A patent myth is loose in the land about their importance to innovators and those that finance them. In, fact, recently the New York Times published an op-ed titled “Inventing Our Way Out of Joblessness.” The authors, Paul R. Michel and Henry R. Nothhaft, argued that the best way to jump-start our moribund economy was for the United States Patent and Trademark Office to get through its backlog of patents.  Their premise is that the more patents are granted, the more jobs will be created in the U.S.  Unfortunately, their logic is flawed and biased.

Mr. Michel and Mr. Nothhaft’s claim that “three-fourths of executives at venture capital-backed startups say patents are vital to getting financing, according to the 2008 Berkeley Patent Survey” is simply not true.

The Burn: Stuck on first base with a sense that the outcome of the game is entirely out of your control.

The diagnosis: “I will start working on my career goals once I get my degree.” “When I have more experience I will begin.” “I’m waiting for the right time.”

Some people have difficultly discerning a determinant from an excuse. The preceding comments are excuses, as are most explanations we assert. Humans are masters of deception, especially self-deception. Unfortunately, most of us first believe our own negative propaganda before objectively seeking facts and the result is often inaction. After some thought we will notice that the majority of excuses connote intentions of waiting for “more appropriate” or “better” circumstances. This, of course, is a very costly fallacy.

The United States is not currently a hotbed for tea, compared to say, England, but the market for tea in the U.S. is growing in small pockets throughout the country in the form of tea houses and premium tea and coffee shops. One entrepreneur, in particular, has cornered the organic, fair trade tea market in the U.S. and that is none other than Joshua Kaiser of Rishi Tea. I caught up with Joshua and his friend Wang Geda, the founder of one of China’s only organic, fair-trade tea companies, Yi Select, at the Hong Kong International Tea Fair. Kaiser shares his reflections on carving out a niche market in tea and what it's like to pioneer organic, fair trade tea in the motherland of tea, China.

Of organic tea, Kaiser says, "In America, it's the fastest growing section of the tea industry." But the United States is not the only one demanding progressive teas from organic and fair trade farms. "The market for organic tea is emerging in Asia at a very rapid rate. When we look at the young market, the young consumers in Asia in Hong Kong, Singapore, and all over Southeast Asia, we see a trend for organic, green tea and some emerging awareness of fair trade."

Do you have a million-dollar idea that could revolutionize how the government works?  Now there’s a quick easy way to get your idea in the right hands – and maybe walk away with a cash prize for your effort.

The White House has announced the launch of their new website, Challenge.gov, a portal for everyday citizens to offer solutions to the nation’s biggest challenges. The site is an extension of President Barack Obama’s Strategy for American Innovation, which opens government solutions to the general public.

On Challenge.gov, entrepreneurs, leading innovators and citizen solvers can compete for prizes by providing novel solutions to tough problems and, at the same time, take pride in engaging with their government to advance national priorities.

The EAI was created by a community of leaders from industry, research, and policy making organisations to address Europe’s future competitiveness through innovation within ICT enabled areas. The grassroots nature of the community provides for a democratic representation of ideas and an empowering environment. This powerful dynamic creates the potential for sustainable growth.

Fairly or not, Steve Burrill’s reputation in Minnesota will rest a great deal on whether he can deliver the $1 billion investment fund to back the Elk Run BioBusiness Park in Pine Island.

He says he’s close, but in this global economy, nothing is a done deal until the documents are signed and the check clears the bank.

However, fund or no fund, Burrill said the state already has benefited from his interest and his checkbook. In an exclusive interview with MedCity News, Burrill said he has provided much-needed early stage capital and expertise to Minnesota-related companies.

When ReadWriteWeb profiled Montreal last month as part of our "Never Mind the Valley" series, it was clear that the city had a thriving entrepreneurial community. And today the Montreal startup scene gets stronger with the announcement of the launch of Year One Labs, a startup accelerator program.

The program is founded by four entrepreneurs - Raymond Luk, Ben Yoskovitz, Ian Rae, and Alistair Croll - who describe themselves as "operators, not armchair quarterbacks. We've been in the trenches." The program will utilize the "lean startup" methodology and be focused on a "rigorous process of customer development and iterative adjustment."

Montreal-based entrepreneur and blogger Ben Yoskovitz knows a thing or two about hiring employees at startups. Yoskovitz formerly founded his own company, Standout Jobs - a tool designed to improve hiring and recruiting techniques for small businesses on the Web. Needless to say, the hiring and performance tracking of employees at the SMB level is a topic of interest for Yoskovitz. One of the items he recently wrote about is whether startups should hire workaholics expected to work 80+ hours each week, and some interesting arguments against this doctrine emerged.

The startup ecosystem has long accepted the "all day, every day" methodology toward building a company, especially at the early stages. When you think you have a great idea you don't want to stop working on it, and young entrepreneurs will work during every spare moment to hasten the progress of their idea. That's great, and many successful entrepreneurs have done just that, but should that translate to your employees once you begin expanding?

The bus, which the company calls "Solarve," is equipped with photovoltaic (PV) panels, LED lamps, and a system for viewing the surroundings of the vehicle.

"This is the world's first public bus that is equipped with solar panels," said a representative of Sanyo Electric Co Ltd, which supplied the PV panels.

As you work to develop your product - before and after launch, it's important that you use more than just "gut feelings" to ascertain what's working and what's not. Along those lines, last week, Ryan Carson, co-founder of Carsonified offered a list of six key metrics for your web app and how to track them.

It's a great list - with definitions, calculation methods, examples, and even a link to a Google spreadsheet (see below for link) that you can use to input your own data.

Venture capital database VentureDeal this morning released complimentary VC Funding Quarterly reports, covering the second quarter of 2010. Let’s take a look at the report TechCrunch readers are likely most interested in: the world of the Web, digital media, software and ecommerce.

During Q2 2010, VentureDeal reports (PDF) that 366 companies raised a total of $2.1 billion in venture capital funding for those sectors, up 17% in total funding amount compared to the first quarter of this year and an increase of 30% in the number of companies funded.

All four sectors showed gains in funding amounts and number of companies funded.

One big theme to emerge out of our conversation last week about the future of the workplace was remote working. I thought it would be beneficial to start this week off by thinking about the disadvantages of remote work and the technologies and policies that may be able to mitigate some of those problems.

Productivity remains a concern for managers unwilling to give their employees a chance, but according to telecommute advocacy groups like Undress for Success and The American Telecommuting Association, research shows those concerns are mostly unwarranted. However, there are some other problems. Here are some of the issues I've witnessed in organizations of all sizes, and some ideas about what to do to fix these issues.

PHILADELPHIA, PA – September 8, 2010 - General Colin L. Powell (USA, ret.), Chairman of Eisenhower Fellowships, announced today that the organization will send seven U.S. citizens abroad in 2011 as Eisenhower USA Fellows.    “This is a unique opportunity for a group of emerging leaders to broaden themselves personally and professionally,” he said.

The seven Fellows, selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, include Seth Williams, Philadelphia, PA District Attorney; Robert Burns, Senior Vice President of Lux Research, Inc., in Raleigh, NC; Kelly Gast, Assistant Comptroller of Monsanto in St. Louis, MO; and Christopher Nowinski, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University’s School of Medicine.

For more complete information visit: www.eisenhowerfellowships.org/news/news.php.

Even venture capitalists who sit on boards where they have significant investments often forget this point. They write into their investment documents that they will occupy a seat on the board for as long as they are invested in the company, thinking of this as a protection for their investment and tool for them to influence growth.

Actually, there are two legal duties of board members. They are: the duty of care, and the duty of loyalty. Everything else is a self-imposed duty or responsibility. The duty of care is to care for the corporation asset itself, not the shareholders whom they represent. Each corporation when chartered becomes a live person in the eyes of the law, independent and subject to the care of its board of directors. Shareholders such as the investors are granted few rights by law. They can elect directors for their class of stock, approve mergers and acquisitions; approve increases or changes to the capital structure of the company and other more minor actions.

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Sept. 7, 2010) - Venture capitalists (VCs) in Canada expect their industry to contract further while those in emerging markets, including China, India and Brazil, expect to see theirs expand over the next five years, according to the 2010 Global Venture Capital Survey by Deloitte, Canada's Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) and several other international industry associations.

According to the survey results, two thirds (66 per cent) of Canadian survey respondents expect the number of venture firms to decrease between now and 2015, while a great majority of venture capitalists in China, India and Brazil anticipate adding more venture firms in their country during the same time frame. Venture capitalists in the U.S. and the European continent also expect an industry tightening in their respective countries, but the Canadian industry is much more vulnerable to such a trend given its much smaller size.

Most academics, including administrators, spend much of our time writing. But we aren't as good at it as we should be. I have never understood why our trade values, but rarely teaches, nonfiction writing.

In my nearly 30 years at universities, I have seen a lot of very talented people fail because they couldn't, or didn't, write. And some much less talented people (I see one in the mirror every morning) have done OK because they learned how to write.

Three blog posts that caught my eye this week demonstrate three different ways that you can fail at innovation:

1. Ignore the small innovations: James Todhunter wrote an excellent post yesterday defending thinking about improvements as innovation. You should read the whole post, but here is a highlight:

Breakthrough innovation, incremental innovation, minor improvement—these are all points on a continuum of value creating solution generation. Incremental innovation is very beneficial to an organization trying to develop the core competence needed to support a high-performance innovation system. Specifically, incremental innovation delivers both short and long term benefits. In the short term, immediate business benefits can be realized—extended revenue life of a product, increased market share, better contribution to margin, etc. In the long term, incremental innovation provides a low risk platform to hone the basic innovation skills needed for successful, repeatable breakthrough innovation practice.

In my blog post, “How Can Goals Enhance Creativity” I said…

“…As long as everyone in the organization believes they are playing a game which is designed to get them energized today, and it is not specifically about hitting the target, I can assure you that people will be more motivated.”

Games can be a useful tool for enhancing creativity. They make work more fun, they reduce stress, and they get people in action.

The sunlight of summer has begun it's annual transition to equinox, and we are all reviving the pulse of the work-year.

The President has returned from Martha's Vineyard to face what will surely be a challenging fall. It's mid-term election season and the mood of the voting public is downright ornery.

ODS (Obama Disappointment Syndrome) a growing wave of depression, has created a huge anti-incumbent wave. "Throw 'em all out!" seems to be the mantra of the season.