#561 The Patent Is in Approval!

Thursday, 02/09/06

I missed yesterday's entry because I spent most of the day on the internet. When I opened my email in the morning, I found a note from Jay's old manager, CB, saying that the patent had been approved! This is so exciting. It's for a database management process that Jay had conceived, designed, and was lead programmer on. The Company first submitted the patent application in early 2001. (Naturally, the names on the patent include Jay and the other programmers and their managers, listed alphabetically, but it's really HIS.)

Jay and I had spent many afternoons in the courtyard of the Staten Island rehab facility while he was undergoing immunotherapy, with me reading page after page of the application and description to him. I took notes on his comments and corrections, and typed them up and sent them to CB after I got home every night. By then Jay was hemi-paralyzed and blind, and 1/3 of his brain was nonfunctional, but his comments were all still right on the mark. He didn't miss anything. It was good for him to feel useful, too.

So after five years, one "non-final" rejection and two "final" rejections followed by appeals, it has finally been approved. CB did a heroic job countering the rejections.

The patent office information is at this link, if you care to torture yourself.

Jay did have some prior patents and disclosures, but I don't know how many. And no, there probably won't be any monetary award for it, although I really think there should be. He worked on that concept through two years of surgeries, radiation, and intense chemotherapies. And even after he went on disability, his coworkers were telephoning for guidance.

So there were notes to send people, notes of congratulation coming in, and of course I had to read the whole online description again. I also sent notes to Jay's sisters, but I haven't heard anything back from them.

In the evening there was dinner and class. I skipped the exercise machines yesterday, but I do intend to go today. Incidentally, I tried on the bathing suit I had bought on August's cruise, and it's now a good three inches too large in the waist. If I tried to wear it in the water, the bottom would fall off.

The dating site contact in Kingston is looking promising. We've been emailing back and forth since Monday, long conversational emails, and he's going to call tomorrow, and we'll likely meet Saturday, noonish. He "sounds" nice.

I'm going to Pok tonight to play that national trivia game with some other Mensans. Wish me fast fingers on the buttons.