What I learned in this class::
I will take away many important points from this class.
I now understand that patenting is a very importance means to protect your intellectual property. However patenting is not always easy. Our legal system — with many clauses and constraints — makes it quite difficult and takes lots of time to grant a patent. Thus, we should start early! Know the in's and out's of the patent and prior art to the patent so as to not infringe on a previous patent.
I also understood patent trolls, why they came into such power, and how they endanger the current patent system.
And finally, I will take way the idea that we can all build from each other. Creativity comes from finding ingenuity in things that already exists. This is by no means plagiarism of the sort we are taught against to do. Rather, we should learn from products & take their best parts and further develop it. You never know -- this could lead to your very own patent! (:
What I learned in this class::
After reflecting on this class, I think I would split what I learned in this class into three different components: patents, the interdisciplinary nature of patenting, and the importance of social media.
1. PATENTS As the class suggests and the reason I decided to take this course - I learned a lot about patents in this class!
I now understand the basics about what makes something patentable, namely that it must be useful, novel, and non-obvious.
In deciphering what this actually means, it helped to think about what is then not patentable. I found examples of this:
- Laws of nature: existed before you were born
- Physical phenomena
- Abstract ideas
- Algorithms: 1981, the way you can patent this is by patenting a hardware machine that includes the algorithm by its memory
I feel like I know the essentials of what goes into a patent now! I know the official terms now that I can Google to learn about more details involving patents.
2. INTERDISCIPLINARY NATURE OF PATENTING
I learned that patents do not just involve one discipline, i.e. the discipline that the patent comes from. Instead, law is always involved and really dictates how a patent is written, how it can be protected, and how there can be trials for infringement using the law. In fact, one of our guest speakers said that lawyers rule our patenting system, because they are the ones that write the supporting legislation. I definitely agree with this!
Further example of this? The KSR case study we examined:
- KSR argues that Teleflex patent is not patentable because it is obvious
- pushing car can be both manual or automatic
- adding a sensor to the pedal is not patentable because it is obvious
Most important part of claim – part d.) an electronic control for providing a signal, rather than a mechanical control
- KSR won by district court initially, but Teleflex won in appeals court by relying on TSM test, finally Supreme Court won again à said that TSM is wrong method TSM = teaching, suggestion, motivation in the prior art to combine elements in the prior art in order to find a patent obvious
- Supreme Court’s decision changed the patent system that existed for at least 50 years, said that the appeals court made their decision by interpreting the patent too literally (rigid and formalistic way)
*You must think about common sense, as described by the law.
3. IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Finally, our use of blogs, YouTube videos, and Twitter proved that social media can play a pivotal role in learning and collaborating between students and teachers in the classroom. As I mentioned in my two previous posts and by students during our last class, these social media tools really solidified our understanding of the content in this class and allowed us to channel our creativity into how we wanted to learn in this class. This idea of bringing social media into the classroom was very unique to this particular Berkeley course I have taken, and I have to say — it was a very positive experience!
Thank you, Professor Lavian for your unique and dedicated way of teaching!
Of all the social media tools, I really enjoyed the Twitter concept the most in this class! Although I admit that I, along with many other students, was quite skeptical of creating a Twitter account just for a classroom and sharing my thoughts on the Web - I actually found this super useful! Tweeting throughout the week kept me interacting with the issues at hand during class. If I ever read an article that I felt would be relevant to the class, I made sure to not only Tweet about it but this also got me thinking a bit deeper about the article. As I mentioned in my previous Youtube video, this allowed the ideas discussed in class to linger on in my mind.
In addition, I really enjoyed using Twitter during class! It really kept lecture interactive in a way that did not interrupt the lecture. I realized I was a much more proactive listener when there was the need to Tweet about interesting ideas and quotes during class. I actually think I was a much more active listener when I did this as opposed to taking notes! In addition, I would sometimes browse the #BerkeleyCETIEOR hashtag that we were supposed to use with out Tweets and found super interesting Tweets. Looking at others' thoughts brought about new dimensions to the lecture that I had not thought about or made me realize that other students' thinking very much aligned with mine. The interactive tools of "favorite-ing" or re-tweeting other students' posts helped all the students interact with each other.
As to how other professors can include learning through social media -- I think bringing Twitter into lectures is a great option! Although blogs and Youtube videos are great ways to solidify understanding, they may not be as relevant for a class (depending on the content of the class). However, Twitter is a very easy addition and does not require too much work on the students' part — which is a great plus for a class that already may have problem sets or projects for the course.
I come from a Cognitive Science background, an inter-disciplinary major in an attempt to study the brain in all of its glory. In a major like mine — where studying a wide variety of subjects such as Neuroscience, Psychology, Computer Science, Linguistics, and Philosophy is required — I am a total supporter of collaboration. It allows us to learn what other individuals know the most about, and then to channel all the creative, unique thoughts into some new kind of study.
I think the same mission should be greatly underlined when thinking about bringing collaborative social media to the classroom.
I think we can all learn a lot from each other so the academic and intellectual implications of collaboration are quite clear and have become even more evident through all that we have learned from each other in this class! More importantly, however, I believe collaboration leads to an atmosphere of support and positive learning rather than harsh competition. I think this kind of an atmosphere is wonderful to facilitate a good learning atmosphere.
Stay tuned for my next post where I will explain some ways that we can collaboratively learn in the classroom by bringing ideas from outside the classroom!
