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Optimization
This platform — some twenty years in the making — needs maintenance from time to time so today there will be no Daily Consultation (15:00 UTC) while we tidy up our firmware. Instead, we make visible so-called “Evergreen” content on our client facing page as well as links to our priority projects:
We are moving our office across from the 150 State Street office we’ve occupied over ten years to an office across the street to 455 East Eisenhower, Suite 300, still proximate to the University of Michigan South Athletic Campus, with more expansive parking shared with the Olive Garden.
Enjoy the weekend! We shall reconvene LIVE again Monday, Columbus Day, October 13th when we scan codes and standards coalescing around the artificial intelligence zietgeist.
“One of the Family” 1880 | Frederick George Cotman
Spring Break has been amazing this week! Principal time is shut off! Spending time with the family is turned on! Sometimes the little things in life matter the most. Birds chirping, playing in playground, nature walk, hearing church bells! Blessed! 🙏🏻✝️#BeKindWorkHardBeGreat pic.twitter.com/bEnEpAvfnm
— Nick Edwards, M.Ed (@Nick_EdwardsEDU) April 17, 2025
#TBT to these U-M students boarding buses for the winter break in 1939! 📸: Ivory Photo Collection pic.twitter.com/HVJXaVMG1K
— UM Bentley Library (@umichBentley) December 19, 2024
Night lights. 💡 pic.twitter.com/RdNjaRNLFj
— Alumni Association of the University of Michigan (@michiganalumni) December 20, 2024
University of Michigan | Washtenaw County
Reflections on 20 years of National Electrical Code advocacy for @APPA_facilities https://t.co/V1P5XEChtz@UMich pic.twitter.com/N9Vp0whvwi
— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) July 11, 2016
2026 National Patent Application Drafting Competition
The NPADC is a team competition for law students to develop skills in drafting patent applications, focusing on U.S. patent law. Teams receive a hypothetical invention statement, conduct prior art searches, draft specifications and claims, and present their work to judges, including patent examiners and practitioners. For 2025, the invention was an extra-uterine system for supporting premature fetuses, indicating the complexity of tasks involved
There is no publicly available timetable for the 2026 National Patent Application Drafting Competition (NPADC) from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as of the latest available information. The USPTO typically releases detailed schedules for the NPADC closer to the competition year, often in the fall of the preceding year (e.g., October or November 2025 for the 2026 competition).
After months of hard work, the top five teams met at USPTO headquarters today for the final round of the 2025 National Patent Application Drafting Competition. 🏆 And the winners are … ⬇️
🥇 First place — @UofMNLawSchool pic.twitter.com/uwNSJR0oBy
— USPTO (@uspto) April 4, 2025
Thomas Jefferson was the leader in founding the United States Patent Office. Jefferson was a strong supporter of the patent system and believed that it was essential for promoting innovation and progress in the United States. As the first Secretary of State Jefferson was responsible for implementing the country’s patent system.
Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution reads as follows:
“The Congress shall have Power To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”
In 1790, Jefferson drafted the first Patent Act, which established the procedures for applying for and granting patents. The act also created the United States Patent Office as a government agency to oversee the patent system. Jefferson appointed the first Patent Board, which was responsible for reviewing patent applications and making recommendations to the Secretary of State.
Jefferson was deeply involved in the early development of the Patent Office and was instrumental in shaping its policies and procedures. He believed that the patent system should be accessible to all inventors, regardless of their social or economic status, and he worked to streamline the patent application process to make it more efficient and user-friendly.
In recognition of his contributions to the development of the patent system, Jefferson is often referred to as the “Father of American Innovation.”
This clause grants Congress the authority to establish a system of patents and copyrights to protect the intellectual property of inventors and authors. The purpose of this system is to encourage innovation and creativity by providing inventors and authors with a temporary monopoly on their creations, allowing them to profit from their work and invest in future projects. The clause also emphasizes the importance of promoting the progress of science and the useful arts, reflecting the belief of the founders that the development of new technologies and inventions was essential for the growth and prosperity of the United States.
Over the years, the Patent Office has played a crucial role in the development of the United States as a technological leader, granting patents for inventions ranging from the telephone and the light bulb to the airplane and the computer. Today, the Patent Office is part of the United States Department of Commerce and is responsible for examining patent applications and issuing patents to inventors and companies.
Welcome to the 2025 National Patent Application Drafting Competition!
2024 National Patent Application Drafting Competition
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s National Patent Application Drafting Competition – Khailee, Bree, Rita, and Maria from @gwlaw, and thank you to all participants! Learn more about the competition: https://t.co/gB64fnXaM6 pic.twitter.com/FWqak6Mr1m
— USPTO (@uspto) April 14, 2023
From creating a race car safety device that protects drivers from injury to revolutionizing chemotherapy, Spartans have contributed to more than 3,300 inventions. #SpartansWill pic.twitter.com/dchCs0BFBx
— MSU (@michiganstateu) February 21, 2025
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Occupancy Classification and Use
The Code Council partnered with @ConstructReach, a construction industry workforce development initiative and consultancy, to host “I built this!”, a work-based learning event at the #ICCAC24 expo. pic.twitter.com/o7KTAaV1xh
— IntlCodeCouncil (@IntlCodeCouncil) October 22, 2024
Libraries are multi-functional spaces and at the physical, and the heart, of any school, college or university. We take special interest in this discussion. Leaving the evolution toward “media centers” aside, the relevant passage in the current International Building Code that applies to library occupancy classification and use is linked below:
Chapter 3 Occupancy Classification and Use
Welcome to math class!
Year 16, woot woot! pic.twitter.com/5IIuQ3Tomc— Ashley (@PlanterAsh) November 6, 2025
The original University of Michigan advocacy enterprise may have raised the level of debate on structural engineering three cycles ago. Without any specific interest from attendees we will review our proposals in previous revision cycles:
- Education facilities as storm shelters
- Enhanced classroom acoustics
- Carbon monoxide detection in Group E occupancies
- Locking arrangements in educational occupancies
- Interior lighting power allowances for classrooms
- Occupancy sensors for classrooms
- Automatic control of receptacle power in classrooms and laboratories
- Expansion of voltage drop requirements into customer-owned service conductors
This is about as much as we can sort through this week. We will host another focus teleconference next week. See our CALENDAR for the date.
Finally, we persist in encouraging education industry facility managers (especially those with operations and maintenance data) to participate in the ICC code development process. You may do so by CLICKING HERE.
Real asset managers for school districts, colleges, universities and technical schools in the Albuquerque region should take advantage of the opportunity to observe the ICC code-development process. The Group B Hearings are usually webcast — and we will signal the link to the 10-day webcast when it becomes available — but the experience of seeing how building codes are determined is enlightening when you can watch it live and on site.
Issue: [16-169]
Category: Architectural, Facility Asset Management, Space Planning
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben
#StandardsNewMexico
LEARN MORE:
ICC Group B Code Development Schedule
Plan now to participate in the International Code Council's 2019 Committee Action Hearings in Albuquerque, April 28 – May 8. Your expertise & participation in this year's code hearings are vital. Register for FREE now! https://t.co/kuLDyCiOH6 #CodeHeroes #BuildingSafety365 pic.twitter.com/SpZuehOmd8
— IntlCodeCouncil (@IntlCodeCouncil) March 6, 2019
Little Big Horn College
Every month we direct our colleagues in the education industry to the US Census Department’s monthly construction report to make a point: at an average annual clip of about $75 billion, the education industry is the largest non-residential building construction market in the United States. A large part of that construction involves infrastructure upgrades of existing buildings that contribute to sustainability goals but may not make flashy architectural statements for philanthropists.
EDUCATION INDUSTRY CONSTRUCTION SPEND
The International Existing Building Code (IEBC) is a model code in the International Code Council family of codes intended to provide requirements for repair and alternative approaches for alterations and additions to existing buildings (LEARN MORE). A large number of existing buildings and structures do not comply with the current building code requirements for new construction. Although many of these buildings are potentially salvageable, rehabilitation is often cost-prohibitive because compliance with all the new requirements for new construction could require extensive changes that go well beyond the value of building or the original scope of the alteration.
Education facility planners, architects and managers: Sound familiar?
ICC administered workgroups have been convening with considerable frequency over the past several months to pull together a number of relevant concepts for the next (2019 Group B) revision. For the purpose of providing some perspective on the complexity and subtlety of the issues in play, a partial overview of working group activity is available in the links below. Keep in mind that there are many other proposals being developed by our ICC working group and others.
IEBC Healthcare for BCAC December 11 2018
16-169 IEBC BCC Worksheet October 2-3 2018
There are other many other issues we have been tracking. The foregoing simply presents the level of detail and subtlety that is noteworthy.
On Tuesday the ICC has released its the complete monograph for use at the Group B Committee Action Hearings, April 28-May 8 at the Albuquerque Convention Center:
It is a large document — 2919 pages — so keep that in mind when accessing it. There are many issues affecting #TotalCostofOwnership of the education facility industry so we will get cracking on it again next week. See our CALENDAR for the next online teleconference. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
Finally, we persist in encouraging education industry facility managers (especially those with operations and maintenance data) to participate in the ICC code development process. You may do so by CLICKING HERE. Real asset managers for school districts, colleges, universities and technical schools in the Albuquerque region should take advantage of the opportunity to observe the ICC code-development process. The Group B Hearings are usually webcast — and we will signal the link to the 10-day webcast when it becomes available — but the experience of seeing how building codes are determined is enlightening when you can watch it live and on site.
Issue: [16-169]
Category: Architectural, Facility Asset Management, Space Planning
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben
#StandardsNewMexico
LEARN MORE:
ICC Group B Code Development Schedule
Plan now to participate in the International Code Council's 2019 Committee Action Hearings in Albuquerque, April 28 – May 8. Your expertise & participation in this year's code hearings are vital. Register for FREE now! https://t.co/kuLDyCiOH6 #CodeHeroes #BuildingSafety365 pic.twitter.com/SpZuehOmd8
— IntlCodeCouncil (@IntlCodeCouncil) March 6, 2019
Little Big Horn College
Well Water Quality
Michigan Central | Water 330 | 2021 Michigan Plumbing Code
Protect the water quality of your water well
One of the first activities upon waking is interacting with water. Approximately 25% of households in the state of Michigan rely on private well water as their primary drinking water source. This figure comes from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), which estimates nearly 1.12 million households use private wells out of a total of roughly 4.1–4.6 million households statewide (based on U.S. Census data and population estimates of about 10 million residents, with an average household size of 2.5).
Other sources, such as Michigan State University Extension and the Michigan Water Stewardship Program, report slightly higher figures of 44–45% for overall groundwater reliance (including public systems drawing from aquifers), but the specific share for private household wells aligns with the 25% estimate from EGLE. Rural and southeastern areas of the state have the highest concentrations.
Sunday Brunch Menu | 10:30 – 1:30 AM Heritage Room
Michigan State was recently named a “dream school” in the nation, a university that’s not focused on prestige, but on value, access and outcomes. pic.twitter.com/ZMnO5szPMd
— MSU (@michiganstateu) November 7, 2025
Michigan State University Alumni Chapel
Michigan State University | Ingham County
Most non-Midwesterners have no idea how violent and deadly the Great Lakes get 🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/25coVuUjaM
— G-PA INDY (@GPAIndiana) November 8, 2025
Desert Research Institute
This content is accessible to paid subscribers. To view it please enter your password below or send mike@standardsmichigan.com a request for subscription details.
Well Water
This content is accessible to paid subscribers. To view it please enter your password below or send mike@standardsmichigan.com a request for subscription details.
Fruit Pie Fillings
https://extension.psu.edu/lets-preserve-fruit-pie-fillings
https://extension.psu.edu/lets-preserve-apples
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
Standards Michigan Group, LLC
2723 South State Street | Suite 150
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA
888-746-3670
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