Wednesday 8 August 2007

Patent Everything

Slightly off-post....

About 6 years' ago on a previous life, I used to sell music online. That project failed, however one of the spin-offs I looked into was the concept of virtual jukeboxes. I guess the data issues were slightly storage related. A virtual jukebox would get its music tracks from a broadband connection and locally cache popular tracks.

Anyway, one idea I had was to use SMS messaging to allow customers to select tracks in a bar/pub/etc. I didn't pursue the idea, although I had been messing with SMS services. It now transpires that this idea has been implemented, some 6 years after I thought of it.

Perhaps someone had thought of it some time ago, but I'd like to think I was first. Shame I didn't have the courage of my convictions to see how patentable the idea was.

Hopefully I'll get a second chance with another idea in the future!

1 comment:

the storage anarchist said...

Similar story - back in 1998 or so, I was at a sales dinner at S&W in NYC, and myself and another guy where chatting about home theater technology (back before HT was even an acronym ;). Anyway, the two of us converged on this idea of a remote control device that could be automatically programmed to control the equipment in your HT configuration, downloading profiles and IR codes as necessary from a central library on the Internet that would be built by the users.

It sounded like a HUGE idea at the moment, but later we just figured it was all the wine that made it sound so inspirational.

I kick myself HARD every time I pick up my Pronto or one of the 3 Logitech Harmony's that I own.

Like you, I hope I get a second chance.