10 steps to importing 500+ Google Toolbar bookmarks into Google Chrome

Just upgraded my internet experience by switching to Google's new Chrome browser. Faster, cleaner - very good overall. 

Except there is no toolbar support. Several hundred carefully organized bookmarks live inside my Google Toolbar, and without a way to import these, my Chrome experience was suffering.  

So after a bit of fiddling, this appears to be the easiest way to import your favorites state from Google Toolbar into Google Chrome:

1. In your Google toolbar favorites click "Manage All"
   
2. When the webpage comes up, in the bottom center there is a link which says "Export to: My Computer" - click that link and save the file to your desktop.
   
3. In IE 8.2, the favorites button is under the gold star on the upper left, click the gold star to reveal a submenu which reads "Add to Favorites..."- click the small black down arrow next to that text to reveal an additional submenu button called "Import and Export..." . 
   
4. Now select "Import from a File" and click Next.
   
5. Select "Favorites" and Click Next
   
6. Click browse and find the file you created on your desktop in step 2 and click next.
   
7. Select the folder you want the favorites to reside and click import.
   
8. In Chrome, under the wrench in the upper right, click "Import Bookmarks and Settings" - select all four items and click import.
   
9. Click Ctrl+B to toggle the bookmarks bar in Chrome, the Google Toolbar links will be under the "Other Bookmarks" folder on the far right.
   
10. Drag and drop folders from that folder to the Favorites Bar, customize as desired. 
    

Hope this helps. Cheers.

Chief IP Officer

(Image courtesy of http://www.vcwear.com/)

Coming up in Amsterdam is the first ever Chief IP Officer Summit being presented by Intellectual Asset Magazine and Ocean Tomo.

I will not be going this year, but wanted to prepare something important for those who will be attending.

The CIPO in every company must be the CEO and no one else. Whomever is designated functional head of IP (whether a licensing, legal, technical, or financial professional), it must be their job to:

1) Iteratively and clearly understand the strategy and needs of the business.

2) Determine organizationally, what IP issues will need to be addressed by whom and how important will those issues be relative to the other issues on that professionals plate. (This prioritization step is left out of nearly every corporate IP strategy I have ever seen.)

3) Look for opportunities where the IP function can make other functional tasks easier in the core business. (This includes providing IP based market analysis, competitive insights, technology positioning, financial valuations, inventor recruiting, etc.)

4) Design an IP organization that can rapidly address the highest priority needs to enable the business. Not just the traditional IP needs.

5) Deploy and execute.

6) Measure your results, in dollars, yen or euros, and report back to the executive staff.

Despite one's career ambitions and the need for a functional head to manage the complex and critical needs of an IP department, disassociating IP from the core business is a bad and dangerous idea. We have the opportunity to eliminate many of the negative connotations and stigmas associated with other (often) disassociated functional heads (e.g. CIO, GC, etc.) and it is important we remain focused on doing so.

For example, when IP is a stand-alone organization, the office and function is often seen similar to that of a CIO and IT department; fundamentally serving as a necessary enabler, but not critical or core to business development. In this situation, typically a substantial licensing program is necessary for the organization to remain relevant.

If one looks at a CIPO as head of a function in a legal organization, too often they are unfortunately labeled as business roadblocks; one which needs to be checked with, hassled by, and finally overcome before products can be offered. It takes a special person to avoid and mitigate that perception and interact seamlessly with technology and business leaders.

If we remain focused on enabling business development faster, as above, our function will naturally align with executive decision makers.



So while the title Chief Intellectual Property Officer (or something similar: IP Managing Director, VP of Intangibles, Exalted Head of the Unseen) is important to differentiate IP from other functions, it is absolutely critical that we do not unintentionally disassociate our function with the core business. As an industry, instead of creating another peripheral function, our goal should be to make CEO's, CIPO's themselves.

Free Patent Drafting

My father passed away last Monday. Exactly one week earlier he was told that his oral cancer was no longer operable and that he had about one week left. His previous surgeries removed much of his upper and lower jaw and cheek. After his last surgery, the doctor remarked that "there is more of your face in the jar than on your face" and further surgeries would most likely be out of the question.

I have been with my family in Maryland the last few weeks and just returned to San Francisco on Tuesday.

Smokers, those who chew tobacco, and black men make up 95% of all oral cancer cases. My father was in none of these three classes. There was no treatment which could manage or contain this cancer as it formed, spread and ulcered.

So, if there is anyone reading this sitting on an invention dealing with the management or cure of oral cancers, I would like to draft your patent application for free. I will research the art, scope the claims, draft the examples and detailed description to the best of my ability. I formerly examined patents in class 250, Radiant Energy Systems, an example of which can be found here: US Patent 6809325 - "Apparatus for generating and selecting ions used in a heavy ion cancer therapy facility."

I will then find you attorneys or agents with domain expertise to review, file and prosecute the application(s), hopefully at significantly reduced cost.

There probably aren't too many inventors in this space who don't already have an IP department they can turn to for assistance, but if I can facilitate one or two of these a year, at least it is something. Please e-mail inquiries to emgill@gmail.com.

Thanks.

Ocean Tomo - Blueprint

So I have been buried lately - in a good way - and the blog has taken a hit. But I am back today with exciting industry news.

From two months ago. Oh well.

In February this year, Ocean Tomo partnered with high tech VC firm Blueprint Ventures to spin-out companies based on "dormant" corporate IP. It looks like these off-shoots will include IP, know-how and possibly involve individuals originally associated with the technology.

I love this idea.

Last year I wrote about how Intellectual Ventures (IV) could spin out dozens of companies with all of the IP it is acquiring. The OT Blueprint model, where they provide a straightforward conduit - with larger upside - for corporations to monetize areas where they are likely no longer focused, is brilliant.

Obviously the issues of having a "corporate" researcher becoming essentially a start-up founder are non-trivial, and the dull nuance of IP agreements can make them excruciatingly difficult to close. However, once an organization begins to see returns on spin-outs being greater than outright sale or in-house IP licensing efforts, then deep analysis of corporate IP portfolios may become less the exception and more the rule.

In 1998 I was a strategy analyst for WorldSpace Corporation, a hot $2.5 billion start-up(!) in Washington, DC, whose goal was to produce digital satellite radio worldwide. They had some issues in being able to offer service in the US, but assets which could potentially serve the market. I assisted in an investment and spin-off strategy which enabled another new company to serve the US market.

That other company became XM Satellite Radio.

It will be very interesting to watch the OT-Blueprint partnership.

Happy Pi Day