Spockydog

None of this government's response makes any sense. Get back to work! But don't go on public transport. Go down the pub. Wetherspoons is especially safe, wot! Take your kids to Nandos. BUT DON'T TALK TO ANYONE! Oh, and you can't see your family or friends unless you're killing animals for sport in which case Tally Ho motherfuckas! Cunts.

Knowing the Tory membership, it will probably end up being JRM.

Revolution is Coming

Thoroughly depressing piece in the Guardian. If Manchester's farcical lockdown is any clue, the second wave will hit us all hard Four more years of this shit. But, yay, at least we'll get Brexit done.

The Kurgan.

Let's just hope that the Japanese don't renege on the deal, in a specific and limited way.

Hey, Jared/Donald from Silicon Valley. If you've been made Covidundant, but still wanna be rich, hit me up in the DMs.

Yeah, that's a bit strong.

Such as?

Cheers, man. As I said, I can't really believe this is happening to me. Back in April, securing a patent and launching a product was the very last thing on my mind. Ever since v2.something, I've been struggling with imposter syndrome. Having not only the invention, but my entire crackpot vision, validated and expanded upon has been enormously rewarding. Anyway, first things first, need to get the patent filed. But because it's green technology, we get to jump some queues, and could possibly have our first patent in as little as nine months. Then there will be a bunch of decisions to make.

It's definitely part of our strategic plan, if only as an initial profile-raising exercise.

Here's the introduction of my presentation to HGF. It outlines the problem I set out to solve, but not how I did it. I tried growing a couple of plants in my garden a few years back. Total disaster. Turns out it's much easier with indoor hydroponics. If you can keep conditions optimal, there's really no reason why you should fail. Here's how my first grow is looking, with about two weeks until harvest. And yes, that is just one plant. Oh, yes. Quite a bit more than I imagined before talking to HGF.

So we've reached out to a few more law firms, based on @Mudguard's recs, as well as some others we received. One of the partners at J A Kemp came back and was keen to help, but it turned out they had a conflict of interest. We're awaiting responses from three more firms. Meanwhile, HGF are going above and beyond. Over the past few days, we've been exchanging emails, in which they've outlined the scope of our claims, and the potential applications of my invention. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the implications of what they've told me. It doesn't feel real. I mean, I've always been a bit of a dreamer, but shit like this doesn't happen to me.

Thank you, everyone. In particular, Mudguard, for such an informative, well thought out post. I really appreciate it. Had a meeting with my partner today, and we're going to approach a few more lawyers. Having gotten over the excitement of what I heard at our initial meeting, it would be negligent of me not to seek a different perspective. I'm currently drafting a letter of introduction, and I'll certainly go into these next few meetings with more of an idea of what to ask. To be fair to HGF, they more or less said exactly the same as you. What they didn't say was if their rates are the same whether you're Coca Cola, or Mr Inventor. I'll certainly ask them that question, along with a few others based on everyone's feedback. Though, if things go half as well as I think they can with this invention of mine, all talk of cost will be moot. With just some aluminium, fishing tackle, and climbing equipment, plus a dash of ingenuity and the magic of physics, I've come up with something that will probably cause a minor bidding war amongst the world's leading grow tent manufacturers. And that's just for starters. HGF reckon the patent can be crafted to allow us to upscale the invention and possibly revolutionise the growing practices of indoor commercial cannabis cultivators, all over the world. Either that, or they're blowing smoke up my ass.

Ah, this is all great advice. Thanks everyone. In terms of what's been agreed, absolutely nothing yet. HGF emailed on Friday to say the conflict check had come back negative and they'd be delighted to represent us. I shot one back and told them, yes, we would love to work with them, but as the quoted costs were a little bit more than expected, we needed some time to see how we could make it work. Got a meeting with my partner tomorrow, so plenty to discuss.