It is the final IEOR 190G assignment. As I celebrate the coming end of “homework-cramming” Friday nights, I also begin to already miss the “haha” moments of silly patents, of the slide to unlock; and the “ I wish I knew more” moments of Samsung-Apple patent war, of the patent trolls, and etc.
This course have been valuable in two ways. First, it helps me to build a foundation for understanding Intellectual Property Laws, particularly in patent laws. We begin the course with looking at Top Ten Inventions. Through which we learned the importance of inventions and the notion that all inventions were essentially rebuilding from the previous inventions. These concepts provide a context through which we learn the Patent Laws. Then, we learned about basics of the Patent law by reading the actual patents. Two ideas that were emphasized are “non-obviousness” and “novelty,” which are standards that play critical roles in determining whether patents can be granted. Having gained the basic conceptual knowledges of the patent laws, we began explore patent marketization and issues such as patent trolls. This class studies patents from multi-perspectives without digging too deep into the technicalities. Overall, I am satisfied with the contents for this class and I think they provided me with a basis for understanding all issues regarding patents when these issues show in news or works.
Aside from the patent knowledges gained, this course has also helped me to grow personally. First, I learned how to work with vague questions. In my past learnings, particularly in science or math courses, I have always been asked specific questions that have decided answers. Consequently, I get easily frustrated when the question is vague. Through taking this course, I practiced formulating questions to answer for my weekly blog. I think this skill is important because once I get out of school, I will have less and less specific questions. Instead, I will need the skills to figure out what’s important to answer. Second, I really don’t like speaking in front of camera. I probably would have never uploaded videos if I did not need to. This course has pushed me to try something new.
IEOR 190G has been one of the most rewarding classes that I have taken at Cal. Yes, there are pains, especially during the Friday nights. But looking back, it has been a fun journey of Patent Law learning and personal growth.
Hi Yi,
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautifully honest post! I agree with you every step of the way. I feel a bit nostalgic talking about the Top 10 Inventions and Silly Patents as well. I think that gaining a fundamental knowledge on the field of patents and all the topics it encompasses is only the direct goal of the course. I agree that this class did a lot more. I, like you, would never have posted on YouTube before. But after this class, I feel so much more comfortable doing so and would not mind continuing this beyond this class. I hated public speaking before this class but I am much more open to it now and actually enjoy it. To your other point of dealing with vague questions, I don't think that is the right term. I think a more appropriate term would be open-ended or free-flowing. I also having taken a lot of math, business, and econ classes agree that I do not get these questions often and it was refreshing to receive them all throughout the semester. I agree that this an essential skill to have after college as we move into the professional world. I intend to pursue a career in consulting and I think this skill is very important for this field of work and I am so thankful for this class and having the opportunity to work with and study these types of questions
I definitely agree with you that the course has really gotten me to open up my mind in terms of thinking more broadly in the material given to us. Most often, I find myself doing homework that only asked me specific questions that does not prepare me as much (leading me to not do well in exams since I always felt like I "studied the wrong things"). This class has allowed me to absorb all the crucial information in a new light, allowing me to understand everything, rather than just understanding a few things relating to the material.
ReplyDeleteThe organizational structure of this class was also nice. Agreeing with you, I enjoyed the fact that the class started off slow with very fun basic activities, before delving into the more complicated material. Nice Job on your posts!
Hi there!
ReplyDeleteI really like how you segmented your reflection of this course into two parts - more on the professional development you have gained and then on the "personal" development you gained! I completely agree that there was definitely two ways that I also developed from this class, and reading you talk about the assignments we had to do in the beginning of class (from "silly patents" to "Top 10 Inventions") goes to show how much we have learned about this space and industry in the entirety of the semester! This professional development and newfound understanding is great, and I see how relevant it will be to my future business career, especially since I will be entering the technology space, and patents are extremely relevant.
On the personal side, I feel like I also grew more in how I was able to tackle vague questions to finish our assignments. Although at first I did not appreciate the lack of clarity on our assignments, I actually realized that it gave us so much more freedom to create our content and really tailor our own understanding of the material to whatever we had to tackle. It was great to see this considering how I am so used to have a "structured" outline for all other assignments in other classes, and it definitely threw me off the first time I had to tackle the IEOR assignments. But I have really come to appreciate the openness for more creative posts!
This is such a nice post, Yi! I can really see that you put time and consideration into designing this post, and it is such a delight to read. I love the beginning and I'm sure a lot of us (as the comments above suggest) can really to your 'haha moments' from our silly patents bit and other assignments.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your idea about how this class has helped you in answering vague questions. I definitely agree! I was quite confused when the assignments we used to get were so broad, I really did not know what Professor Tal was looking for in our posts. However, this helped me engage in a much more creative manner with the topics at hand and design my own way of approaching the assignment.
Hello Yi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great summary! I agree with you in that I do not enjoy recording myself and talking in front of a camera but this class has pushed me to be more active and outgoing on camera. Also, I like how you reflected on the homework assignment of silly patents because that was probably my favorite assignment to do and research. Best of luck
Hi Yi,
ReplyDeleteI liked the two things you pointed out. It is important to be able to think critically for ourselves when it comes to answering vague questions. Sometimes we learn more from approaching a vague question! We have to research the topic and understand the key elements before diving in. Otherwise we only focus on the specific question at hand.
Overall I think you had great posts and offered valuable insight. Glad to hear you enjoyed the course so much. I agree that there were difficult times trying to finish the assignments but I guess every course takes time. Thanks!
Hi Yi,
ReplyDeleteGreat last video blog post. I really enjoyed the class this semester and learned so much from reading/watching your posts each week. I agree that the class helped you answer the "vague questions." Professor Lavian is such a great lecturer! I agree that collaborative learning is really important because everyone has a something new to offer! Im also glad you learned so much this semester. Thanks again for all the good insight this semester!
Best,
Vruti
Hi Yi, one thing I really like about your post is that you not only include what we learned in class, but also talk about things that you also enjoyed doing. I cannot agree more about how you mention that you "miss the haha' moments of silly patents" - these are actually one of my fondest memories in the class as well. Hope you really got a lot from this class, and let's go file some patents!
ReplyDeleteHi Yi,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you separated what you enjoyed about the class in terms of content and how you improved in terms of your personal growth. I think in terms of our current education system, we emphasize so much on what we take from a class in terms of facts, figures, and numbers, but we rarely ever get to reflect on how much we actually felt we grew in terms of our mindset and overall character from a class. I liked how you pointed out that as we progress further into our lives, the answers to so many of the questions that will emerge will simply become more vague. I think what this class has allowed for us is a sphere to project our opinions, thought process, and decision-making in a way that isn't judged on whether it is exactly right or wrong, but more so on the quality of our presentation. I can see that growth in your own work from the beginning of the semester and I think that you bring up a great point about how this class allowed for a lot of personal development.
Hey Yi,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you started off your blog post with alreading "missing" previous assignments! Couldn't agree more on especially searching for silliest patents which was my favorite assignment in this class. I could tell how much you actually learned from this class and apply to your everyday life. Through fun assignments, various social media, and comments, we gained a lot of knowledge and I am glad to hear that you learned a lot! Great job Yi.
Hey Yi,
ReplyDeleteI liked that you talked about all the different ways you enjoyed the course and I'm glad you learned alot. It seems like you gained a lot of valuable knowledge and I learned alot throughout the semester from your posts, so thank you for that. I agree that this class was one of the most rewarding classes I've ever taken not only because I learned alot about patents but I also learned alot from my class mates which is not typical in a berkeley calssroom.
Hey Yi,
ReplyDeleteI like how during your reflection you reminded concepts we've learned in class, such as novelty and non-obviousness. Helped me remember the actual core concepts in the class. I especially like how you applied them to future uses we might have in our careers.
Hey Yi,
ReplyDeleteI like how during your reflection you reminded concepts we've learned in class, such as novelty and non-obviousness. Helped me remember the actual core concepts in the class. I especially like how you applied them to future uses we might have in our careers.
Great blog Yi. You really enraptured what you learned in the class. I too sometimes fell into the category of late night cramming on Friday nights. I think I will miss these even though they were quite stressful. I think you did a great job addressing the most valuable skill that we acquired during this course: solving vague problems. It has been a great semester and this really picked out the essence of the course.
ReplyDeleteHi Yi,
ReplyDeleteThis course also helped me to build a foundation for understanding IP, but I still don't have that good of a grasp on IP and patent law. Hopefully I'll be able to learn more in the future! I also liked how you created a mini road map of the course, how we started with the top 10 inventions, going to basic patent aspects, and then looking at actual patents. Overall, great job!
Hi Yi. Great blogpost again. I think you did a fantastic job of your posts all semester and your posts were a pleasure to read through. Nice job on being able to describe how the class impacted you in multiple ways. It was very insightful.
ReplyDeleteHi Yi! The end of the semester is such a bitter-sweet moment. I agree with you in that I am so glad classes are finally over, but I definitely already miss the funny moments in class.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you introduced why this class has been valuable to you in two ways, and then you went into detail for each of them. This makes your blog post really easy to follow!
I thought it was really interesting that you wrote about how this class has taught you to work with vague questions. This is so true! Can't believe I didn't thought of this when I wrote my own blog. I definitely agree this is a skill I learnt from this class, and it will be so helpful in the future. As someone who is really shy in person, I definitely agree with that all these video blogs we have to do definitely pushed me out of my comfort circle.
I can't believe this class is ending! I'll miss your blog posts! :)
Great reflection on what the course has taught you and how it's allowed you to grow as a person! This introspection is absent in other blogs, but it was cool to see it here! The organization of your blog posts has always been impeccable and that didn't change here. I agree that the class taught us to cut through a lot of the vagueness, especially in the patent literature, to find out what was really important. I think that will be one of the biggest takeaways from this course in the future. Very insightful post, thanks!
ReplyDelete