Every week, The Competitive Insight lists the Utah patents and trademarks pursued by Utah businesses.  I'll be giving recognition to the most interesting ones that come across my desk.  Here's my favorites from this week.

Patent of the Week

7,280,664

Method for apparatus for audio matrix decoding

James W. Fosgate, Heber City, UT; Stephen Decker Vernon, San Francisco, CA; Robert L. Andersen, San Francisco, CA

Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation, San Francisco, CA

It's always exciting to see the latest greatest technologies come through in patents.  In this patent, Dolby discloses how it takes the left and right audio channels and turn them into surround system signals with forward, back, left, right and possibly more.  While the theory may be beyond anyone other than electrical engineers, it's fun to think that we can dive in and know how the magic is done.

Trademark of the Week

LEAVE ME ON HOLD, LLC

Park City, UT

I had to look this one up, just to be sure that it is what I feared it would be.  It is.  The mark claims to be for scripts and dramas performed for people on hold.  The hard part for this type of business is that when I see the mark, it brings back memories of hold-hell - that place you go when you call for tech. support and you disappear into the vacuum of space.  While many large corporations apparently think we like being on hold, WE DON'T. The Young and The Restless will soon become I'm Getting Restless. Better yet, just hire enough people to answer the stinkin' phone.