As mental wellbeing of employees has been a major focus for many companies this year, quite a significant number have announced holidays...

The buy or build software debate has been going on long enough, and it is time we settled it. To better understand, let us take you down history lane. During the industrial revolution, the economy of Europe was flourishing. Due to this, companies started hiring third parties to take some workload off their shoulders. Hence […]

The post Build Vs Buy Fintech Software appeared first on SDK.finance - White-Label Digital Core Banking Software.

  Since Amazon stopped screening new hires for cannabis use, applications for some positions have increased by as much as 400 percent. Amazon announced on Tuesday that it is lobbying the federal government to pass a bill that would deschedule and tax weed, making it federally legal in states that have already legalized cannabis. The company also […]

The post Amazon Is Lobbying the Government to Legalize Cannabis appeared first on The Cannabis Business Directory.

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Where are all the workers? That’s the question that many manufacturing leaders are asking right now, as labour shortages and skill deficits put the brakes on their ambitions for post-pandemic recovery.

New ideas and bold thinking are urgently needed, given the extent of these problems. Labour shortages are creeping upwards in the European Union and manufacturing companies report that it’s getting harder to hire. At the same time, 79 per cent report skills shortages, according to a 2020 report from technology industry trade body Digital Europe. “New graduates lack work-ready competences. Experienced ones got trained in a pre-digital, traditional manufacturing world,” write the report’s authors.

The pressure is on for manufacturing companies to offer better and more satisfying jobs, and to equip workers with the skills and training they need to perform them. Augmented reality (AR) technology could be an important part of that picture – but only if the employee experience takes centre stage in any implementation plans.

The uptake of AR - which overlays digital information onto physical objects and environments in the workplace and supports remote collaboration - has seen a sharp increase in the past year or so. During the pandemic, it proved its value in helping companies get around the challenges of remote working and social distancing in industrial environments. Now, employers should be looking at AR as a way to attract new employees to their organisations and to reskill and upskill existing workers.

So how can employers put AR to work in a people-centric way that delivers the best chances of business success? To my mind, they should always start with a problem, a pain point or a challenge. Anything that frustrates employees in their daily work, or slows them down, should be the baseline. In other words, when it comes to creating an AR experience, manufacturing leaders may be wondering ‘What should I build?’ or ‘How should I build it?’ These questions are for later. To begin, the most important question should be, ‘Why should I build it?’

For example, employees may struggle to set up or operate a particular piece of machinery on the factory floor. Work instructions, delivered by AR, could guide them through the best approach, step by step. When building products, they might use AR to refer back to the original CAD files to understand what components and parts they need to use and the way these fit together. Similarly, service engineers working in the field could use AR to collaborate with colleagues back at headquarters on the best way to fix a previously unseen fault with a customer product.

In each of these cases, and many more besides, AR solves a problem that might otherwise sap workers’ time, energy and patience. But the involvement of frontline employees shouldn’t end with their reporting of these pain points. In my experience, the best outcomes are delivered when employees continue to be consulted and involved as the project progresses and their needs, wants and concerns are met at every stage.

For example, employees should be included in use-case definition. Identifying a pain point is only the start. Companies need to then build whole use cases that don’t just address a single pain point, but aim to improve how whole workflows are performed. The best way to do that is to shadow employees and hear directly from them at what stages in a job or task they tend to struggle. Let them tell you where improvements are needed.

Similarly, when companies are preparing to make a significant investment in AR, they need to be confident they’ve asked the right questions upfront. Bad decisions at this stage could easily frustrate employees, forcing them to revert to old habits and practices. Does hardware and software work in the way that employees need it to, for example? Is the technology easy and comfortable to use, enabling them to consume the information they need, when they need it? Do proposed hardware formats work well with hands-free tasks? Does the proposed software platform have the potential to support other AR experiences as new use cases emerge? Involving employees in try-outs of proposed technology solutions will be vital.  

The importance of content to AR cannot be overestimated. After all, it’s what is used to augment reality! In industrial use cases, content may well take the form of CAD or PLM data, which contains key engineering information and knowledge about how products are built, configured and work. Work instructions, meanwhile, will need to be supplemented by the tacit knowledge contained in the heads of experienced workers who perform given tasks every day and know the best ways to get them done. Data from learning management systems may also be involved. Again, shadowing employees in their work enables them to report any gaps in data or information in the content streamed to them via AR. In short, what are the questions that they want AR to answer for them?

Finally, there’s the value of soliciting feedback from users. While many executive teams will understandably want to see improvements to key performance indicators (KPIs) on productivity, throughput and wastage from their use of AR, these are unlikely to follow unless employee feedback is given priority. Factory-floor work evolves all the time, especially when new machinery is introduced or new products are being built. Gathering feedback from frontline employees and acting on it is the best way to ensure that higher level KPIs are achieved - and that they continue to get met as work evolves.

It’s real ‘hearts and mind’ work, solving real problems for real people. But as a manufacturing organisation searches around for new people to hire, the fact that it’s using AR to make work better for existing employees is a great advert for its employer brand. But more than that, it empowers the people it already employs, increasing their capacity, skills and satisfaction in ways that mean they’re more likely to stay on board.

Sam Murley is worldwide digital transformation director for augmented reality products at PTC.

Significant employment decreases occurred in many industries during the pandemic. But in transportation and warehousing, demand for labor continued and even grew. When...

In this blog post I summarized the potential legal liability of issuers raising capital using Title II Crowdfunding (aka Rule 506(c)), Title III Crowdfunding (aka Reg CF), and Title IV Crowdfunding (aka Regulation A). Here, I’ll summarize the potential legal liability of a registered Title III funding portal. To start, let’s distinguish between two kinds …

Continue reading The Legal Liability of A TITLE III Funding Portal

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights. Court rules no share of UMPG’s Bob Dylan acquisition proceeds should go to coauthor estate A New York court has ruled that the estate of songwriter Jacques Levy is not entitled to a share of … Continue reading New issue of Music & Copyright with Austria country report →

The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided a case resolving a patent dispute between two medical device companies, Hologic, Inc. and Minerva Surgical.  The opinion was closely watched because it raised the question of whether an inventor who has assigned a patent is legally prevented from later attacking the validity of that same patent — a doctrine historically referred to as “assignor estoppel.”

The Supreme Court’s opinion on June 29, 2021, upheld but limited this doctrine, defining its boundaries and emphasizing it is based on legal principles of equity and fair dealing.

In the case, Csaba Truckai was a listed inventor on a patent application, the rights to which were subsequently acquired by Hologic, Inc. Mr. Truckai then founded Minerva Surgical, Inc. and developed an endometrial ablation system.  Hologic sued Minerva for patent infringement of one of the assigned patents related to endometrial ablation.

In response to the claims of patent infringement, Minerva attacked the patent as allegedly invalid. In response, Hologic argued that, under assignor estoppel, Minerva should be prevented from attacking the patent’s validity because Minerva’s founder, Mr. Truckai, was an inventor on the same patent.

In deciding the case, the Court recognized the fairness principle of assignor estoppel — that an inventor shouldn’t be able to initially tout an invention to the patent office, only to later disclaim its worth after assigning it. However, the Court decided that the lower court had applied assignor estoppel too expansively to muzzle inventors.  Thus, the Court held that the doctrine applies only when an inventor makes statements (explicitly or implicitly) in assigning a patent, and later contradicts those statements in litigating against the owner of the patent. The Court reasoned that an assignment does carry an implied assurance of a patent’s validity, but where the assignor has not made explicit or implicit representations that contradict an invalidity defense, there is no ground for assignor estoppel.

To illustrate the boundaries of assignor estoppel, the Court provided three non-exhaustive examples of when assignor estoppel does not apply:

• First, when assignment occurs before an inventor can make a warranty of validity (e.g., “when an employee assigns to his employer patent rights in any future inventions he may develop during his employment”);
• Second, when a later legal development renders the warranty of validity irrelevant (such as a change in the law); and
• Third, when a change in patent claims occurs for an assigned application (e.g., “the new claims are materially broadened” during patent prosecution after the assignment takes place).

Nevertheless, each assignor’s and each company’s situation is unique, and the application of assignor estoppel depends on the particular situation. Medical device companies and others concerned about patents should seek the guidance of professional legal counsel when making any determination regarding whether assignor estoppel applies.

The post Supreme Court Upholds, but Limits, Patent Infringement Defense of “Assignor Estoppel” appeared first on Knobbe Medical.

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