Patent Lather Inventors are hit hard as Clinton proposes to take $92 million from the Patent Office.

In a material and psychological blow to inventors, PresidentClinton recently proposed to take $92 million out of the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office's (PTO) surcharge income of $119million. Many believe the budget cut will result in delays inpatent approvals and an increase in the fees charged to maintainpatents over a 20-year period.

This reappropriation of funds will hamper automation efforts,contends Lisa-Joy Zgorski of the PTO, who says, "It'sclear that, in the face of these cuts, patent pendency willincrease."

And yet the damage comes not just in the injury but also in theinsult. In 1991, Congress set up the PTO to be a self-supportinggovernment agency and raised patent application fees by 69 percentto cover operating costs and improve services for inventors. Overthe past few years, however, inventors have watched as theoffice's so-called surplus funds have been diverted to CommerceState Justice programs or used by Congress in an attempt to balancethe federal budget. "These problems should be funded bytaxpayers' money," says Robert Lougher, founder of theInventors Awareness Group in Westfield, Massachusetts. "Butthey're financed by a small segment of our society: theinventor."

In essence, "people are paying taxes as individuals andcorporations and then paying taxes when they file patentapplications," says Joanne Hayes-Rines, president of theUnited Inventors Association of the USA. "[Members ofCongress] could be honest and say there's a tax on patentapplications, but they're not that honest."

Industry insiders feel the PTO can scarcely afford to see thatmoney dispersed. With the number of patent applications growing by10 percent every year, certain time-saving PTO programs aredesperately needed, maintains Lougher.

Independent inventors are perhaps the hardest hit by the cuts."Every time the government does this, the PTO is forced toraise its fees, and the ones hurt the most are the small,independ-ent inventors," says Lougher. "The PTO haspriced itself out of range for many inventors."

While the PTO budget cut is not completely new--Congressdiverted $54 million of the $115 million in the PTO's surchargefund last year--the dig is that this latest, more severe proposalwas handed down by Clinton himself. "The most importantelement in the president's [agenda] is to balance the federalbudget," says Zgorski, "and therefore we'll grin andbear it."

Inventors' advocates are not as easily soothed. "Theconcept of covert double taxing would anger anybody," saysHayes-Rines, who urges inventors to write to their Congressionalrepresentatives and to align themselves with an organization thatwill keep them informed about the issues. "Inventors are easy[targets] because they're not part of a [formalized]group."

Lougher sees this as an injustice Americans should not permit."Our economy is based on new products and new technologies,many of which come from the independent inventor," saysLougher. "If you interrupt that process, we're going tohave fewer new products. Everyone [will feel] it down theline."

Born To Run

Birth order influences entrepreneurial style.

Apparently, whether you're an older or younger siblingdetermines much more than who can beat up whom. A recent studyreveals that birth order influences everything from what type ofcompanies entrepreneurs start to how they run their businesses."I've looked at 256 predictors of behavior, includingsocial class, national differences, age, social attitudes andpatterns of friendship," says Frank Sulloway, author ofBorn to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and CreativeLives (Pantheon Books). "Birth order [accounts] for what70 percent of the population will do. It's the best predictorof attitude toward change."

Sulloway, who has spent 26 years analyzing approximately 2,000studies and profiles of more than 6,500 people, has given new lifeto the idea that your family niche determines your personality, atheory popularized in the 1970s and dismissed in the '80s. Hisconclusions: Because firstborns typically have a decentrelationship with their parents and often act as surrogate parents,they tend to be more conforming, conscientious, obedient,assertive, perfectionistic, hard-driving and bossy. Later-borns, onthe other hand, are more flexible, open to innovation, laid-back,sociable, and modest about their achievements.

These characteristics influence the entrepreneurial experiencefrom the start. "Firstborns are creative but within the rules.They go for safe bets. Later-borns are more likely to undertake adrastic overhaul of their entire concept," Sulloway says."So while firstborns would be more likely to, say, buy afranchise, later-borns might start a high-risk enterprise or trysomething quirky."

Each type faces its own problems when running a business."When an idea is revolutionary, firstborns usually make themistake of rejecting it too soon," says Sulloway."Later-borns tend to accept theories that turn out to beincorrect."

An ideal solution, says Sulloway, would be to have firstbornsand their siblings working together. "Each wouldcounterbalance the weaknesses of the other," he explains."You'd have an environment that is highly egalitarian andthat encourages brainstorming. It's the best of bothworlds." As long as they don't beat each other up.

Dial O For Opportunity

By Holly Celeste Fisk

AT&T offers laid-off employees a leg up.

Downsizing may be the dirty word of the '90s, but AT&Ttried to ease the pain last March for some 4,000 workers who wereoffered a buyout package as part of AT&T's Force ManagementProgram. The program, which started in January 1996, offersemployees $10,000 each for retraining, relocation, or start-upcapital for new businesses. About one in 10 employees tookadvantage of the offer.

To ensure that former employees know what they're gettinginto, AT&T offers courses on how to start a business. Accordingto Burke Stinson of AT&T, 1,400 employees took the classes lastyear.

Barbara Mierisch was one employee who took the money and ran.Mierisch, 55, worked for AT&T for 35 years in various jobsbefore leaving to start her own marketing and public relationsconsulting business in West Orange, New Jersey, last February.

"There couldn't have been a more enlightened andconcerned company," says Mierisch. "They had told people[to expect the layoffs] and made lots of resourcesavailable."

AT&T also provides career development courses, skillstraining and job hunting classes for employees. But Mierischpreferred to be her own boss: "I like the flexibility,"she says. "You can manage your time better and do more of thethings you really enjoy."

The point of the program, says Stinson, isn't so much toencourage entrepreneurship as to take care of employees."Treat people shabbily," he says, "and you'regoing to have a morale problem for the people who remain."

The Force Management Program is expected to continue untilDecember 1998.