saver Dish. The idea is a Two-Person Cookbook. A normal recipe is a sequence of instructions for one cook to prepare a dish; when two cooks want to work together, they have to figure out which instructions can be carried out in parallel, how to fairly divide the labor among the cooks, etc. The Two-Person Cookbook already contains all this information in novel two-person recipes. I should note that I received your previous message. While I appreciate your statement of enthusiasm for the Soap Saver Dish, I cannot accept that statement as a substitute for clarification of UIC's patent policies. Does UIC require, or desire, disclosure of these ideas? Please explain your answers.

Date: 4 Jan 2003 05:14:10 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: You said in your second message that works are ``outside the patent policy'' if they are not ``within the scope of your UIC employment in the Math Department.'' But this begs the question: exactly what items are ``within the scope'' of my employment? Here's another recent idea of mine: Shared Exam Creation. I've noticed that professors often teach courses similar to courses taught before or taught at other universities. Instead of repeating all the effort of course creation from scratch, they can combine efforts. In particular, there's tremendous redundancy in the creation of thousands of similar exams on a single topic; a fraction of the effort would produce a pool of exam questions that everyone could use. The pool could include answers, grading scales, statistics on student performance, etc. Does this idea constitute ``intellectual property'' under the patent policy? Is this idea ``within the scope'' of my employment? If so, why? If not, why not?

Date: 5 Jan 2003 09:52:08 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: the Unkillable Alarm Clock. I have the same questions about the Unkillable Alarm Clock that I had about the Soap Saver Dish, the Two-Person Cookbook, and Shared Exam Creation. The Unkillable Alarm Clock makes noise for a preset amount of time. It cannot be turned off. It has a battery backup so that it cannot be usefully unplugged. It comes with a security cable so that it can be locked to an unmovable piece of furniture. It is built from reinforced steel so that it cannot be destroyed by a baseball bat. In short, unlike a normal alarm clock, the Unkillable Alarm Clock ensures that the user does not simply turn the alarm off and go back to sleep.

Date: 6 Jan 2003 09:38:14 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Luggage Key Escrow. As I'm sure you've heard, the government often needs to open luggage checked on commercial planes. The Luggage Key Escrow idea is to deposit copies of luggage keys with the government, so that luggage can be safely locked without interfering with the government's need to open the luggage. Of course, electronic locks will allow simpler key management than traditional pin-tumbler locks.

Date: 7 Jan 2003 14:55:06 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Multiple TV Guide Channels. Right now, a typical cable TV service has only one TV Guide Channel, which takes several minutes to present a complete TV listing. With Multiple TV Guide Channels, the TV viewer can see the complete TV listing much more quickly. The listing can be organized by channel, by time, by type of show, etc.; with enough TV Guide Channels, listings organized in several different ways can be presented simultaneously.

Date: 8 Jan 2003 08:11:27 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Frequent Flyer Belt Buckles. Airports have turned up the sensitivity on their metal detectors at security checkpoints. Common metal belt buckles are now setting off the detectors, so passengers are forced to take their belts off. Frequent Flyer Belt Buckles solve this problem: they are made of materials that don't set off airport metal detectors.

Date: 9 Jan 2003 08:01:12 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: AspiTonin. Many people take daily doses of aspirin. Many people take daily doses of melatonin. An AspiTonin tablet contains both aspirin and melatonin, so that people who want both drugs can take a single tablet. AspiTonin is also suitable for occasional use.

Date: 10 Jan 2003 09:38:22 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Internet Bus Locators. It can be rather frustrating to plan bus travel, because buses almost never run on time. An Internet Bus Locator is a web site that shows the current locations of buses and, possibly, updated estimates for the arrival times of the buses at subsequent stops, allowing passengers to adapt their schedules accordingly.

Date: 11 Jan 2003 09:45:28 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: This is the tenth message I've sent you on this topic. Your responses so far really haven't been of any help in clarifying UIC's policies. Is there some reason you aren't answering my questions? Anyway, here's another idea I've had: Coin-Operated Elevators. With Coin-Operated Elevators, instead of pressing an elevator button, the passenger inserts a coin into an appropriate slot. Coin-Operated Elevators help shift the costs of running an elevator to the passengers who use the elevator. They also discourage pranksters from annoying legitimate users by casually pressing random elevator buttons.

Date: 12 Jan 2003 09:18:07 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Surround-Sound Telephones. Current telephones transmit a single sound channel. Surround-Sound Telephones transmit several sound channels, allowing the listener to hear separate sounds from different directions. Surround-Sound Telephones are particularly convenient for conference calls.

Date: 13 Jan 2003 19:46:41 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Weight Beaters. Weight Beaters are a method of encouraging participants to lose weight. A participant who does not lose the desired number of pounds in a month is beaten up. This negative feedback can, of course, be combined with more traditional positive-feedback weight-loss mechanisms.

Date: 14 Jan 2003 10:35:37 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Cellular Clock Service. My cell phone requires manual setting of the current time. With Cellular Clock Service, the current date, time, time zone, etc. are transmitted by cell towers, for automatic use by cell phones.

Date: 15 Jan 2003 09:49:52 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Triple Toilet-Paper Rolls. You may have noticed stores carrying packs of double rolls of toilet paper. Each double roll carries twice as many square feet of paper as a single roll, typically 50 square feet instead of 25 square feet, with not much increase in the diameter. Hey, if double is better, why not triple? A Triple Toilet-Paper Roll has three times as many square feet of paper as a single roll. The relative increase in diameter from a double roll to a triple roll is even smaller than the increase from a single roll to a double roll. Toilet-paper-roll holders can easily be selected to accommodate Triple Toilet-Paper Rolls.

Date: 16 Jan 2003 08:40:43 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Instant Balance Transfers. Today, credit-card balance transfers typically take days to be debited by the new company, and days more to be credited by the old company. There is no reason, in this age of modern communication technology, for balance transfers to take so long. Instant Balance Transfers are debited and credited within minutes of being requested.

Date: 17 Jan 2003 12:13:32 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Count-Every-Last-Stride Elliptical Runners. I noticed today that a Precor EFX 546 elliptical-runner exercise machine didn't count all my strides. It showed 6006 strides at 32:59; I did a few more strides; it reached its time limit of 33:00 and continued to show 6006 strides, ignoring the strides I had done in the final second. I would have found this quite frustrating if it had made the difference between, say, 5998 and 6001 strides. A Count-Every-Last-Stride Elliptical Runner is just like a Precor EFX 546, but it counts all the strides performed by the user, including the strides performed in the last second.

Date: 18 Jan 2003 11:39:20 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Optional Library Book Tracking. Sometimes I need to briefly consult a book that one of my colleagues has checked out of the library. If I knew who had the book, I could simply drop by the right office and look at the book, with a minimum of fuss. For privacy reasons, libraries normally don't reveal who has checked out a book. Optional Library Book Tracking means that someone checking out a book can tell the library that this disclosure is okay. Of course, the same information could be maintained on a third-party web page, but having the library publish the information is more convenient and more reliable.

Date: 19 Jan 2003 09:59:39 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Google Caller ID. Normal Caller ID reveals the phone number of a caller, and in some cases the name of the caller. Google Caller ID reveals much more information: the results of a Google search for the phone number. Like normal Caller ID, Google Caller ID can be performed automatically while the phone is ringing.

Date: 20 Jan 2003 11:29:33 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Internet Laundry Completion Notices. Typical home laundry facilities include buzzers that alert the user when a load of laundry is done. Buzzers do not work, however, when the user is far away from the laundry: for example, when the user starts a load in a laundry room in a typical high-rise apartment building and then goes back to his apartment. With Internet Laundry Completion Notices, each washer and dryer sends email to the user when a load finishes.

Date: 21 Apr 2003 08:02:57 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Several high-priority tasks over the past few months have forced me to delay some disclosures of patentable ideas. Please accept my apologies; I will endeavor to catch up as soon as possible. I am, of course, aware of UIC's budget cuts; I hope that your office will, sometime soon, be able to successfully commercialize an invention, and thus help the university survive these difficult times. Here's the first item in my backlog: Raisin Bran Shipment Flipping. As you are probably aware, raisins and bran have different densities. Vigorous shaking of a box of raisin bran, such as the shaking that happens naturally during a truck shipment, will eventually separate the raisins from the bran, to the annoyance of the eventual raisin-bran consumer. Raisin Bran Shipment Flipping means periodically changing the orientation of a raisin-bran box: for example, shipping the box for an hour right side up, then an hour upside down, then an hour right side up, then an hour upside down, and so on. Each change will reverse the direction of raisin flow through the bran, so that the raisins do not collect at one end of the box.

Date: 22 Apr 2003 04:32:59 -0000 Dear Ms. Tarzian: Here's another idea I've had: Caffeinated Mango Juice. As the success of Mountain Dew (sweetened caffeinated orange juice with other ingredients) demonstrates, many caffeine users like to take their caffeine with large doses of sugar. Surely some of these users are fans of the sweet taste of mangoes, and would switch to Caffeinated Mango Juice as their preferred morning drink if it were readily available.