I told you last week about the Center for Commercialization & Entrepreneurial Training (CCET) at Technology Ventures Corporation. Well if you have an invention, idea or technology that is ready to patent, consider attending their session on “Writing Your Own Patent Application” on February 22, 2012 from 8:30am to 12:30am.

My partner and I attended this same session last August and had our patent application written in less than two weeks. Bruce Winchell gave us all the information we needed to write a compelling patent application on our technology, and provided samples of corretly submitted applications. Mr. Winchell also met with us prior to filing to confirm our application was well written, correct and complete. And it was all free! It costs $625 to file a utility patent with the USPTO, and would probably cost thousands more if you out-source this to an IP attorney. I’m certainly not recommending you forego the legal help, but if you’re a start-up like ours bootstrapping your way to success, then attending this session is certainly to your benefit.

The seminar will include:

1. A review of the Patent Laws and most recent case law related to writing patent applications that will stand up in court.

2. A review of the latest Patent Office Rules and mechanics of actually writing the application to maximize the probability of being issued as patents.

3. Claim drafting to maximize the scope while providing best ability to survive legal tests in the courts.

With patent laws changing to “First to File,” you really don’t want to hesitate on getting your inventions patented.

Learn more and register online for CCET seminars at techventures.org.

One question that’s come up repeatedly is whether a unified calendar combining all the relevant business and/or technology (and/or creative) community could be created — and to a large extent it already has.  In fact there are at least two calendars that include the bulk of events we expect our audience will be most interested in.  

New Mexico Business Calendar
Our friends at Finance New Mexico have the most robust, statewide and searchable calendar for New Mexico business interests currently online, and we (and other tech associations) will be using it more.  If you haven’t seen it recently, please visit them at:  http://bizcalendar.org/ 

New Mexico Tech Calendar
A grassroots collaborative effort in Albuquerque created a shared/open Google Calendar to capture the variety of developer, designer, and web related community events going on in the Albuquerque area. It’s easily shared and embedded, but underused at the moment – though there are efforts underway to re-energize this effort. Find it at: 
http://nmtechcal.com/

New Mexico Technology Council
The Tech Council’s calendar is also online, providing the back end here and also available directly. We also offer ‘Open Office Hours’ with our Executive Director, Eric Renz-Whitmore in Albuquerque, Los Alamos and Santa Fe. For those using Google Calendar, visit http://bit.ly/technorthofficehours and click on the grey block for your preferred time.  Simply add your name – and any additional information you like – to the block.

Standard Open Office Hours are:
Albuquerque:  Tuesdays 9:00 – 10:30 AM (Downtown Flying Star)
Los Alamos:  Wednesdays 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM (Starbucks on Central – Or Suggest a Coffee Shop!)
Santa Fe: Fridays 9:30 – 11:00 AM (Santa Fe Complex)

Don’t have a Google address?  Email us at eric@nmtechouncil.org 

Do you have suggestions for what you’d like to see?  Let us know!