What preceded the grant of this patent to Alexander Graham Bell over his competitor Elisha Gray is the stuff of intellectual property legend, the classic "race to the patent office" as it is often characterized in the telling.

It's interesting, today, while Congress considers a bill named the "America Invents Act" an act to amend the Patent Act, in which one of the fundamental changes proposed it a move to a first-to-file system, similar to many other jurisdictions, versus the current US patent system based on first-to-invent priority.

The legal significance of this proposed change in the Patent Reform Act of 2011 is being discussed this week on leading patent blogs, like Patently-O, here and here. It's interesting, today, as a backgrounder to the story of the Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray patent application controversy, the details of which are summarized in Wikipedia.

Alexander Graham Bell was a tutor for the deaf while pursuing his own research into a method of telegraphy that could transmit multiple messages over a single wire simultaneously, a so-called "harmonic telegraph". Bell formed a partnership with two of his students' parents, including prominent Boston lawyer Gardiner Hubbard, to help fund his research in exchange for shares of any future profits.

Elisha Gray was a prominent inventor in Highland Park, Illinois. His Western Electric company was a major supplier to telegraph monopoly Western Union. Bell was in competition with Elisha Gray to be the first to invent a practical harmonic telegraph.

In the summer of 1874, Gray developed a harmonic telegraph device using vibrating reeds that could transmit musical tones, but not intelligible speech. In December 1874 he demonstrated it to the public at Highland Park First Presbyterian Church. On February 11, 1876, Gray included a diagram for a telephone in his notebook. On February 14, Gray's lawyer filed a patent caveat with a similar diagram. The same day, Bell's lawyer filed (hand-delivered to the U.S. Patent Office) a patent application on the harmonic telegraph, including its use for transmitting vocal sounds. On February 19, the patent office suspended Bell's application for three months to give Gray time to submit a full patent application with claims, after which the patent office would begin interference proceedings to determine whether Bell or Gray were first to invent the claimed subject matter of the telephone.

At the time, the USPTO required the submission of a working patent model for the patent application to be accepted, with the acceptance process often taking years, and with interference proceedings often involved public hearings—although the U.S. Congress had abolished the requirement for patent models in 1870.[1] However, Bell's lawyers argued strenuously for an exception to be made in their case, likely on the basis of the Congressional amendment to the patent law.

On February 24, 1876, Bell traveled to Washington DC. Nothing was entered in his lab notebook until his return to Boston on March 7. Bell's patent was issued on March 7. On March 8, Bell recorded an experiment in his lab notebook, with a diagram similar to that of Gray's patent caveat (see right). Bell finally got his telephone model to work on March 10, when Bell and his assistant Thomas A. Watson both recorded the famous "Watson, come here" story in their notebooks.

How differently might the controversy have played out between Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray if, back in the day, they'd had today's intellectual property technology, like the Creative Registry and the Prior Art Database, to establish authoritatively, who was the first to invent?

Free Patent and Non-Patent Literature Database

Our Intellectual Property Library website is a free international database of patent and patent-related publications. Our goal is to encourage worldwide access to resources where innovators can explore and understand patents, technologies, and related art. The database contains an ever increasing array of international patents (as published by the authorities) as well as non-patent literature (including our own Prior Art Database). The site features such things as full text and English translation searching along with unique "more-like-this" capabilities.

Start by Searching the Library or visiting the Library's Resource Center.

Defensive Publishing

Our initial product, the Prior Art Database, was created to provide companies with a fast, effective, and centralized outlet for publishing and searching technical disclosures. In addition to electronic publication, the Prior Art Database collection is also published in print in our semi-monthly publication, The IP.com Journal, which is distributed to libraries and patent office worldwide.

Since its inception, the Prior Art Database has continued to grow, attracting many high profile clients such as IBM, General Electric, Motorola, Abbott Laboratories, and Eastman Kodak (to name a few). More importantly, it is searched and cited daily by patent examiners worldwide.

Learn more about our Prior Art Database.

Patent and Prior Art Research

Our Intellectual Property Search Service is a recognized leader in providing innovative companies with high quality patent searching and analysis. As veteran engineers and scientists with decades of industry and intellectual property experience, we have accumulated knowledge and employ a proven process for managing each search project that enables us to find the most relevant information and deliver timely, accurate, and concise results.

Learn more about our IP Search Service.

Personal Intellectual Property Protection

Our Creative Registry is a web-based registry that allows you to upload your documents and creative work for legal safeguarding. IP.com digitally fingerprints and date-stamps your work while placing it into a private archive for your personal access. IP.com then publishes the fingerprint and date into the public domain as a testament to the existence of your work. Your actual document is never exposed to anyone else, yet you have irrefutable proof of its content at the precise time it was safeguarded.

Learn more about the Creative Registry.

Innovation Repository and Workflow Software

Our InnovationQ software system provides solutions for managing the information, records, and processes associated with innovation and IP. InnovationQ is a software framework which delivers functions including sophisticated workflows, collaborative environments, and legally safeguarded document management. Utilizing this framework, we create configurable modules that provide integrated company-specific solutions. InnovationQ allows companies to improve their processes and derive new and additional value from their innovation and IP assets.

Learn more about InnovationQ.

Many corporations and organizations see the advantages that working with IP.com brings. We offer a variety of affiliate relations to help those companies more easily offer IP.com's services to in-house staff or as an added value to their clients.

Ralph Losey is the lawyer, writer and educator behind the e-Discovery Team blog. Ralph has been practicing law since 1980 and playing with computers and cyber-communications since 1978.

Jason R. Baron has served as the National Archives' Director of Litigation since May 2000. In this position, Mr. Baron is responsible for overseeing all litigation-related activities confronting the National Archives, including complex Federal court litigation involving access to Federal and Presidential records in the National Archives' custody.

For more information on the movie and how it came about see the interview that Jason and Ralph gave to The Posse List: Putting the “tsunami of e-data” in perspective.

The Asia Pacific region, especially China, is undergoing massive changes in all aspects of economic might, including the cornerstone of Intellectual Property (IP) governance. China and the greater region are making great contributions to innovation and development of new technology to better humanity worldwide.

The nation’s innovation and intellectual property mandate has become the centerpiece of discussions at conferences and in boardrooms throughout China. The Chinese commitment to building infrastructure for innovation is as deep as its commitment to building roads, bridges, and skyscrapers. And to see the depth of that commitment, one needs only to spend a day in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, or any other Chinese city. At IP.com, we are more than pleased to be working with Chinese business and government leaders in building this infrastructure.

IP.com landed in China more than three years ago, and we have been on the ground there almost every day since. We have worked with law firms, universities, businesses, and the Chinese government, and we look forward to growing our Chinese presence and involvement. At the beginning of this year, we relocated our EVP, Asia Pacific, Johnson Kong, to China. This will be of great value not only to IP.com, but to me personally, as I will be spending 25% of 2009 in China…now I will have a place to call my own…or my home away from home.

On a personal note, not only am I placing an IP.com bet on China, but for the past two years I have been placing a family bet on China as well. Two years ago, I started learning Mandarin with my three daughters, and we continue with our Chinese studies together as a family activity almost every evening. So, we're pleased to express our best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year for our many friends throughout China.

Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái.

The IP.com Hong Kong Office is located within driving distance from Shenzhen, a ferry distance to Macau, and a short flight to Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Shanghai and Beijing are also easily accessible from the IP.com Hong Kong office.

Johnson Kong, Executive Vice President and Head of Asia Pacific, has graciously taken on the personal challenge of relocating his family on our behalf. Mr. Kong is passionate and committed to our Chinese and Asia Pacific business growth initiatives.

IP.com is in the business of providing software and services for innovation management. In his current role, Mr. Kong assists clients in creating and implementing innovation management and intellectual property strategies to advance business goals. He has held several positions from sales & marketing to executive management with leading industries across Asia Pacific, and has become an expert in the creation and implementation of innovation management and intellectual property strategies. Mr. Kong has invented software and business methods associated with the analysis and management of intellectual property.

The new Asia Pacific office of IP.com is located at:

One Harbour View Street
1 IFC
33 Floor, Suite 16
Central
Hong Kong, SAR, China
T: 852-3960-6391
F: 852-2166-8999

For more information, call our US headquarters at 1-716-362-4562 or visit ip.com. You can read our company blog, Securing Innovation, where we write about Intellectual Property, not only in English but also in Chinese on matters of interest to our readers in China. You can read, in Chinese, some of the posts by Johnson Kong if you click on this link.

While 007 is adored by millions for his fictional feats of spydom, Bond would be nothing without his enduring and endearing gadget man, Q.

As the Quartermaster himself reminded Bond in the movie License to Kill, "Remember, if it hadn't been for Q Branch, you'd have been dead long ago."

Innovations for the Field

The character Q was based on a real-life engineer named Charles Fraser Smith. Smith worked for the British Government's Ministry of Supply and designed tools for agents during World War II. Today, Q's influence reverberates throughout government agencies in the United States and abroad.

But we're not here to blog about James Bond's Q, today.

We've got something more exciting to announce. This just came across the wires:

AMHERST, NY--(Marketwire - February 27, 2009) - IP.com announces a major release of their flagship intellectual property management software, InnovationQ. The new InnovationQ 3.2 features a new graphical user interface plus two new modules. In addition, several new features are incorporated into this release.

More complex IP management tasks require an interface that provides for quick and easy navigation while allowing power users shortcuts to key features. At the same time, organizations need to visually integrate applications such as InnovationQ into their overall environment. InnovationQ 3.2 accomplishes this with a brand new user interface and configuration features that allow customers to substantially customize visual elements of the application to appear like their other Intranet applications.

"InnovationQ 3.2 continues IP.com's commitment to comprehensive, flexible intellectual property management software," says Tom Petrocelli, SVP of Enterprise Software. "We are always adding new features that our customers need while focusing on those areas of IP management that are often underserved."

InnovationQ 3.2 also introduces two new modules -- the Patent Analysis System for Acquisitions and Divestiture and the Standards Management and Collaboration module.

When making decisions about whether to acquire or sell patents and other intellectual property, a number of stakeholders need to be consulted. Even more so, critical information must be gathered from these stakeholders in order to make considered decisions. The Patent Analysis System for Acquisitions and Divestitures facilitates this communication through the use of collaborative tools that allow stakeholders to discuss opportunities and provide critical information, facilitating decision making.

The Standards Management and Collaboration module assists companies who contribute intellectual property to standards bodies. It helps to track who in the company has contributed IP to a standard body through documents and meetings. InnovationQ 3.2 then identifies changes based on a number of factors that might effect those contributions.

About IP.com.

IP.com offers solutions to help companies effectively manage their intellectual property. Many of the world's most innovative companies use IP.com's services and software to support their IP strategies. With products ranging from prior art publishing and searching to management of intellectual property assets and processes, IP.com offers scaleable products to fit the needs of any organization.

I know, you want us to blog more about James Bond.

Johnson Kong, Executive Vice President and Head of Asia Pacific for IP.com, is in Korea with Tom Colson, our CEO, who addressed an international group of thought leaders gathering at PATINEX 2008.

IP.com CEO Tom Colson's presentation was on Advanced Enterprise Management and IP Strategies.

The keynote address for PATINEX 2008 was by KAIST President Nam-Pyo Suh, who spoke on the Strategy of Patent Information Usage for Finding a New Market.

After this conference, Johnson Kong and Tom Colson are continuing on to Beijing and other centers in Asia that are regular stops for executives from IP.com.

Readers can follow at @ipdotcom on Twitter, where we're following other leaders in the technology space, like Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz. Here's how Jonathan Schwartz explains how Twitter helps him run Sun:

"Communication is a key part of leadership—as CEO, I need to engage the market, inside and outside Sun, with whatever technology affords me the greatest possible reach. Through blogs, online news, social networking sites, or Twitter, the Internet has fundamentally changed how we communicate with one another. Today, we have thousands of employees participating, engaging customers and developers across the world, 24 hours a day. And whether it's via a half-hour streaming video or a 140-character Tweet, we need to reach everyone in the forum and format they choose—not what we choose."

We're working on it, but it's still early days in the integration of Twitter feeds into this blog. However, if you add @ipdotcom to those you're following on Twitter now, you'll be sure to hear more about the latest innovations in intellectual property management and IP strategies. We look forward to reading your "tweets" and following you, too, just like we're following Jonathan Schwartz and Guy Kawasaki on Twitter.

IP Law Review, a two day intensive event at the Westin Times Square in New York City on October 29th and 30th, presented by IP Law & Business investigates the federal decisions and industry trends guaranteed to change IP in the financial markets, including:

• Business Method Patents and In re Bilski
• Shareholder Derivative Suits Based on Mismanaged IP
• Protecting your IP in the Emerging Markets

According to the conference overview,  IP Law Review is specifically designed for:

• General Counsel
• Chief IP Counsel
• Chief Patent Counsel
• Senior IP Counsel
• IP Litigators
• IP Advisors
• IP Portfolio Managers
• IP professionals involved in protecting and developing copyrights, trademarks and patents

Tom Colson, a registered Patent Attorney and CEO of IP.com, and Johnson Kong, Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific, are establishing new business strategies with companies managing intellectual property in China.

Know Your Questions. Seek Your Answers. Never attend a conference without at least three questions you want answered. Never leave until they have been.

Their Conference is Your Focus Group. Want to measure the pulse of the marketplace? Want feedback on your idea, product, or business model? Go to a conference populated by your ideal customer. Forget the sessions. Hang out in the hallway. And listen. A lot.

Be Smart. Be Helpful. Then Be Quiet. Other attendees may have come to the conference to meet people like you. They may want and deserve your help (and you, theirs). They didn’t come to hear your hour-long presentation. Please understand the difference.

Paper Works Best. Your ability to pay attention to conference speakers and attendees is inversely proportional to your ability to pay attention to the outside world. Stow the laptop, turn off the BlackBerry, pull out the Moleskine, and start writing. Oh, and if you can’t leave the real world behind for an hour or two, please don’t leave it at all.

Blogging is not Participation. We get it. Your blog has tens/hundreds/thousands of readers who can’t wait to hear your take on the last speaker’s presentation and about how crappy the WiFi is. Your “audience” will be there tomorrow. Your fellow attendees will not.

The most important people at the conference are sitting next to you. Think Tom Peters gives a rat’s ass about your new business strategy? Is Seth Godin going to give you personalized marketing advice? Of course not. The people at any event who are most likely to have already faced your challenges (and maybe even solved them) aren’t the highly-paid keynoters, but rather your fellow attendees. They are like you. They can help you. Ignore them at your peril.

Vendors Matter. Vendors are like puppies. They crave your attention. Give it. They know your industry and the other attendees better than you do. Talk with them. Learn from them. Then take a few pens.

If, by chance, you're going to be at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Intellectual Property Owners Association on September 21-23 in San Diego, please stop by and visit IP.com and the other exhbitors in the Exhibitor Hall.

If you miss us there, you can catch up with IP.com's Michael Inglisa next month in Washington, DC at the Annual Meeting of the Intellectual Property Law Association between October 23-25.

Hopefully, you'll find some effective tools for management of intellectual property assets that your law firm's clients might thank you for discovering.

IP.com is the global leader in providing strategic and reliable intellectual property solutions. The world's largest and most innovative companies trust IP.com for their enterprise-wide intellectual property asset management, defensive publishing, and patent search services. With IP.com’s comprehensive suite of products, companies can effectively maximize the value of their Intellectual Property. Utilizing workflows and roles-based access, IP.com can help you to capture and safeguard your innovation from its earliest stages, streamline your IP decision-making processes, reduce your R&D costs, and accelerate your time to market - all within a secure collaborative environment. Ultimately, IP.com will help you to protect and maximize your company’s most critical asset, your intellectual property.