Abstract: Start-up companies, as well as new businesses within established firms, have the challenge of creating a sensible intellectual property (IP) portfolio. With resources usually tight, not all of the IP can be protected due to cost or resource availability considerations. Accordingly, disclosed herein is an apparatus and method that provide an effective solution for management of identified intellectual property. By providing an effective scoring scheme and a simple display, management decision making is made simple and straightforward, while providing in a glance the entire distribution of the firm's IP.

Abstract: Start-up companies, as well as new businesses within established firms, have the challenge of creating a sensible intellectual property (IP) portfolio. With resources usually tight, not all of the IP can be protected due to cost or resource availability considerations. Accordingly, disclosed herein is an apparatus and method that provide an effective solution for management of identified intellectual property. By providing an effective scoring scheme and a simple display, management decision making is made simple and straightforward, while providing in a glance the entire distribution of the firm's IP.

Abstract: The present invention is an apparatus for monitoring toner concentration on a photoreceptor surface. The apparatus includes a light emitting diode, the phototransistor, a beam splitter, and a lens disposed between the beam splitter and the photoreceptor surface to collimate the light beam between the lens and the photoreceptor surface. A portion of the light emitted from the LED is transmitted through the beam splitter and the lens to the photoreceptor surface. Collimated light is reflected from the photoreceptor surface back through the lens and reflected from the beam splitter to the phototransistor. The output signal from the phototransistor because of the incident and reflected collimated light is independent of the distance of the lens from the photoreceptor surface. Alternately, a second lens is disposed between the beam splitter and the phototransistor to enhance overall resolution.

Abstract: A simple graphic engine in which a document reading array and an array of marking elements are supported on the same support member. The support member is scanned in a direction orthogonal to the direction of relative movement between the support member and the document to be read and/or the record-receiving member. The support member is oscillated axially during scanning to reduce the number of elements required in both the scanning and marking elements.