Tuesday 31 January 2012

Samsung and the patent abuse


After a dispute with Apple over the design rights infringement, Samsung is now involved in another possible patent abuse. 
The firm is considered to be failing to live up to its Frand commitments- promise to license innovations essential to an industry on reasonable, fair and non-discriminatory terms. In 2011, Samsung sought injunctive relief in some EU member states against its competitors based on alleged infringements of some of its patent rights (patents that are considered essential to implement European telephony standards). What Samsung does not realise is that winning the ruling and enforcing such decision may potentially cause harm to the company as well as the industry. The European Commission therefore needs to establish whether Samsung has failed to honour its commitment to license key technologies to rivals.

Samsung is still involved in a dispute over patent rights with Apple. Recently, a Dutch appeals court has rejected Apple's claim that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes Apple’s design patents. Some analysts view Samsung’s lawsuit as a response to Apple's legal attack. The firm succeeded in having Samsung’s tablets banned from sale in Germany last year forcing it to redesign Galaxy Tab 10.1 for the German market. The ruling against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was upheld by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court today. However, Samsung is still waiting for a decision whether it can continue to sell the new redesigned tablet in Germany, which is scheduled for early February.

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Monday 30 January 2012

It's comfortable, it's functional.... it's an office chair!


One of the earliest known inventors of the office chair was ... Charles Darwin! Not only did he establish that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry but also contributed to the invention of the most convenient office furniture. Darwin added wheels to his personal lab chair so he could get to his specimens more quickly. Comfort was the primary focus of the original design, it allowed users to move the chair around their work area without getting up. The idea was to make it as comfortable and therefore as functional as possible so that employees would be more productive. As service industry began to expand the idea caught the attention of Otto von Bismarck, who popularised office chairs by distributing them throughout parliament.
There have been some cutting-edge improvements to the classic office chair as we know it. People with chronic back pain can now turn to specialised chairs as a replacement for their standard office chairs. These special chairs with weird design claim to ease back pain and even improve posture by redistributing some of the weight from the upper thighs to the calves. There are still studies to be done on the effectiveness of this new invention.


Some people consider office chair racing a 'sport'. In 2009, the first German Office Chair Racing Championship was held in Bad Koenig-Zell, Germany. Seventy participants brought their office chairs to race 170-meters downhill on a steep ramp. The only rule was that everyone wear a crash helmet, which many participants needed...

Did you know...?

An office chair travels seven and a half miles a year.
The most expensive office chair
produced by Interstuhl

Some specialists offer top-of-the-line accessories so you could race your office chair in style. Customers can customise their chairs with actual seats from a selection of cars like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Maserati.

Chairs in the Gothic period were found in churches as seats for the clergy. The ornate designs came from Mother Nature. When fabric covers were introduced, the prevalent pattern was the fleur-de-lis which resembled local foliage.

The most expensive office chair was produced by Interstuhl been exhibited at the Emirates Millionaire Show 2006. It is gold plated with solid gold inlays as well as flowery print on the cushions. This seat is labeled $ 65,000

An awkward office conversation while waiting for a coffee... sounds familiar?




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Friday 27 January 2012

STRESS!!! … how to deal with it?



Office environment can often be stressful. Even with a good salary, great career prospects and supportive colleagues, workplace stress can easily get to you affecting your productivity and performance. If ignored it can also lead to more serious health problems, like depression,  memory  loss or chronic disease. Stress management should therefore become an important part of your daily routine.

Here are some useful tips that will help you reduce your stress levels at work:

  • Pay attention to your emotional and physical health: even small changes to your diet or lifestyle can make a big difference. By looking after yourself, you often become stronger, more resilient to stress and less likely to get overwhelmed.
  • Move more- by exercising you raise your heart rate, increase energy and therefore release the stress. Try to fit at least 30 minutes of exercise a day into your schedule.
  • Eat less but more frequently- eating too much can make you lethargic and not enough makes you feel more irritable. Try eating regularly without ‘stuffing yourself’.
  • Make sure you are well rested- stress often causes insomnia, but lack of sleep leaves you vulnerable to even more stress. Therefore it is important to get enough sleep to keep your emotional balance.
  • Avoid alcohol and nicotine- both seem to reduce stress but it shortly wears off leaving you even more anxious and vulnerable to stress. Make sure you use them in moderation. 


Communicate with your colleagues and practise emotional intelligence to retain self-control and positive attitude.

  • Realise when you are stressed and find the best response. Make sure you find things that are soothing to you and use them whenever you feel overwhelmed.
  • Stay connected to your emotional experience to appropriately manage your own reactions. Do not ignore your emotions but try to understand your own thoughts and feelings.
  • Recognise and effectively use nonverbal messages: eye contact, gestures, facial expressions. They can either produce a sense of interest and trust or generate confusion, distrust and stress.
  • Try to respond to challenges with humour. Nothing reduces stress quicker in the workplace than mutually shared laughter as long it is not at someone else’s expense.
  • Resolve conflict positively, that can strengthen your work relations and diffuse workplace stress. Stay focused and calm to avoid any stressful escalations.
  • Talk to your colleagues and managers. Friendly atmosphere will help you deal with stress quicker and easier.

Learn to prioritise and organise your day to avoid rushing.

  • Create a timetable that includes all your daily tasks and responsibilities: work, family life, social activities. Avoid trying to fit too much into your schedule, that would cause even more unnecessary stress.
  • Leave the house 15 minutes earlier - being late contributes to your stress levels and can make you feel overwhelmed.
  • Take breaks – when the workload gets too much make sure you take a short break and relax. You will then come back to work with a fresh, positive approach.
  • Plan and prioritise - tackle your tasks in order of importance. Once you complete high-priority tasks move to less pressing ones, that will reduce your stress levels and make your day more enjoyable.
  • Delegate responsibility – there is no need for you to control everything. If there is something your co-workers can do to take some pressure off you, let them!


Try to eliminate self-defeating habits.

  • Stay positive and break negative behaviour that adds to your work stress.
  • Do not set unrealistic goals for yourself but aim to do your best.
  • Plan ahead and schedule your day, organise your desk and your workload.
  • Try not to stress over things that are beyond your control but focus on what can be improved.



Thursday 26 January 2012

So who actually invented Post-It notes?


Post-it note is a piece of stationery with a strip of weak adhesive on the back, designed to temporarily attach notes to documents and other surfaces. It is now available in a wide range of colours, shapes, and sizes but the most common type is square and canary yellow in colour.
The original inventor of the Post-It, Spencer Silver, was trying to make an extra strong adhesive but accidentally he created an extra weak one. Six years later, a colleague of Silver's, Arthur Fry, tried his weak adhesive to anchor his bookmark in his hymnbook. It worked great as it held well but pulled away easily, not damaging the pages of the hymnal. This first usage sparked the idea of the "Post-It" note. Fry believed so strongly in his invention that when engineers told him that a machine to manufacture the notes did not exist, he went home and built just such a machine in his basement. In 1980, the product debuted in US stores and it soon became one of the most widely circulated office products in the U.S.

Did you know…?

Post-it notes are used in many office pranks
The yellow colour was chosen by accident; a lab next-door to the Post-it team had scrap yellow paper, which the team initially used

A Post-it Note lasted through a flight from Las Vegas to Minneapolis on the nose of the plane (with the speeds of 500 mph and temperatures as low as -56 degree Fahrenheit).

It would take approximately 506,880,000 Post-it Notes to circle the world once.

To help celebrate the 20th anniversary of Post-it Notes, fashion designer Ilze Vitolina created an impressive line of an evening wear from Post-it Notes.

In 1989 during Hurricane Hugo a family left a Post-it Note on their front door and it was still there 3 days later.

Now Post-it Notes consist of over 4,000 products.



If you are looking for more Post-it products go to our website!


Tuesday 24 January 2012

TV price crunch... good news for consumers, nightmare for manufacturers


 While flat panel television sales are expanding, producers struggle to make profit. However, it is not the lack of demand that causes this problem as consumers spent around $115 billion on 220m flat panel televisions last year. Furthermore, many screens, around $100 billion’s worth, went into tablets, smartphones and satellite-navigation devices. It is due to the discrepancy between prices of LCD panels and manufacturing costs. Between 2004 and 2008 prices fell by 80%, while the costs of manufacturing declined by 50%. Therefore suppliers did not have much choice but to sell their panels at a loss or not at all. In six years, between 2004 and 2010 the industry lost around $13 billion. In fact none of the companies making large crystal display panels actually earns money from it. Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Sharp all make a considerable loss on LCD production. Companies that used to earn profit margin of 10-15% a year on panel industry, are now faced with a situation where they struggle to cut the losses.

There are several reasons for the price fall. Firstly, the European financial crisis prevents people from excessive, unnecessary spending, even if prices are reasonable. Secondly, LCD TVs are normally hard to differentiate as all of them are portrayed as large, good quality, and cheap. Finally, in recent years suppliers significantly expanded capacity which led to an oversupply and drove prices down. This problem has been present for years, however it was very well masked by clever accounting. Companies like Samsung and Sharp, also involved in TV industry, tried to make up losses from panel business with profits from complete sets. However, once these have become uncertain, they also started to generate losses. Most companies predict their production to be unprofitable for some years.


Despite the demand on flat-panel screens remaining high and television sales thriving, panel industry became a very unprofitable business. Televisions became so inexpensive that the profits have largely been squeezed out of them. What has been great news for consumers, however became a nightmare for manufacturers. To make matters worse, even once they deal with recent unfavourable conditions there are more challenges to come. In 2012 when Chinese factories come online the prices may drop even further.


TVs and Videos

It's only a paperclip


Paperclips usually have an long shape with straight sides, but may also be triangular or circular, or have more elaborate shapes. The most common material to use is steel but moulded plastic can also be used. Recent innovations include paper clips that are multi-coloured plastic-coated.


There has been an ongoing debate for years as to where paper clip actually came from. One story claims that it was originally invented in 1867 by Samuel Fay and the design of the has not changed at all since. There have been hundreds of different designs over the years and the most common we know today did not come out until 1894. The patent for the modern type of paper clip was granted to William Middlebrook for a ‘Machine for making wire paper clips.’ Since then countless variations on the same theme have been patented. But the original Gem type has proved to be the most practical, and therefore the most popular. Its qualities, ease of use as well as gripping without tearing, have been hard to improve upon.

The giant paper clip in Sandvika, Norway.
It shows the gem,not the one patented by Vaaler.
Johan Vaaler, Norwegian inventor, has been incorrectly identified with the invention of the paper clip. He was granted patents in the United States and Germany for a similar design, but less practical and functional, lacking the last turn of the wire. Vaaler probably did not know that a better product was already on the market, although not yet in Norway. His version was never manufactured and never marketed. Long after Vaaler's death his countrymen created a national myth based on the false assumption that the paper clip was invented by an unrecognised Norwegian genius. Patriots even wore them in their lapels as a symbol of resistance to the German occupiers.


Did you know...?

During the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II wearing a paper clip was often reason enough for arrest.

A paper clip image is the standard image for an attachment in an email client.

Paper clips can be worn as bracelets and rings.

Paper clips sometimes can be effective lock picking device.

Monday 23 January 2012

Rubber bands: practical, convenient... entertaining!

Rubber bands are normally made by extruding the rubber into long tubes to provide its general shape, curing the rubber with heat, and then slicing it across the width of the tube into little bands. Machine called the "Masticator" allows rubber to be softened, mixed, and shaped.
Natural rubber originates from the sap of the rubber tree in the Amazon jungle. Natural rubber is made from latex acquired by tapping into the bark layers of the rubber tree. Once the latex has been “tapped” and is exposed to the air it begins to harden and become elastic. Rubber trees survive only in hot, humid climates near the equator. Majority of latex is therefore produced in the Southeast Asian countries: Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.


Did you know... ?

Refrigerating rubber bands makes them last longer!

75% of today's rubber is synthetic and made from crude oil.

The first rubber band was patented in 1845 by Stephen Perry, who owned a manufacturing company in London.

The Guinness Book of World Records certified the largest rubber band ball in 2008. It was built in Florida, weighed more than 9000 lbs. and stood over 6 feet tall.

In recent years, people have begun wearing rubber bands as bracelets. Different colour along with a message printed on it shows support for a particular cause or group.

The invention of paper


Paper was invented by the Chinese during the Han Dynasty and slowly spread to the west. The first country in Europe to make and manufacture paper was Spain and Sicily in the 10th century, then the craft of papermaking reached Italy, South France and Germany.

The rapid expansion of European paper production was truly enhanced at the beginning of the Printing Revolution in the 15th century and invention of the printing press.
Paper remained expensive through the centuries. In the 19th century steam-driven paper making machines enabled to make paper with fibres from wood pulp. Together with the invention of the mass produced pencil and the fountain pen, wood based paper caused a major transformation in paper production making it chaper and easily available.

The word "paper" is etymologically derived from papyros. Papyrus is a thick, paper-like material produced from the Cyperus papyrus plant. It is a 'lamination of natural plants, while paper is manufactured from fibres whose properties have been changed by maceration or disintegration'.


Did you know...?

In 1997 the total world paper and paperboard production was 299,044 metric tons. It would take about 200,000 Volkswagen Beetle cars to equal this weight.

Americans throw out enough paper each year to build a 12-foot high wall from New York to Los Angeles.

No piece of normal-size paper can be folded in half more than seven times!

Recycling one ton of paper saves about 17 trees.

40% of rubbish is paper.


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Kodak's struggle for survival

Recently, everyone’s eyes have been turned towards Kodak and its struggle to stay in business. This is a historic comedown for a firm that has been holding a dominant position in photographic film for decades. Its brand name is still recognised all over the world. 

The company once enjoyed a 90% market share and accounted for 85% of camera and 90% of film sales in America. The huge profits meant the firm could invest more in research and development. Unfortunately, extensive R&D contributed to Kodak’s fall as it ended up pioneering the very technology that threatened its survival. The digital technology was followed by the development of smartphones that destroyed Kodak’s old-film industry. The company was too slow to adapt to the changing trends as the shift to digital photography was massive and sudden.

In the 1990s when film sales collapsed Kodak tried its luck in different business areas. The researchers thought the chemicals created for use in film might be turned into drugs, however the idea failed to drive sales. Fujifilm on the other hand, Kodak’s long-term rival, adapted more successfully. The company invested in cosmetics and launched a line called Astalift that proved very popular in Asia. George Fisher, who served as Kodak’s boss in 1990s, also aimed to be make it a digital company, investing in imaging. He enabled people to post and share pictures online. However, he failed to see this idea through and develop it further (perhaps turn it into a social networking site). Furthermore, there is simply not enough profit in this ‘small business industry’ for a company as big as Kodak. 

On 18th January Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The firm hopes that it will be able to restructure and revitalise itself into a profitable business. It still owns an extensive portfolio of patents as well as  valuable R&D knowledge. Therefore anything can happen under the new management providing that Kodak is ready to make a serious transformation.

Kodak’s faith can serve as a warning for other technological giants like Facebook, Microsoft or Google as no company should count on continuous success in this ever changing industry.

Cameras