Hi all,
It is Friday! And, some very big news today, so lets get to it.
The Gem Updates:US Patent Office News! The big news - the US Patent office sent the expected '
First Action on the Merits' regarding our re-examination of the CTHR blocking patent.
Their preliminary ruling = 100% in favor of BTD, meaning that after reviewing, they plan to rule such that the patent blocking the Amora GEM will be
rejected/invalidated.
(After which, that would make Amora GEM freely available in the US - no more blocking patent).
Now, CTHR has two months if they wish to reply and argue why the logic used is not correct...so this not a done deal yet. I expect CTHR will reply and that will then generate another wait while they review that and then issue a new tenative ruling, etc.
But, the main news is that currently the USPTO's finding is to invalidate the patent, and I think CTHR has an uphill battle at this point to preserve it based on the preliminary ruling.
So, more to come but the USPTO's initial stance is very good for us, and thus perhaps Amora GEM may be available to US customers in 2013, rather than 2015
BTD General News:New Logo! We've finally taken time to get a new logo done for BTD. Since the Amora logo came out so well, we've basically stuck with that theme and kept it very similar - thus, the new BTD logo:
Moving this summer to a larger space: We're currently working on moving this summer to a larger space...however, those plans were rather upended this week when the building we have spent months on planning to move to...decided to no longer lease the building.
So, that's a bit of bad news as we're now starting from scratch regarding our planned move.
Ring Explorer updates: Work continues daily and we continue to improve, improve and improve it.
I wanted to thus quickly show some new screenshots of how we've revamped the layout for the ring details section.
It's now a large tabbed area to minimize scrolling, the number of reviews are listed in the tab, the details tab now has a better breakout, etc.
And the improved details section (still in progress though!)
Finally, I wanted to quickly show the start of the user 'favorites' area.
This is where if you login/create an account, you can save favorited rings as you browse and organize them into groups (ala my anniversary ring, my engagement ring, etc), for later recall and review. Basically, a working area for you to track the different rings and bands of interest as you search.
Note that this is a mockup and not a screenshot, but does show the layout we are starting with:
Sold out Asha rounds: We're starting another run of Asha H&A rounds, as several sizes are now sold out of under 10 left...
DiamondBistro upgrades and move to paid model: As users of the bistro have seen over the past few months, the server is basically full (which results in the categories and other areas not displaying until more disc space is created).
Now, DiamondBistro has been a long term money loser and so the fork in the road here was that we need to move to a new server to support where it is at, but at the same time, why do that when that will only increase the amount of money it loses per month?
After a month of thinking, the current plan is that we will be moving to a new and more powerful server, upgrading the software itself, and moving to a paid listing model of each listing being charged .99 cents.
The software upgrades planned are - facebook login, an independent id verification (and those users will have a 'verified' seal to show they've been reviewed), and possibly even an iphone applet (optimized for mobile browsing).
Those changes are something that will be implemented in roughly the next six weeks.
Misc:Another week, another 'no time to write the next chapter of fundamentals of matter'...so instead, I thought I would close out this week with two stunning photos of the Northern lights.
A quick explanation - the Northern lights are made when charged particles from the sun hit the Earth's atmosphere and excite Oxygen and Nitrogen in the air, and the lines in the overall show are created by the Earth's magnetic field.
These were shot in Norway, by Tommy Eliassen / BarCroft Media:
and the Milky Way, complete with shooting star and Northern Lights all in one shot - call it the "
USPTO preliminary ruling celebration photo "
Have a great weekend!
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