ESTONIAN INVENTOR

Lack of experts and support.

Why the number of patents is so low in Estonia ? Why many of our inventions are owned by someone else and Who is a looser ?

Looking back we can see that it took 5 years after our independence was declared in 1991 till we got our 1st patent registered. Why so long ? It seems to me that there is a long lasting tradition not to support inventors in our country. Well, we can say that these characteristics apply to the most of the ex-Soviet block and current patent law itself is pain … , but what is our excuse 20 years later ? One seems to be sure - it will take the entire generation to turn these things around.

The average number of patents in Estonia is 30 per year. This is many times lower per person than in western countries, not talking about Japan or USA. Most patents what get registered in Estonia today are foreign and this clearly shows where real money goes !  So what are the reasons ?  1.Often we are lacking of supportive industry like it happened to ” Minox” camera. Walter Zapp had to go back to Latvia where manufacturing of his masterpiece was possible. But more often there is no chance to make even decent prototype like has happened to  inventor Erkki Joasoon recently. Why is it that our state has no supportive policies for our inventors ? I personally think it shows clearly the heritage of Soviet Estonia.  There are art funds and funds for musicians, but no fund for inventors ! Are we really so poor ? It rather seems to be a great shortage of experts to change the case and goverment policies. It all shows that IP awareness is relatively low in Estonia today. There is no IP studies in our schools either. All these are important reasons why things do not work as they should.  And the looser is surely entire country as our IP goes to foreign companies. These companies buying it up for cheap money in early stage to make massive profits later on. It is extremely important for the state and its inventors to keep its IP, to develop it and then to license it out. If we are not doing it properly then someone else will get the most of the profit and our great idea makes money for someone else !  It is well worth thinking about these things as we run our businesses and make investments on daily basis. Do we really like to be on the same position 20 years later ?

Famous Estonian inventions

Despite many distractions I have managed to expand the list of our famous inventions of all times. You may think that we estonians hardly got any inventions and thats true but still there are quite few things you surely can be amused of.  So, click on FAMOUS page on top banner and find out what are these gadgets and who are those rocking inventors ! The A list’  is available also in estonian language and you can find it under EST page  on top  banner. I do hope it all shows that we still have managed to produce some fine inventions despite our heavyweight history …

Traindom can help !

The information marketing is probably one of the biggest businesses nowadays. Self-made US estonian web-entrepreneur Peep Laja has founded Traindom - information marketing platform , which enables you to go online and sell your knowledge and experteese ! It will be probly the most simple yet powerful platform on the market soon as it allows you easy and low cost set up with no specific IT knowledge at all ! So if you are professional and you know what it takes you can also help the others and get paid for it as well ! So what are you waiting for ?  Sign up now !  www.traindom.com

Interview with Peep Laja can be found @  www.tigerprises.com

Is it just me ?

I found a nice web-tool recently , which hepls you to idnetify whether the homepage you are trying to access is actually down or is it something to do with filters on your side . It can be very handy also at schools or public libraries to make difference which webpages are blocked and which are still accessable.  Check it out man !

www.DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com

IP for life & heritage.

I hear about business owners who have no idea what IP stands for. Amazing how they have managed to get so far !  I hear about graduates who love big Mac but have no idea what franchise means ! Why is it that we do not teach our kids how important these things are ? Everyone has the impact of IP on every single day. Trademarks glittering over rooftops and domains passing our fingetips many times … But the knowledge of IP in general is relatively low and not just in Eastern but also in Western part of the world.  Maybe it is the privilege of few who know how to handle it and how to inheritage IP to their kids . But they do not share this knowledge in public as they are concerned about competition which may rise … We know the competition is good for the progress, so why to keep it back ?  The number of patents in Japan is many times higer  than in average European country. Why ? These guys take IP seriously and therefore their technologies are far ahead. How could we possibly cach up ? One is for sure - it can take many years to plant this knowlege and let it grow. South Koreans have taken their opportunity seriously and produced ” IP Panorama “ - one of the best IP programmes in the entire World !  Well known inventor Trevor Baylis is fihgting for the rights of an independent inventors in the UK. And we estonians are finally looking into the ways how to make IP as part of the school studies. I do hope that this can be done sooner , but as we know these things turn to take some time …

Meanwhile have a look what Koreans have done. Actually they  have done it so well that even WIPO has joined in !   http://ippanorama.com    >>   http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/multimedia

The Virtual Revolution

I happened to watch above named TV program at BBC 2 few days ago where Dr. Aleks Korotoski met some biggest names of internet including the inventor of the web Tim Berners Lee himself.  What really got my attention wasn’t just  the amusing past 20 years, but exciting  and a bit fragile future ahead. Even if  todays internet may retire,  I think there will be a new one instead for sure ! The idea  of  World Wide Web is just so powerful that we can’ t imagine to live without it , not for a long anyway …

 It is well done and amusing programme, which just had its  part one out of 4 series, but you can catch up them all here : http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/

E-trend on Global markets continues

It is coming to my attention as I hear more and more successful stories based on internet. Both e-gigants Ebay and Amazone have made even bigger profits despite recession. It is probably due to the fact that likely more people are staying indoors and shop online in these days. Surely it is the way to save travel money at least and their energy which requires input in one way or the other ! All that is leading to the increase of e-businesses and domain industry. Also it all requires higher safety regulations for online shoppers. As the result any innovations made in this area are likely to make nice profits.

 Lets just have a look one of  these wonders : www.milliondollarhomepage.com

Kickbike saves the day !

As some of you may know  Winter has surely arrived to Estonia. There is A LOT OF SNOW all over the place and temperatures are between  -7- 15c which is normal. But snowfall has been actually the biggest of last 100 years !! ***  Any ideas how would you get around then ??  If lucky, you can do 5-20 km/h by car or 3-5 km/h by using public transport … But my friend Kaido is doing much faster than that, getting around by his brandnew kickbike !! Well, it seems to be quite healthy and fast way around as he said he can speed up to 40 km/h !! If you really interested how is he doing  go >> www.reisijutud.com  and have a look !  Our nature seems to be a lot like a fairytale now, so why not to go to Estonia and check it out yourself ! You can find this magic finnish made kickbike from here : www.kickbike.ee or www.kickbike.com  &  the latest temperatures and snowfalls can be tracked down at  www.weather.ee  . + If you can, travel to South-Estonia  as there is going to be FIS World Cup in Cross Country Skiing @ Otepää, our winter capital, 16-17th Jan. And if you make it earlier there will be International Snowboard competition ” Otepää Big Air 2010″  on tomorrow 15th Jan. / www.snowboard.ee . So don’t miss it out , coz you may not see this amount of snow and fun for the rest of your life !! * * *

2009 was truly a magic year

The year of  Innovation 2009 has been truely a magic year for our tiny e-nation. It was not just IT sector what was booming, but also chemistry and nanotechnologies what became World class . We got some serious inventions registered by shale industry and very fine nano-size pictures taken by Heiti Paves who also won the 1st prize at Nikon Small World ! The IT industry has been dominant for a  few years now. This year brought us applications such as Fits.me , Primefish & Taxipal and names like Edicy and Clifton. It seems that hi-tec is about to become a part of Estonias image. Surely I will be observing  our progress even more closely next year. It looks like the time has come then people in IT and nano industries could go to Estonia insead of Silicon Valley to be part of the success stories . However there are still some areas like Intellectual Property law and domain industry where we are running a bit behind. Hopefully 2010 will bring positive changes to those areas as well. But now is the time to say: Cheers everyone! We should be pleased and thankful despite the economic turndown that our progress continues …

So, Why smaller is better ?  : www.microscopyu.com

Clifton makes it cooler !

Soon you may be able to talk to your friend over a mobile phone without heating up your ear ! As we all know our mobiles heat up and that is mainly due to the materials used to conduct electricity. But it can change for cooler soon as an Estonian hi-tec company “Clifton” has come up with a new generation of semiconductors or so called GaAs diodes.  Actually our mobiles can do a little damage compared with many household, industrial and military power electronics. Now if we sum up all these bits, it makes an awful lot of heat which is melting down our icecap every day. So, it is not just about ultra-fast recovery of PIN diodes, 85C  higher maximum operating temperature and radiation hardness which these semiconductors can take but also it is about less heat to leak out ! All these qualities make Clifton innovative and green company, which has attracted interest already from power electronics and space industries worldwide. The Clifton is an Estonian startup company and is located at Tartu Science Park.  For more information Go >>  www.clifton.ee