Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Can you patent AIR ?

This past week, there were a lot of stories about AIR. Really.

Without air, we'd all be in a lot of trouble (Green plug intact :)

We're not talking about that kind of AIR.

Two other kinds of AIR hit the tech news headlines this past week.

Adobe AIR was installed by hundreds (thousands) this week in the tech community as it is required for the desktop client for start-up Pownce. Public recognition of the platform grew.

At almost the same time, we saw Steve Jobs keynote announcement of Apple's new ultra-light notebook - MacBook Air .

Just to be 'journalistic correct ??', news also came from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley (home turf of hyper social networker Shana Albert ) from CNN Money on a company called Air Products.

When you pull into a service station to fill your tires, you usually pay for AIR. This is really getting scary.

So, this question is for our industry's resident Patent expert Bill Slawski.
"Is it possible, one of these guys can get a patent on AIR?"

We're going to e-mail Bill for his take. Knowing Bill casually, I'd say look for a response here, or at his website.

What's next ... Water?

Update Jan 31, 2008: Bill has responded and his take and analysis can be found here .