So since were a little slow here's a rags to riches to rags story concerning a patent invented by an older brother. Part of the reason my interest was sparked when I heard and read about this story of UOIP. So somewhere around 20 years ago an older brother had just gone through a divorce. Down on his luck and looking to make child support payments he was searching for new ideas. His background was in marketing and he was doodling with pad and pencil. He was searching for an idea to track sales when he drew a coupon with a tracking number. His idea was to send out consumer coupons which wasn't a new idea. But his idea was to send them out with a tracking code. Example would be 4 kinds of cereals. If you used one of the cereals the tracking code would tell them who you were and which cereal you liked. You can see the value of the tracking tool. So he went to a patent attorney and they did the search. They found his idea to be the first. Sometime thereafter he was contacted and asked if he would like to sell the patent for a million dollars.
Needless to say he was ready to jump. However, a friend who specialized in negotiations asked if he could do some research first. In his search he found a court case dealing with patents that were similar to the one my brother invented. His patent was dated earlier than either of the parties who were in litigation against each other. The friend was able to contact the parties involved and they offered 3.5M to buy his patent. His friend received .5 M for doing the deal. My brother received 3M or 1.8 after taxes. So long story short he took his winnings and started to listen to people on how to invest his new found wealth. He became an over night stock market genius or so he thought. He started gambling in the markets with options. When he started to loose his money like any amateur he started to chase. One of his advisers suggested going big in 3comm. ( Pretty sure it was 3comm) and the rest was history. I think half of Omaha lost huge on that company and my brother entered bankruptcy and rehab not long thereafter. He has put his life back together and when I asked him how it all happened his response is that his biggest mistake was listening to people he thought were smarter than himself?
So when I hear of people borrowing money to invest or using grocery money it never seems like a good idea. My brother is a humble school bus driver today approaching 70 years old. So with this being said I hope we all remain humble and good fortune falls our way. My brother always spoke of starting a charity called ' Step Up". He ended up taking a step back! All the best and thanks for everyones contributions. Special thanks to AJ for leading myself and friends here.
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