Spoke 10/6/2016

Posted by Philip Rentz
 
 
Called to order by: President Kevin
 
Opening Song: R-O-T-A-R-Y
 
Patriotic Song: My Country, 'Tis of Thee.
 
Invocation: Jon Blodgett.
 
Song Leader: Steve Christy, interrupted by our pianist, Ernst. We struggled with “Advance Australia Fair” and then sang “Don’t Fence Me In” with ease.
 
Visiting Rotarians:
None
 
Guests:
None
 
Raffle: John Y. had the answer to Willy’s volcanic question and pulled Dan’s ticket. Dan drew a heart, but it was the 2!
 
Announcements:
  • Rotary Leadership Institute, DHMC, October 15, 2016: pay the fee and submit to the club for reimbursement.
  • District 7850's Million Dollar Challenge Dinner, October 22nd at the Woodstock Inn, Station, and Brewery, North Woodstock, NH
  • November 19th is the Auction. Follow-up on your list of contacts and contact Jane Mason with details on donated auction items.  Don’t wait, do it now!
  • Interact Meeting was held October 5th at Mascoma High School. The initial sign-up was 17, but only 5 students showed up, the rest had sports events or other activities.  Steve Whitman, President Kevin, and Sue Donnelly from Riverside conducted the meeting.  Next meeting on Oct. 20th.
 
 
 
Brags:
 
  • Rick bragged about making a Rotary deposit and the teller wouldn’t make change for him because he didn’t have an account with that Bank.
  • JoAnn wanted us to think about all the people in Haiti who were affected by Hurricane Matthew.
  • Don can’t attend the dinner for the Australian and offered for someone to go in his place.
  • Steve W. had tickets to Macbeth to give away, which Ron M. gladly accepted.
 
 
Rotary Minute: Evan Leary was surprised with his assignment to give the Rotary Minute but came up with a good piece updating us on the Rotary initiative to eradicate polio. Nigeria has been reclassified as several cases were discovered in September 2016. Surveillance is even reaching areas in conflict.
 
 
Speaker: Michael Weins, Patent Attorney
“Trademarks in a nutshell” is how Rotary Club member Michael Weins described his presentation. Born in Ypsilanti, Michigan Mike studied at the University of Michigan, Harvard, and Loyola University. He started his practice in Lebanon in 1981 and frequently rode the Amtrak Montrealer to Washington, where the patent office was right above Union Station.  He told people that he “didn’t even need a coat”.
 
Mike gave simple examples of how patent law works, such as a picture he took of his office building and a picture his associate Jeffrey took.  No copy-write infringement because although both are photos of the same subject, the Authors were different. It would be a different matter if one had used the photo taken by the other without approval. Then came the example of Acorn Hill Farm, this name was used by multiple businesses because they were in different markets, one was organic produce, and one was a horse farm. And last, he gave the example of Ford, someone would not be allowed to start a car company using the name ‘Ford’ with Ford handwritten in an oval trademark, however if President Ford had started an underwear business he could have used the name ‘Ford’ because it wouldn’t be confused.
 
Mike closed his presentation with “Everything you need to know about Sex”. You can’t patent a color if it naturally occurs in nature, such as a rose. You would have to cross pollinate to create a unique color.
 
During the question and answer period, Mike’s assistant, Jeffrey Semprebon was asked if the Upper Valley was active with patent issues.  Jeff responded that Lebanon is the plasma torch capital of the world, and also the home to other high tech companies that required patents. He also mentioned that it takes 9-10 months at minimum for a patent to be approved, and 2-3 years was common.  When asked how long a patent was good for he said that it use to be 17 years from issue, and is now 20 years from date filed with frequent 1000 day extensions because of the length of time taken in the approval process.