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One question I am often asked regarding trademarks whenever I discuss IP law with a group of young budding students, entrepreneurs or startup companies is “How to register a trademark in India?”. There are several articles and blogs that explains how to register a trademark in India in one way or the other but I hope that this post will be comprehensive enough to answer most of them.A trademark is anyword (PEPSI, COCO COLA, PEPSODENT),name (RAYMOND VEIL, CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN),surname (TATA, BATA, BAJAJ),signature (LOUIS PHILIPPE),letters (BMW, IBM, HDFC),numeral (555, 501),symbol (MERCEDES BENZ THREE POINTED STAR, ADDIDAS PYRAMID),device (AMUL GIRL, PILLSBURY BOY),color scheme (PIZZA HUT, DOMINOS),packaging (CADBURY’S),shape of goods (COCO COLA BOTTLE)or any combination thereof that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.When the mark is used in respect of services then the mark is also commonly referred to as Service Mark. Ex: DHL, HILTON, INFOSYS are service marks. However, since the distinction between goods and services are not always clear, the term trademark is often used to include service marks as well.What is classification of goods and services or classes?When you file an application for registration of a trademark you need to mention the list of goods/services for which you intend to use your trademark. India follows an international system of classification called the “Nice Classification” according to which the goods and services are categorized into 45 classes, with goods covered in classes 1 to 35 and services covered under classes 36 to 45.If the trademark is AMUL the goods for which it is used are “cheeses” and the class will be “29″. Likewise if the trademark is EXPEDIA the services for which it is used are “Online reservations and information regarding travel etc” and the class will be 39.If you do not know which class or classes your goods or services fall in, please use the Classification search tool euroclass or the list of goods/services as published by the Indian trademark office.Search the records of the Indian Trademark Office – Online!Prevention is better than cure. Before you file an application for or consider using your trademark, search the records of the Indian trademark office to check if someone has already chosen the same or a similar trademark. You will have to search the exact class of goods and services for which you will be using your trademark. If you see any similar trademarks already on the records of the trademark office, it should raise a red flag! You will now have to carefully analyze each and every trademark and take a call on going forward with the same mark or possibly changing your trademark so that you don’t infringe another’s trademark rights.Search using Google.One of the best things that happened in this century– Punch in your trademark at Google and viola! Magic! Merely because a trademark is not filed for registration with the trademark office, does not mean it is available for you to take. In a common law country like India, usage of a trademark gets importance over filing an application/obtaining registration for a trademark. Search using Google and see if anyone is using the trademark you want to adopt. If you see a similar mark do a bit of research to see how much they have used their mark, period of usage, goods or services for which is it used, has the mark gained any reputation etc. More importantly, compare the marks yourself and decide whether your trademark will infringe the rights of the other person. Your few minutes of research will save you from the risk of choosing deceptively similar marks, resulting in lengthy oppositions and infringement action costing time and money. a. File an application with the trademark office.Congratulations! You have cleared the first two hurdles. Give yourself a pat on the back for discovering that you are going to have exclusive rights on your trademark, and proceed with filing a trademark application. You can either file a paper application with the Indian Trademark Office (TMO) or file an application online at http://ipindia.nic.in. You will require a digital signature and an Axis/SBI bank account for filing the application online. The official fee is INR.3500 (approx USD 70) per mark/class.If you are a foreign entity who wants to protect your trademark in India, consider claiming priority.India is a member to the Paris Convention and signatory to the TRIPS agreement. Hence an application can be filed in India claiming priority from the application filed in a foreign country, provided the foreign application was filed not earlier than 6 months from the date of filing the application in India.Required information:a. Name of the person/organization that will own the rights to the trademark (applicant);b. Address of the applicant;c. Nature of business of the applicant; (Ex:Manufacturers, Merchants, Traders, Service Providers)d. Trademark;e. Class;f. Specification of goods or services;g. Date of first use of your mark in India;h.When priority is claimed:(i) Priority date;(ii) Priority application number;Priority Country.Required documents:a. Application form in duplicate;b. Representation sheet in duplicate;c. When priority is claimed:(i) Certified copy of the priority application.d. Official fee by way of cheque/demand draft or cash.Trademark Offices and their Jurisdiction:There are five trademark offices in India and in which office your application is to be filed depends on your registered office address. If you do not have an address in India then the trademark office is decided on the basis of the address of your legal counsel.The jurisdiction of each trademark office is as follows:Mumbai – State of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and GoaNew Delhi – State of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Union Territory of Delhi and ChandigarhKolkatta – State of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim , Tripura and Union Territory of Nagaland, Andamar & Nicobar Island.Ahmedabad – State of Gujarat and Rajasthan and Union Territory of Damman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar HaveliChennai – State of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Union Territory of Pondicherry and Lakshadweep Island.Once the application is filed the trademark office issues a filing receipt and one copy of the representation sheet stamped with the application number and the filing date as proof of filing the application. You can thereafter see the status of your trademark application online using the application number.b. Examination of your trademark application.In approximately seven to nine months the trademark office will send you the examination report either citing the objections consisting of absolute or relative grounds or both, or, in the absence of any objections allowing the application to be published in the upcoming trademarks journal for a third party to raise objections to the registration. The time to respond to the examination report is 30 days from the receipt of the same and this deadline cannot be extended. So it is important that you file a response with the trademark office within the deadline of 30 days.The objections under absolute grounds are that– your trademark is not distinctive; i.e.: your trademark is not capable of distinguishing the goods and or services of one person from those of others.– your trademark is descriptive or devoid of any distinctive character; i.e.: your trademark directly refers to the goods or services for which the protection is sought. Ex: Trademark FAIRBEAUTY filed for cosmetics under class 03 cannot be registered.– your trademark is a generic term or is customary to trade; Ex: APPLE for fruits, SOFTWARE for software services cannot be registered.The objections under absolute grounds can be over come by stating that your trademark has acquired distinctiveness by extensive usage over a period of time and that the public in general, identifies your product or service by your trademark and that the public identifies only you in relation to your trademark and no one else. Documentary evidence is required to be filed in support of your claim along with your response.The objections under relative grounds are: the existence of similar trademarks on the records of the trademark office.The objections under relative grounds can be over come by stating that your trademark is different from the other cited marks in the examination report.In what ways your trademark is different from the others needs to be explained in detail. Submission of documentary evidence of extensive usage of your trademark will also help you to strengthen your case.c. Hearing before the examiner.In about six months from filing your response to the examination report, the trademark office will either allow the application to be published in the upcoming trademarks journal for a third party to raise objections to the registration or fix a hearing by sending you a hearing notice with a date and time to meet the examiner and explain why your trademark should be allowed to proceed towards registration. This opportunity should be exploited to explain to the examiner, the evidences filed at the time of responding to the examination report in detail and to submit additional evidence. Subsequently the examiner will pass an order either allowing or refusing registration of your application. If it is a refusal, you can appeal against the order of the examiner before the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) with 15 days of such refusal.d. Publication of the application in the trademarks journal.Within two to three weeks from the date of the examiner’s order to publish the trademark, the trademark application is published in the trademarks journal. You can download the trademark journal and check if your mark has been advertised. After the expiry of four months from the date of publication of the trademarks journal in which your mark was published, check the status of your trademark application online and if there are no objections to your trademark by way of oppositions filed by any other person, write a follow up letter to the trademark office requesting registration of your trademark and issuance of your trademark registration certificate.In the event of any person raising an objection to your trademark application by way of an opposition, the trademark office will notify you of the objection along with the copy of the notice of opposition as filed by the other party. Opposition proceedings are complicated and we suggest that you consult your legal counsel.e. Registration of your trademark and issuance of the registration certificate.If no objections are received by way of oppositions to your trademark application within this four month period, the trademark office will grant registration to your trademark and issue the registration certificate. Once you receive the registration certificate peruse the contents of the certificate to ensure that there is no discrepancy in the data and in case of any, bring it to the attention of the examiner and have it rectified.f. Renewal of your trademark registration.Every trademark registration is valid for a period of ten years from the date of filing the application. An application for renewal of a trademark registration can be made six months prior to the expiry of the registration. The renewal fee is INR 5000 (approx USD 100) per mark/class. A trademark can be renewed every ten years and thereby protected indefinitely.With an economy of a billion people, you should consider applying for a trademark registration at the nascent stage of your business to avoid time consuming and expensive litigation to protect your rights.Raja Selvam - rselvam@selvamandselvam.in

Take a look at almost every Angel investor or VC who has responded to a like question here and elsewhere.The answer is essentially:“Talk is cheap. ideas cheaper”.until you have a fully worked-through concept, including reasonable amounts of market research and competitor research, your ‘idea” is worth nothing. How do you KNOW that your idea is novel (ie new and unique). the problem is that is it is truly that new, it would take a signNow amount of effort for implementation. So, given that your idea is truly “new”, odds are that it would be an ‘incremental’ improvement rather than a ‘quantum’ jump.there are many, many of these, and in most instances, people don’t follow through because it is just not worth the development etc cost relative to the improvement.If you had a reputation as a innovator or inventor, you might be able to find partners that would be willing to “take a punt” on the strength of your reputation.

(I started to answer a very short answer and ended up with a long entry. I hope you find it useful.)As Richard Tuisk said, it depends a lot on where you are from. However, let me tell you what my experience has been so far in Estonia, what I think it is good and what I would see as a downside of living here. Of course, I need to qualify my answer by saying that I am Latin American, but also have lived in four other countries (including the US where I went to college).A quick introduction: Estonia is a small country located in the Baltic Sea next to Russia and Latvia and very close to Finland. It is part of the European Union. The area of the country is roughly the same as Switzerland or as Maryland and Massachussets combined. There is about 1.3 million people living here which means it is not densely populated. The country is essentially flat, except in the south where you find the highest point at 318 meters (1043 ft). The main city and where I live in is Tallinn. The population is about 400,000 people. Tartu is the second city with about 100,000 people and all the rest of towns are smaller than that.Immigration systemIf you are European, moving here is no problem as you enjoy all the benefits of any country within the European Union. If you are not European, the main reasons people immigrate here is to work which would guarantee a working visa or if you are married to an Estonian citizen which allows you to apply for a visa as long as you have enough funds to live here.Overall, the process to get a short-term visa is straight forward. Obtaining a long-term visa is more complicated as you have to speak the language at a relatively high level. Obtaining a citizenship requires that you give up your own citizenship.JobsAlthough Estonia suffered also during the 2008 crisis, there is enough jobs in areas of business and technology for people to move here. One of the problems Estonia faces is that it does not have enough people to fill all jobs in IT areas as I hear.There is a few big companies who recruit people from abroad, but if you don't speak the local language, your opportunities are reduced to the IT area (I work for Skype which originated here in Estonia which was acquired by Microsoft in 2011). You can see a list of notable companies here: List of companies of EstoniaSocial interactionEstonians tend to be reserved in comparison to other Europeans. I suggest to foreigners who come here to be aware of differences so they are not taken by surprise. Some examples of faux pas I have encountered:Using smalltalk in a conversation.Saying good morning when coming to office or good bye when leaving.Smiling with no reason (I have to accept that this could be awkward in Northern Europe and some parts of the US, but it is totally normal in Mediterranean or Latin American environments).Being noisy. People love their quiet here.However, it is totally Ok to try to make a conversation in English especially with young people. I am learning Estonian and try to use the language when I can, but in some occasions (say, at the pharmacy), I need to switch to English and have never found anyone being annoyed by that.The exception to all of this is if you meet young people. They tend to be more open and curious (especially women). I am speaking about more casual environments such as a cafe or a restaurant, but a bit less at work. Another obvious exception is if you are in a touristy area (such as the Old Town in Tallinn), but this should go without saying.It is totally Ok to be in a group of people and be totally silent. For example, you can have lunch or share a cab with Estonians when no one is speaking, but there is no awkwardness on it. Another thing is that people do not demonstrate much through their expressions which is one of the difficult things to deal with for me. Remember, I come from a country where you smile or frown or show your teeth if you want someone to understand you clearly.When having a conversation with an Estonian, you should say what you mean and mean what you say (remember what I said about smalltalk?). For example, if you ask "how are you?" to an Estonian, do it only if (a) you really want to know how the other person is, and (b) don't ask it if you don't know the person well. I value that Estonians take your word at face value and you should do the same with them.One word of advice is that Estonians can be very critical of others, but they are mainly critical of themselves. Someone told me once that complaining is a national sport, and I have to agree with that. In other words, when they tell you that something is truly bad here in this country, you have to take it with a grain of salt.Because of this, you should also expect that people are straight forward with you. In some cases, this borders on rudeness if I measure by my home country's standards, but here is totally Ok. I have seen a few foreigners getting shocked by that, but you get used to it. In other words, they are not politically correct (this I like very much).Also, because people are economical with the language, you shouldn't expect what I would call, a "warm" communication most of the time. As a latin person, I need to say and hear things on a beautiful way, but this doesn't happen here much. It is different when you start to get to know locals.Which brings me to the last point. It takes a while before you break the ice with an Estonian, but it is worth waiting. I have had the chance to establish a closer link with some locals outside my wife's family and I find an honesty and sincerity that I haven't seen in other places. If you get to that point, congratulations, as you have made it through this journey. By this time, you should also be an expert on sharing saunas with people you don't know (and yes, naked) and have had your share of vodka.Quality of life, services, infrastructureWhen compared to other places where I have lived, I have to say that Estonia still doesn't signNow the level of living in Germany or the US, but it is getting closer by the day. However, I would say that Estonia is already at the level that I would call it first-world country in most aspects.Infrastructure and services need some improvement, but they provide the minimum level of service. For example, if you don't have a car, you can use public transportation everywhere even if buses, trains or trams are sometimes old. Roads in Tallinn are Ok, even if you find potholes in some places. Services such as schools and hospitals are public which means that there is always a waiting list. If you need to visit a specialist doctor, you have to wait. On the other hand, the wait is not as bad as in third-world countries (like where I come from). Also, those services are basically free. The downside is that there is almost no private service, and even the ones there are rely partially on the public health system for some aspects.I have had two children born here and had no complaints about the process. In fact, I felt that everything was very professional and that they always try to do their best. However, when I spoke with Estonians, some of them were very surprised that I spoke highly of the hospital system. I guess it's up to my personal point of view in this case.Taxes are low. Personal income tax is 21% flat for everyone. If you live here and your visa allows it, you can create your own start-up in no time which is prevalent among young people in IT.By the way, unemployment was at 8% at the end of Q3 in 2013. I am no economist, but I understand that this is still considered high. However, it came down from 10.2% at the end of 2012.Food, shoppingEstonia has the typical supermarkets like any other European country. There is also local markets, but you probably need to speak Estonian or Russian. Typical food you find are potatoes, wheat-like grains, oats and so on. Pork meat and fish are eaten often here, but beef is not yet too common. Vegetables and fruits tend to be expensive. I miss having international food though. There is one supermarket in town (Stockmann) that carries some international products, but it is very expensive. I was used to visiting Oriental-type shops in Ireland and Germany, but there is none here that I know of.There is a few shopping centres, but the variety is not wide. I am in favor of buying local to support businesses here, but in many cases, we end up buying from abroad because of the lack of options or because we would have to wait for too long. For example, my wife and I love movies (yeah, still buying old-fashioned DVDs), but there is no shop that fills our expectations. Because of that, we buy everything from Amazon.ActivitiesIf you love nature, you are in luck. There is a lot of natural areas in the country and they are a short drive away. There is plenty of sea shores, forests, rivers and lakes. In the Summer you can do hiking, camping, canoeing and you can add cross country skiing in the Winter. Estonians love nature in general.If you are a city person (like myself), then that's another story. There is a few theatres, cinemas, galleries and so on, but everything is limited. Tallinn itself has the most interesting activities in the center. There is plenty of good restaurants though.Cinemas show the popular movies like everywhere else and you can find some artsy type of cinemas for alternative movies. No movie is dubbed here, but they usually carry subtitles in both Estonian and Russian.What is impressive about this countryThere is a few good things that I haven't seen outside Estonia. The first one is the electronic system prevalent in this country. When you are a foreigner and get your Estonian ID, you are also getting your electronic identity. With that, you can file taxes online, access information about property, bank accounts, mobiles, whatever services you need. When you get your local ID number, you automatically get a local e-mail address at the eesti.ee domain that you can redirect to your personal account. With that, you never miss an official communication (such as whenever is time to file your taxes).That ID has also legal validity and you can sign documents electronically anywhere in the world. For example, if you apply to get a car leasing, you don't have to show up at the bank necessarily. They send you some forms, you put your ID card in your computer reader, sign the document electronically, and send it back and that's it. It is the equivalent of putting your signature on paper in front of the bank official or lawyer. Estonian citizens and permanent residents are even allowed to vote online with their ID.A second impressive area is bureaucracy: it is a well-oiled machine. One recurrent example is taxes. You get the notification that your taxes are ready to file, you login to the tax office site, sign in, check that they have the correct information that they have collected from your company, employer and so on, sign with your ID card, and that's it. It might take as little as five minutes. My wife and I file jointly, so it takes us much longer: twenty minutes (and that's because we always forget to do one crucial step so we are delayed).The government doesn't even use paper for their minister meetings. They file everything electronically which is made available so you can follow up agendas, minutes and whatever happens there.You want to open your own company? It might take literally twenty minutes to do that too. All of this thanks to the frictionless bureaucratic system they have here. You want to park? Send a text to the number 1902 with your plate number and where you are parking and it will be charged to your mobile.One more impressive part: internet. Besides having decent speeds, there is practically free access points everywhere through the country. I personally have witnessed free available working access points in national parks and public beaches. You can read this article that talks about this (read the date: 2005!): Estonia sets shining Wi-Fi exampleIn my case, I don't use access points much because I have a decent LTE connection with my mobile. Mobile companies have good coverage and relatively good service. I remember that when we got our internet when we moved here, it took only one day to install it. When I measured the effective speed a few months later out of curiosity, it was 50 Mbps. Not bad.The downsidesAs anywhere else, there is a few things that you need to be aware of that could be difficult to adapt to.The first part for me is the social interaction which tends to be dry and quiet. I mentioned that above, so not much more to say here.Another one is the weather. In Winter, the sun might rise at 9:30 in the morning and set at 3 in the afternoon. That's just about six hours of sunlight. If you add that it is cloudy most of the time during the Winter, then you realise how dark it might be. As counterposition, Summers are amazing (up to 20 hours of sunlight and clear skies easily).Winters are relatively long. It gets cold around the end of October and stays that way until around April. It varies from year to year, but sometimes the temperature drops to -30 degrees Celsius (-22 F). Life rarely stops here because of the cold or snow though. I have taken the bus at -30 degrees Celsius. It makes for an interesting ride.One more problem for a foreigner to live here is that you feel a bit isolated from the world. Flights are available mainly to neighbouring countries plus Germany, UK and the Netherlands. If you are from another country, you always need to make connections which makes it longer and more expensive to go back home.Last, if you are from a big city, you might find even Tallinn a bit provincial. It is changing as of late though. On the other hand, there is some positive things out of this too: less crime and virtually no traffic jam as I know it (I live 20 km. from work and make it in 30 minutes on a good day and 45 on a bad one).If you are thinking to move here, I definitely recommend this place.

When most non-technical people hear the words 'artificial intelligence', they imagine something like this:Or this:Or even this:When actually, AI is more like this:For some reason, the phrase alone conjures ideas of robots with human-level cognition; designing such a system must require inconceivable technical skill, creative wit and thorough comprehension.Well, I call bull****!When I was 17 I designed an image recognition program as part of a school project, and was the only person to receive full marks.I already had a keen interest in AI, and I jumped upon the opportunity to make my own. At the same time, I knew AI was the hottest buzzword in computer science of the decade, so any attempt would surely impress the examiner enough to squeeze out a few more marks, right?How right I was. The program was brilliant. It was beautiful. It worked. My classes were integrated like a well-oiled machine. My functions slid together like jigsaw pieces. My comments were like poetry.I not only received 100%, but I'm the only person to have done so at my college.And that's the problem.I didn't deserve it.Sure, the program worked, it did its thing. All of the technical requirements given by the teacher were met. But it felt… uncomfortable.I didn't know what was wrong with it. When designing it, I felt like I was cheating. My methods worked a treat, but my intuition said they shouldn't. When coding it, I expected it to break, but it didn't.So why do I feel so guilty?To start with, I'm not the best computer scientist amongst my cohort. Of the 60 people in my year, I'm not even top 5. The most gifted guy in the year scored 67/75. He made his own messaging service using C++, complete with server-client communication, encryption, an interface, etc. 67/75 is a fantastic score of course, but 8 less than mine. Why?I even included the word ‘rudimentary' in my project title to show the examiner that I'm aware it's basic. The worst thing a student can do is make the examiner think the sun shines out of your arse.But now, I think I know the problem. It goes back to what I said earlier about squeezing marks out of the project simply because it sounds impressive.AI is certainly impressive. The folks at Google, DeepMind, Facebook and IBM are some the world's greatest architects for humanity's next technological revolution. No doubt.But what I did? It was all right. The fact it worked was cool, but if you opened the bonet expecting to find a roaring engine, you'd find a little green man in a hamster wheel with a very sheepish grin.I believe I was given the grade I did based on the ambition and the idea, not the technicality. Sure, I delivered the product, but it was the audacity of the project that bagged me the marks.…and to me, that sums up people. It applies to all avenues of life. Look at Trump. He was ambitious and presented yuuuuge ideas. The technicalities of it? Laughable, but he still succeeded in clambering into the White House.Now look at Jonas Edward Salk. He discovered the cure for polio and could have made billions of dollars from it, but he chose not to so more people could access it and make the world a better place. He is the opposite of Trump; he thought about the technicality rather than trying to impress, and now nobody remembers or honours the man.Without being too cliché, I feel my project is a metaphor: to truly be successful with your work, you need to not only be ambitious and show great determination, but actually be able to deliver. Like this guy can:Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed my answer, feel free to leave an upvote!Happy coding!Edit: Blimey, 1,500 upvotes! This post alone doubled my follower count. Thanks all!

This happens to be exactly what I do - and over the past 2.5 years, I've flipped approximately 30 homes in Florida, Indiana, Texas, and Arizona.  I live in Boise, Idaho... my flipping partners live in the property states.You will need an Operating Agreement that is carefully crafted for the endeavor that the three of you want to undertake.  It will need to address common problems encountered by partnerships, such as:What happens when one of you can't come up with the money, such as a bad estimate and additional funds are needed?What happens when one of you decides to no longer do their job (assuming some of you are putting in labor)?What happens when there's a disagreement among partners (members) while the LLC owns properties?  I hope you realize one of you can't just arbitrarily decide to sell it - and sign the deed.There are many questions - none of them new to partnerships of this type - which a competent real estate attorney can help answer in your Operating Agreement.FYI - As I said, I live in Boise, Idaho.  I have a Utah Series LLC which I use for all my properties - creating a new series cell for each deal, thus isolating each deal from the others, and from the partners (members) involved in that deal.  While I filed the LLC documents myself, I employed a skilled property attorney to draft my specialized operating agreement, which allows me (as the one who puts up all the cash) control of the property if partners fail to rehab within schedule.

Have you been to an SBI branch lately?Well, I did! I have not always been very enthusiastic going to a Public sector bank until now, but last week I had to go to an SBI branch in Chandigarh.I was all prepared to stand in the queue, as it was 12 in the noon I pinged my boss that I would be late because I already knew that it would take time and I would not make to my office which starts at 1:30 PM. To my surprise, I saw a machine vending out small coupons or ticket you may call it with different numbers printed on them. I went inside the bank and was astounded to see people calmly sitting and waiting for there turn to come. I literally rubbed my eyes and double checked that I have come to the the right bank or not. I approached the counter and the guy asked me the ticket number I said I did not get one, he guided me to the vending machine which is very easy to use. I got the ticket number and the big screen behind the counter showed the estimated time it would take to get the work done. I have not seen such professionalism in years. I saw the ticket number and the estimated time was around 90 minutes. I said to myself, "very well then". I got back home, had lunch, and got ready for work, went back to the bank my turn came in five minutes and I was free from the bank and guess what? I signNowed office in time to surprise my boss :). This is a big change for me.

Who invented sound recording and did they think of a future where there would be speech recognition?The inventor was Leon Scott with the invention signNowing back to the 1850s. And indeed, Scott not only invented the idea and actual sound recodings and patents, he also invented the idea of natural language speech recognition.“We are on the brink of more wonders. The sun paints; presently we shall organize the echo, as now we do the shadow”—Ralph Waldo Emerson, May 3rd, 1851 address at ConcordThe Ephemeral Smoke Captured On PaperFrom smoke captured in April 9th, 1857 manifested as soot pressed on a sheet of paper in a Paris, France laboratory, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (Leon Scott) turned a crank on a contraption he just patented called the Photoautograph autographic stenographer. As the soot covered paper moved forward on a flat sled the Photoautograph, a bristle from a hog attached to a feather lightly formed what he called a ‘voice calligraphy’ that was etched onto this smoke on paper—this was the moment that humanity captured its voice, for the first time. Scott organized the echo of Emerson and painted sound, preserved for the ages.Although Scott did not invent the concept of the Photoautograph, he made it a practical device as he moved to a cylinder feed mechanism.Specimen of an illustration of the Scott Photoautograph.The Photoautograph’s sound collection was made from a Tuba he cut to form an “air collector of sound” designed to vibrate a membrane that moved the Hog bristle to create a calligraphy of sound. Scott identified many flaws with this manual hand crank system because it was hard to have a consistent flow of movement.Specimen of a “Time-Code” by using a tuning fork of 250hz on one channel as he spoke into another channel with the consistent reference.He solved this problem by creating the first “Time-Code” by using a tuning fork of 250hz on one channel as he spoke into another channel with the consistent reference of the 250Hz frequency ever present. The Scott Photoautograph was invented nearly 20 years before Thomas Edison’s experiments with recoding on tin and wax. This was 30 years before anyone heard recorded sounds.“I want to do for sound what the camera did for light”Scott was a printer by trade and knew that the reproduction of the writings of an author was frequently distorted by the stenographers of that era as well as the penmanship of the author themselves. This was in an era before typewriters were widely available. Scott imagined capturing the vibrations of sound transmitted in the air like a photograph captured light and shadows.The camera was invented in the 1820s and in his printing business he thought of the possibilities of capturing the human voice for antiquity. The archive material for capturing these sounds from the air was paper. The waves of sound produced vibrations that he speculated could be faithfully archived and reproduced.Specimen of the voice of Leon Scott as a Photoautograph.Specimen of a Photoautograph of a guitar chord and note sequence.Scott began working on his ideas and patents as early as 1850 by most accounts. Not a trained scientist, with no university degrees or affiliations and needing to maintain a full-time job as a printer and book publisher, he had to work on his Photoautograph and voice calligraphy system when time permitted.Specimen of the 1857 Leon Scott Photoautograph patent.Scott thought of the possibility of preserving not only the actual sound captured from the air, but also the sound converted in to actual text in real-time as the name suggests, as Photoautograph autographic stenographer.Specimen of the 1857 Leon Scott Photoautograph patent showing voice sound waves converting into text.These were incredible insights in the 1850s, to faithfully archive and reproduce the actual sound and to simultaneously have a system to reproduce this archive as text. He stated:“I want to take a picture of sound waves like a photograph and match them to words so that an archive of the sound and the words contained can be preserved.”The speech problem writing itselfThis was the first time anyone suggested a practical way to perform natural language speech recognition and to begin the process of matching the analog audio waves to actual phonemes in speech.Specimen of Leon Scott’s ideas about voice sound waves to text.Scott’s ambition and motivation captivated some of the popular press at the time which gave him an introduction. With reservations, Scott presented a tax on October 28th, 1857 and went on to self publish a book that is a transcript (ironically made by a human stenographer he hired) in 1878, Le problème de la parole s’écrivant elle-même (The speech problem writing itself). In this talk he not only spoke of natural language recognition but also of voice synthesis. He was the first person to mention the synthesis of speech. He also spoke of creating signs, or words from the speech he recorded.Transcript of a translation from French of Leon Scott giving a talk at Société d’Encouragement on October 28th, 1857;FIXATION GRAPHIQUE DE LA VOIX (FIXING of VOICE to GRAPHIC)“So you see, gentlemen, here is an entirely new graphic art which springs from the heart of physics, physiology, mechanics. Men as experienced as you, and so well acquainted with the history of contemporary discoveries, will excuse me, I hope, from responding to the banal objection: ‘To what good?’ always ready to greet a nascent invention. It is, however, a question which I foresee and to which I wish to respond with clarity before finishing. Are you in a position—one will say to me—to give, without costly apparatus, without new trials, a natural stenography, immediately translatable, of speech, of improvisation? No, gentlemen, and here is why: besides being still incomplete, the trace of speech which I submit to you at this moment is the analysis of the elements of the speaking voice; it is, to avail myself of an expression of mathematicians, a function of the pitch, of the intensity, of the timbre; it is not therefore the synthesis of speech, much less a sign of pure convention like writing, which has—lest one forget—no phenomenal reality, no objective basis. Nevertheless, I believe this synthesis possible, and I propose to attempt it; allow me to add that I possess the means thereof. But, gentlemen, some great obscurities still weigh upon the history of the articulated voice; when we know clearly what this is, after a complete study of each of its elements by our processes, we will transform by mechanical means the trace of the words into a series of signs. I would rather proceed at present from the simple to the compound and achieve the stenography of song and of instruments, which will be easy with a motor of uniform motion. I solicit, gentlemen, the counsels of men competent to aid me in preparing more sensitive, less hygroscopic membranes, closer to the physiological membranes than those used in commerce; because, you know, industry does not offer fully prepared the materials indispensable to unforeseen applications. I will gladly profit also from the information of special practitioners on the questions of reinforcement of sound which present themselves as a necessity in the writing of speech.”Scott, in a few paragraphs presented the ideas of capturing human speech from the air and archiving it for the future, transcribing these wave forms in to the phonemes and in to voice calligraphy and to at some future date not only play back the recordings but to take the voice calligraphy and to synthesize a human voice with the same characteristics of the speaker and read what was captured in a synthsized voice. He was also asking for assistance in building these systems along with financial help. He presented his ideas passsioantly for this era, few could grasp the magnitude of what he had discovered and was willing to share.Scott submitted his work to the Société d’Encouragement in 1857 to be archived. They reviewed his work and found it to be interesting but stated:“Mr. Scott driven by overly vivid imagination seeks in these traces information in a higher order, he believes in these inscribed lines, is articulation. We believe he is in error”—Société d’Encouragement, Sir. 2. Vol.5, 1857Although they found the actual voice calligraphy interesting, they though his ideas on speech to text were “vivid imagination”. It would take till the 1950s for Soctt’s “vivid imagination” to be confirmed, and they used a technique that Scott described in 1857.Specimen of Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale notes by Leon Scott’s ideas of converting sounds of voice into text.The Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale, did show some support to Scott’s Phonautograph and felt that recording sounds with sufficient precision to be adopted by the scientific community. As a laboratory instrument they thought could it contribute to the nascent science of acoustics.Specimen of Société d’encouragement pour l’industrie nationale report on Leon Scott’s Phonautogram invention.We would have lost the actual sounds of Scott if it were not for David Giovannoni and Earl Cornell who pioneered the methods that first made Phonautograms audible [1]. Giovannoni traveled extensively to digitize the original documents in high optical resolution, after which he prepared images for eduction. Cornell converted Giovannoni's images to sound using software developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and modified for this application. Giovannoni assembled the audio files and undertook signal processing with Richard Martin, while Patrick Feaster manually corrected the time signal.Specimen video of Leon Scott’s voice, the first human voice ever to be recorded in French.However, most Phonautograms were not recorded with an understanding of the requirements of playback, and from a modern perspective their tracings are often malformed: the recording stylus left the paper, smeared its traces, marked several places at once, moved backwards along the time axis, and violated other fundamental requirements of signal recording. Berkeley's technologies failed when confronted by these conditions, and we initially feared that many Phonautograms—particularly the earliest ones—might remain permanently lost.Specimen of Leon Scott’s patent showing Phonautographic traces from 1857 and updated in 1859.Patrick Feaster devised an alternate playback approach in late 2008. Unlike the initial method, which treats a Phonautographic trace as if it was a groove in a phonograph record, Feaster's approach graphically converts the trace into a signal of varying width that can be read as an optical film soundtrack. This approach cannot correct serious malformations, but it has proven sufficiently robust to let us hear something from Phonautograms that are otherwise too compromised to process. All of the Phonautographic sound files released by First Sounds since mid-2009 have been educed by Feaster using this approach.Specimen of Leon Scott’s patent showing a Phonautograph.Just as Scott had hoped, in 2007 humans did find a way to not only create a system of recording the human voice and other sounds from the air but also transcribe voices captured from the air into actual text.Scott was not able to find investors or funding from The French Academy of Sciences or Société d’Encouragement beyond his initial work. He wanted to join Charles Cros and Thomas Edison and apply his knowledge into workable products. Edison and Cros work became well known in America and few if anyone knew of Scott and his grand vision of not only capturing voices, faithfully achieving them, but to also create a text archive to be read and reproduced and considered over time.Specimen of news clipping announcing the work of Charles Cros and Thomas Edison.Scott became depressed over the years after his 1857 talk and ran ultimately ran out of funds and support from his family for his wild inventions. As he grew older he became somewhat bitter over not being able to apply his discoveries and inventions.There is tenuous yet tantalizing clues that Scott was on to moving from a visual representation of sound to a more useful archive and playback system using the Hog bristle and membrane on a cylinder covered with hardened wax or cold bee’s honey. Using the same recording system for playback. This would have been over 20 years before Edison invented a similar system. Scott did not lack invention, just the financial support to see his ideas through to a logical conclusion. In the end he was all too human.By 1879 left with no funds and no pension, his final years was in poverty. He passed away in despair. His family with not enough money for a burial was left to present his remains to a paupers grave. In his Will he only asked to be remembered for his work.Specimen of the signature of Leon Scott.We remember Leon Scott and even though we can not find his final resting place in Paris, we can hear his voice and we can remember just how important it is to remember wisdom from the ages.Leon Scott is one of my inspirations for The Last Interface (http://TheLastInterface.com) and the products The Intelligence Amplifier and Your Wisdom Keeper. In his memory I hope that in this epoch the sum total of all your experiences can be archived and sent in to the future.Leon Scott was the first person to transcend time and space and send his voice into the future—and we remember him.Specimen of the voice of Leon Scott (too decayed to be decoded) captured in his 1857 patent produced in the mid 1850s. His first Phonautograms committed to paper.______[1] http://www.firstsounds.org/sound...

I’m a business lawyer, so my answer will reflect the types of mistakes that clients of mine make. I work mainly with software companies and various small businesses, from lawn care companies to graphic designers. Common mistakes:Two people start doing business together without writing up a clear agreement that spells out their understanding of what they’re doing together, and what that means for who gets paid what, and when, and who owns any intellectual property that the project might create and who has what rights to make decisions about it. Bottom line: if you’re working with somebody else, write up a detailed written agreement that explains all of this. Ideally use a lawyer. If you can’t afford one, do your best, and do it in writing. Not just so you have “proof" later, but (a) because the process of writing it down will help you make sure to address the key terms of the deal and (b) so you both will remember a few years later what you agreed to today. It's not actually that common for one person to just lie later about what the agreement was; much more common are failures of memory and failures to address the key terms up front. For example, Susan and Joe might agree they will be cofounders of a company, but they don't discuss what happens when (not "if") one of them quits later to take a new job. Will the departing co-founder get a cash buyout? By what valuation method? Who pays for the outside expert to do analyze the company's value? Far better to agree on this today than argue about it when a co-founder gives notice.a company does not research trademarks before sinking time and money into marketing the company or one of its products, and then gets a cease-and-desist letter from the owner of a similar company or product name. As a result, the company now needs to re-brand and start building their reputation again largely from scratch. Not too bad if you’re a service company, but if you’ve already paid to stamp your logo on a few thousand t-shirts or stickers or already shipped out physical products to customers, it’s a huge loss. Bottom line: when your budget permits, ask a trademark lawyer for a search to determine whether your name is going to buy you trouble. This is less important if you sell a product or service only locally, but if you sell anything online, it’s key.one person/company hires another to create something (software, a website, a graphic design) and they don’t have a clear written agreement that says who owns the resulting work and/or who has a license to it. Bottom line: the person who created the work generally owns it unless she and the person who hired her signed a fairly specific written agreement that transfers the ownership to the client. Which means if you hired that graphic designer and didn’t have that agreement with her, then you don’t actually own that cool design she made - you just have a license that she can revoke at any time, which is the least useful type of license to have. Have a lawyer write an agreement for you — ask one for a “work for hire” or “I.P. assignment” agreement. It will cost you a fraction of what the designer will charge you for the design itself and is the only way to make sure you just bought what you meant to buy.Company A sells products or services, but rather than having its own standard template contract that it uses to sell them, it always agrees to sign contracts drafted by the companies that want to buy those services. As a result, Company A signs a clause that, to its surprise, gave away rights it couldn’t afford to lose. Maybe A accidentally gave away ownership of its software rather than a mere non-exclusive license. Maybe A agreed to subject itself to the jurisdiction of courts in Grand Cayman or Kansas in the event of a dispute. Bottom line: have a lawyer draft a standard agreement for whatever you sell, and use that agreement wherever possible. When you start selling to larger companies, they’ll insist that you sign their agreement, but that’s fine. Often they claim they can’t deviate from their standard terms, but if you make some reasonable suggestions for edits, they’ll agree to them after all. Your lawyer can help you “sell” those changes to the lawyer for the other side.a company hires a freelancer to do some specific type of work for them, and they don’t realize that a state labor or tax agency may later look at that relationship and determine it’s an employment relationship and not a freelancer relationship. As a result, the company now may owe back taxes, health care benefits, unemployment benefits or overtime pay. States are increasingly cracking down on these arrangements, and there are usually pretty easy ways to avoid this situation — they may include insisting that the freelancer create her own single-member LLC to do her business through, and they may include language in the contract clarifying that she may work for your competitors. This depends on state law. But it’s no joke. I realize people in these situations are not deliberately trying to “take advantage” of anybody — they just are not aware of how the law works and don’t realize they should take steps to reduce these risks. Bottom line: if you hire a freelancer, talk to a lawyer in your state about how to set up the relationship between the two of you. Most business lawyers have a simple independent contractor agreement that they can tailor to your situation for a few hundred bucks. Well worth the risk reduction that it brings.

I made a lot of mistakes. It is a combination of many of them that can ultimately kill a business.Let’s first look at 5 common mistakes, and then the best solutions to each.MISTAKES:1. Not holding leaders accountableIf you have a leadership team that isn’t being held accountable for delivering on your plan and objectives, you could kill the business. It’s absolutely essential that the leaders are aligned on objectives, transparent on progress and accountable for actually delivering. Otherwise, you are burning cash paying them.2. Setting unrealistic goalsIf you set goals that are never achievable, you will consistently miss plan and demoralize your team. Goals need to be measurable and aligned with the resources your organization has. For example, if you are going to sell 20% more next quarter, you need a bigger team or new product or some advancement in the selling process.3. Not communicating effectivelyPoor communication is often the #1 killer of teams. When a team is not collaborating and communicating, everyone may be marching in different directions, resulting in nothing getting done.4. Not understanding the fundamental financialsIf the leaders don’t understand the underlying economics and finances of the business, they may make uninformed decisions that could ultimately kill it. Having a simple model to see the implications of missing revenue or hiring new people can make or break a company.5. Hiring too fast and firing too slowIf a business hires the wrong people and then waits too long to fire them, you have a recipe for disaster. Having the wrong people at the table — especially leadership — can be toxic for an organization. I always follow the saying “A players hire other A players, B players hire C players.” Before you know it, you’ve got a company full of C players.SOLUTIONS:1. Build a culture of accountabilityHigh performance teams strive for a culture of accountability. This means everyone strives to do what they say they are going to do. If something isn’t working properly, we raise our hands and say so. I started doing weekly written updates with my team because once I get our top objectives/concerns in writing, I can hold everyone accountable for it. This is why I built the tool Weekly Update.2. Collaboratively create goals and objectivesThe team needs to work together, bringing in everyone’s unique perspective, to assemble the tactical goals and broader annual objectives. If the team isn’t aligned and bought in from the beginning, they won’t be motivated to achieve them. Furthermore, having the CEO pull seemingly made up numbers out of the air as the company’s goals can infuriate the team.3. Over-communicateGiven how important communications, companies that survive prioritize communication. They use different mediums to ensure everyone understand the point being made, and they place emphasis on getting important information in writing so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.4. Get a great CFO or financial mentorThe CEO and senior leadership team need to understand the nitty gritty of the company’s model. How do revenue and expenses interact and make the business profitable or not. We need to break it down into simple terms, e.g. if we hire this 1 Product Manager, we’d have to close 2 new enterprise deals to cover her salary. A strong CFO (can be part-time) and a CEO that is financially minded are great starts.5. Recruit, retain and release based on cultureTo avoid the hiring too fast and firing too slow problem, bring it all back to your culture. Strong companies use their cultural values as guiding lights to make the right hiring decisions, and quickly eliminate poor performing C players. Don’t make the classic mistake of waiting too long to make a change.