Hi Guys,

I was checking the status of 2 patents in applications I have in and just found out Ive been granted my 10th patent as of January 26, 2010. The hilarious thing about it, is that it isnt one of the  2 applications I was checking on. It was another that I had completely forgotten about. Its a refinement of the manufacturing process for the Artifacts series of patterns that went in back in 2006. Geez I must be getting old and forgetful.

Giddyup!!

Lenny,
So will this one be designated "College fund" or "Retirement"?

Posted By Tom M on 29 Jan 2010 04:30 PM
Lenny,
So will this one be designated "College fund" or "Retirement"?

Tom,

Oh how I wish. They used to give you a thousand dollar bonus when a patent was granted back in the day, then it dropped to 100 dollars, then by the time I got my first one, it had dropped to 1 dollar. And I never got my dollar.  I would have appreciated even a pat on the back, or a sincere "attaboy". Still waiting for those too!

Alas, its considered work for hire, I got paid a salary and it was my job.

However it does make for excellent resume fodder!

So do you own the patent or does the company for which you worked?

Andy,

The company I worked for, or actually another company (a subset of sorts) of the company I worked for owns it. They have a strange legal arrangement with the company that owns the patent. They were pretty smart, and shunted all patents to another company. So its compartmentalized. Ming bai ma? (Chinese for is it clear).

If the Parent company is ever sued, or bought out in a hostile takeover, thats one more layer of bullcrap the outside partys have to dig through and circumvent. 

Pretty smart, huh? I learned alot from those guys.

Oh one more thing Andy,

Maybe something you can use. Its a common practice to compartmentalize biz to reduce liability. Lets try this for example.

You Andy, own Olive mill. But you form another company..Lets call it Olive Pitts

Olive Pitts are your installers who hold the contract with the homeowner. You lease  the trucks, tools etc to Olive Pitts, and fabricate and sell tops to them which they install. They are essentially a pass thru organization, that pays for itself diverting all profits to Olive Mill.

Say one of your installation crew runs the truck thru a home, or they drop a 3 CM top on a kid crushing him.

All liability is with Olive Pitts...and they have no recoverable assets, because YOU , Andy have them all in Olive Mill.

Thats how you compartmentize a company for reduction in liability and protection of assets.

Now Im no lawyer, but check with yours to see how it can best work for you.

Lenny, carry that one step further. I know a cabinet company, which no longer exists. But each piece of machinery was owned by a different corp, and was leased to the "mother" company. When they went BK they owned nothing, and all the assets remained for the family to sell off.

You see this often with Development companies. They will purchase a parcel of land for $1. They get it rezoned, and sell it to their own construction company for $4. The construction company will build and sell homes or whatever, never making a profit because all the profit was taken up front by the development company. Something goes wrong and they can't sell the homes, they BK the company and walk away, having made their money up front.

All this works well unless you as a principle of all the corporations declares personal bankruptcy, then the creditors can go after the assets of the corporations, although I could be wrong.

Norm,

Original owner go bankrupt? Rarely happens! Although faking thier death to collect inflated insurance policys happens from time to time.

Norm,

I think that is only applicable if it is not incorporated. Could be wrong.

I think Andy is correct as usual, based on  the legal concept of "piercing the corporate veil". Easy to say, but arduous to accomplish legally.

Bank around here, has been requiring anyone incorporated to sign a personal guarantee for a loan.
They also require a 20% downpayment for any loan.

BTW... they didn't need ANY bailout $$$$

Posted By Kelsey Crisp on 31 Jan 2010 06:16 PM
Bank around here, has been requiring anyone incorporated to sign a personal guarantee for a loan.
They also require a 20% downpayment for any loan.

BTW... they didn't need ANY bailout $$$$

Really Kelsey? The banks just gave us the money with no questions asked or guarantees required. Of course the guns, masks, and the fast car outside helped a bit. 

All joking and kidding aside...really?  Man you gotta look into other banks for  loans...email me.

I always thought a corporation was an asset of the principle.

Posted By Lenny E on 31 Jan 2010 06:25 PM

Posted By Kelsey Crisp on 31 Jan 2010 06:16 PM
Bank around here, has been requiring anyone incorporated to sign a personal guarantee for a loan.
They also require a 20% downpayment for any loan.

BTW... they didn't need ANY bailout $$$$

Really Kelsey? The banks just gave us the money with no questions asked or guarantees required. Of course the guns, masks, and the fast car outside helped a bit. 

All joking and kidding aside...really?  Man you gotta look into other banks for  loans...email me.

I don't need loans.  What you just said is another example of how not a darn thing has changed with the banks. Nothing.  My friend just sold his house to a young couple, financed through Bank of America, 100% loan , BECAUSE they had NO DOWN PAYMENT!! WTF?? 

There will be a true melt-down of our economy.  The value is crumbling as I type.  The real value will be in metal, one day... nickel plated and lead!

I'm glad you live in a place where you can get loans like that.  But of course when you ask for your loan speaking Chinese... they know they cannot discriminate

Posted By Norm Walters on 01 Feb 2010 05:18 AM
I always thought a corporation was an asset of the principle.

I think a corporation is its own entity with stock holders.  The stock holders are not liable.

Hi Kelsey,

ask for a loan speaking chinese? That made me smile.

You are correct, nothing has changed with the banking industry. When I got my home loan they were still pushing ARMs. And that was after the meltdown. I had to get testy before they would start  taking about conventional mortgages. BTW I only have 1 bank note, and its a conventional  (more than 20% down) mortgage.

Bonuses are still through the roof, and risk is still there. I view banks and financial institutions as public financed casinos. You give them your money, and they gamble with it. And when they loose it, they come back to the American people to get more, because the casino may fail.

I don't think all banks are crap, but the huge ones are just as corrupt as the polititians.

Posted By Andy on 01 Feb 2010 05:04 PM

Posted By Norm Walters on 01 Feb 2010 05:18 AM
I always thought a corporation was an asset of the principle.

I think a corporation is its own entity with stock holders.  The stock holders are not liable.

And that stock is an asset. If you own 100% of the shares it's all at risk?