I've been reading in the news the last couple of days about what the media is calling a "historic" Supreme Court decision where the Supreme Court sided with Microsoft in a case between Microsoft and AT&T relating to a Speech Synthesis patent.

I don't actually know anything about that case that I haven't found out by reading about it in the press myself. So, if you came to this post for the inside juicy details about the patent dispute ... Sorry. You won't find it here.

However, all this coverage made me think about all the patent applications I've filed over the last 12 years here at Microsoft. Most of them came in the last 8 years while I've been working on speech technologies and user experiences.

Over those years, I've filed 20+ patent applications (I'm in the process of filing 2 more right now!). Shortly after you file a patent application Microsoft gives all inventors listed on the patent application a little marble cube that has the name of the patent, the date it was filed, and the inventor's name on it. I've got this big 5 story pyramid I'm building with my cubes that some of my friends kid me is going to fall over on me next time we have an earthquake.

The most exciting part typically is when a patent is actually granted. Inventors here at Microsoft often first learn of the patent being granted as a result of a flyer showing up in their home US mail offering for sale a plaque to commemorate the event. This flyer is somewhat useless, because a few weeks after the patent is granted, Microsoft buys you one of these plaques anyway.

For my first patent, it was a little different, though. One of my non-Microsoft friends just happened to be doing some web searches on my name, and he stumbled on my first patent, the same day it was granted: May 16, 2006. He then promptly sent me an email to let me know. 

Now normally, that would be enough to make it a stange way to find out about my first patent, but I was also standing in the Overlake Hospital when it happened. I was there because my wife had just delivered our brand new baby boy: Beckett Ethan Chambers (his initial spell his name, just like his 3 older brothers).

So, on that one day, I got my first patent, and my brand new baby boy, Bec. Crazy, huh?

Bec's going to be one year old in a couple weeks, and so will my patent. Patent # 7,047,200: Voice recognition status display.

Since then I've received 7 more patents, and 7 more plaques. And yes, one of them was actually for my first patent application.

My oldest son thinks it's pretty cool that his old man is an inventor in the truest since of the word. Being listed in a database alongside Alexander Graham Bell, Walt Disney, George Ferris, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, etc. is a pretty cool to him. And to me. :-)