What the experts say

The friendlier skies

New government rules will make flying a bit less of a hassle, said Brian Naylor in NPR.org. Any passenger bumped from a flight may now be awarded up to $1,300 in compensation, up from $800, depending on the length of the trip. Airlines are also now required to refund baggage fees if a passenger’s luggage is lost. Flights at smaller airports will be fined if passengers are kept waiting on the tarmac for three hours or more, a rule already on the books for larger airports. More passenger-friendly reforms are set to roll out in January: Airlines will be required to reveal taxes and fees in their advertised fares and allow passengers to change or cancel reservations within 24 hours of booking without a penalty.

How to profit from patents

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A trip to the patent office could provide smart investors with an edge, said Jack Hough in The Wall Street Journal. Tech companies are in the midst of a spending spree on patents, which are increasingly prized for the legal cover they provide from rivals. Google’s $12.5 billion deal for Motorola Mobility was based largely on the strength of Motorola’s patent portfolio. With companies’ patent values on the rise, opportunities abound for the savvy investor. A visit to the website of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will tell you which companies hold which patents. Determining a patent’s worth is trickier, but one method is to look at how often a particular patent is cited in later patents; the more mentions a patent gets, the more valuable it is. “Patent-stuffed companies might be richer than they look.”

Beware business credit cards

Congress passed the CARD Act to protect consumers from the most egregious practices of the credit-card industry, but many small businesses are still subject to the old punitive terms, said Bill Hardekopf in Forbes.com. Many small businesses rely on plastic as a key source of capital, but issuers of small-business credit cards can still change card terms or apply a penalty interest rate without notifying the cardholder—practices that are now illegal for consumer cards. Small-business owners should read the fine print, as many card companies hold the card applicant and business jointly responsible for any debt, and late payments harm the owner’s personal credit history.