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Florida Patent Attorney Sees More Evidence that Green is Good!

By John Rizvi

    I'm interested in following patenting trends in every conceivable category, and I look for these all over the world, in the United States and especially here in Florida.  Patent attorneys should be on the lookout in these days of rapid innovation. I've mentioned before that green living is a rising trend and everything I have recently seen in the news and all around me, suggest that it does, indeed, offer significant patent opportunities.

    According to CNN's Technology section (Diane Hawkins-Cox, March 10, 2008), Hayden Hamilton is getting started with his GreenPrint software, which is designed to end "wasteful printing worldwide,"  offering consumers and businesses ways to reduce paper waste worldwide and right here in Florida. Patent attorneys, too, can trim down the volumes of patent related printed materials. Here's how it works.

    When printing from the web, you've probably noticed that certain pages print with minimal information, such as only the URL or other information you don't really need. GreenPrint analyzes documents set for printing and automatically eliminates pages with little to no text on the page. Users set the parameters, and they can reselect or deselect whatever content they'd like; for instance, the "legal jargon at the end of an airline reservation." Hamilton reports that the "average employee prints about 10,000 pages a year" and that "20 percent" is unnecessary, making GreenPrint a significant means through which we can take less from the environment, and save a little money as well.

    Is this patenting opportunity profitable? Hamilton admits that--that end is growing slowly. GreenPrint is free to consumers and available for license by corporations. However, this strategy may very well work out in the long run. Since GreenPrint debuted in late January 2008 "tens of thousands of people have downloaded the program," meaning awareness is growing. Moreover, there are a number of reasons businesses may utilize GreenPrint, primarily in my opinion: 1.) To save money in excess paper waste; and 2.) To curry favor with consumers increasingly interested in green living and interested in doing business with like-minded companies. (And, perhaps, some companies quite earnestly want to do their part in being environmentally conscious.)

    Florida patent attorneys and those of you interested in innovation and invention would do well to consider the increasing interest in all things green. And, as always, if I can help I'm more than happy to do so!

Full post as published by Florida Intellectual Property Law Blog on March 20, 2008 (boomark / email).