Inventions Patents

FlexiSnake – world’s smallest drain snake?

Here is the name of a product: FlexiSnake
And the name of the company peddling it is FlexiSnake Distributing.
Do the names invoke the image of a product peddled by the modern-day snake oil salesman?
Scott Turner, the owner of the company, begs to differ. His FlexiSnake has a good chance of replacing the chemical drain cleaners, for cleaning hair clogs in a slow running drain.
It is a velcro-tipped, disposable drain snake which cleans clogs much better than the usual chemical drain cleaners, if you believe the testimonials available at http://www.flexisnake.com, the web site for the product.
According to Turner, around 67% of his web site customers are female. “FlexiSnake is small, it is light, it fits in a shirt pocket -it may even be the world’s smallest drain snake”, he says.

Will this product succeed? We need to wait and watch.

Microsoft tries to patent RSS?

Microsoft has filed two patent applications related to RSS, sparking fears that Microsoft is trying to claim that they have invented RSS. Microsoft’s applications were published on the web last week by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The applications can be found here and here.

However, the program manager of Microsoft’s RSS efforts (Sean Lyndersay) has said in his blog that such fears are unfounded, and that Microsoft is always looking for an open and reasonable relationship with the RSS community. “These specifications provide proof of our commitment to offer our contributions to the community and evidence of our efforts to advance the technology,” he said. His response is available here.