From Benjamin Franklin to Thomas Edison, individual inventors have long been symbols of American ingenuity and innovation, creating products and launching businesses based on new technologies they developed. And for more than 200 years the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been their protector.In recent years decades, independent inventors are facing new opportunities to cash in on their creations, thanks to the marketing and networking power of the Internet. But they also face new challenges from an increasingly complex and expensive patenting process.This year, a new federal law changed the method the patent office had used for 200 years to determine who should hold rights to a patent. Some say the change will help correct the problems small inventors face, while others say it will only hasten their decline.

The National Research Council Earth Science Decadal Survey, Earth Science Applications from Space, recommends that DESDynI (Deformation, Ecosystem Structure, and Dynamics of Ice), an integrated L-band InSAR and multibeam Lidar mission, launch in the 2010-2013 timeframe. The mission will measure surface deformation for solid Earth and cryosphere objectives and vegetation structure for understanding the carbon cycle. InSAR has been used to study surface deformation of the solid Earth and cryosphere and more recently vegetation structure for estimates of biomass and ecosystem function. Lidar directly measures topography and vegetation structure and is used to estimate biomass and detect changes in surface elevation. The goal of DESDynI is to take advantage of the spatial continuity of InSAR and precision and directness of Lidar. There are several issues related to the design of the DESDynI mission, including combining the two instruments into a single platform, optimizing the coverage and orbit for the two techniques, and carrying out the science modeling to define and maximize the scientific output of the mission. ©2008 IEEE.