(FORTUNE Small Business) – The procrastinating, the overburdened, and the just plain lazy should all have lit a candle last May when Clifton Keith Hillegass died from a stroke at the age of 83 at his home in Lincoln, Neb. Hillegass created Cliffs Notes, the condensed accounts of literary classics like The Catcher in the Rye and Moby Dick, just to name a couple. He founded the business back in 1958, while working at the Nebraska Book Co. in Lincoln. With a $4,000 loan, he set up operations in his basement and named the initial series of books Cliff's Notes. By marketing to bookstore owners he met as an employee of the Nebraska Book Co. and advertising regularly in teen magazines such as Seventeen and Scholastic, Hillegass parlayed his business into a multimillion-dollar enterprise by the mid-1960s. At its peak under Hillegass, the notes published about five million black-and-yellow-jacketed titles a year and had an 80% share of the literary study guide market. In 1998, Hillegass sold the company to IDG Books Worldwide, now Hungry Minds, for about $14 million. A dedicated hometown son, Hillegass was renowned for exclusively patronizing small, Lincoln-based businesses for his printing and advertising needs. Hillegass is survived by his wife, four children, a stepson, and seven grandchildren. His legacy clearly lives on. When told that this obituary would be a short one, Hillegass' granddaughter Laura Levy told FSB, "You'd better call it a Cliffs Notes version of his life."

Also leaving us last May was Victor Kiam, the long-time head of Remington Products, and a former owner of the NFL's New England Patriots. Kiam gained fame when he announced in a Remington ad for its MicroScreen shaver: "I liked it so much I bought the company." Kiam, who wrote about his Remington takeover and entrepreneurship in the 1986 book, Going With It, died at his Stamford, Conn., home from a heart condition. He was 74.

Dr. Horst K. Saalbach doesn't believe imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. He thinks it's a complete rip-off. You've probably never heard of German pneumatic-equipment maker Festo Corp. or its U.S. subsidiary, which Saalbach established in Hauppauge, N.Y., some 22 years ago. But its legal battles may soon have an impact on any company trying to protect itself from a competitor's knockoffs. As the vice chairman of the 400-person company, Saalbach has spent the past 13 (unlucky) years battling Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki (a.k.a. SMC Corp.). He claims SMC essentially copied Festo's patented technology, costing him a large portion of his market share and stymieing his company's growth by competing unfairly. Four earlier courts sided with Saalbach, but last November a federal court of appeals in New York overturned the earlier rulings.

That ruling caused a national stir in the business and law communities because the court's interpretation could make it easier for a company to make a minor change on a competitor's patented innovation and call the product its own. If left unturned, this ruling could have a profound impact on everyone. "Incentives for innovation will shrink, existing patents will decline in value, and patent prosecution in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will become more lengthy, complex, and costly," according to a brief on the case filed by the American Intellectual Property Law Association. Because this is a new interpretation of patent law but not a new law, the

1.2 million patents written over the past 20 years will also be called into question, explains Festo attorney Charles R. Hoffmann. SMC's lawyer, Arthur I. Neustadt, says his clients did "nothing in violation of the [patent] laws."

Now it's the Supreme Court's turn to weigh in, and an unusually high number of petitions were sent to the Court urging it to hear the case. Ten briefs were filed on behalf of Festo by some 27 different entities, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Bar Association, universities, and corporations. Still, an appearance before the Supreme Court isn't guaranteed. The Court hears 8,000 petitions a year and handles only 70 to 80. But even if he doesn't get his ultimate day in court, Saalbach says he'll seek help from the House Ways and Means Committee. Says Saalbach: "I cannot walk away from this morally."

Not all the news stemming from California's energy crisis is bad. Some number crunchers have recently unveiled industry-related figures sexy enough to make Sarah Jessica Parker blush. Consider: San Francisco venture capitalists Nth Power Technologies, which has focused two funds totaling about $190 million exclusively on energy-conscious startups, reports that total VC investment on new power-industry firms hit $1.2 billion in 2000. That's up an astounding 165% from 1999's $442 million.

The news is even better for energy businesses tied to Internet technologies. Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., found that online energy trading--where power producers sell to power buyers such as utilities that have sold their generators--produced sales of $400 billion in 2000. Forrester predicts that figure will grow to $3.6 trillion in 2005. "I think there are tremendous opportunities in this industry," says Anil Suri, CEO of E-lecTrade, a new online energy marketplace that hopes to compete with the likes of Enron. SmartSynch's chief executive, Mark Rodgers, agrees. His Jackson, Miss., company, which develops technology allowing energy meters to give a detailed analysis of a company's power consumption while guarding against brief outages, scored $23 million in financing in March. Says Rodgers: "I fundamentally believe the industry is going to explode." For him and other energetic startups, that will be a good thing.

Barbie had better watch her back. Smartees dolls, the brainchildren of twentysomething Los angelines Jennifer Fine and Jennifer Hamlin, want a piece of the $1.5 billion she generated for Mattel last year. After Hamlin took an unsatisfying trek down the doll aisle in search of a present for a friend's daughter, Fine raised $100,000 from friends and family and decided to launch a line of career-oriented, not-beauty-obsessed playmates. In October 1999, Ashley the Attorney, Destiny the Doctor, Emily the Entrepreneur, and Vicky the Veterinarian--all 11.5 inches of them--hit the shelves. "There's nothing wrong with playing princess as long as you also play businesswoman sometimes," says Chief Executive Fine. Smartees now offers 11 different characters. Smartees has sold about 100,000 dolls, passing the

$1 million mark in sales earlier this year. Each doll, retailing for about $20, comes with a day-in-the-life storybook, an "age appropriate" glossary, a resume, a diploma, and accessories, such as Emily's laptop, cell phone, and day planner. To further enforce the idea that girls are never too young to begin thinking about advanced degrees, www.smarteesdolls.com links to 50 top universities and provides an online application for one $25,000 college scholarship a year. And for boys who find Barbie's companion, Ken, coldly catatonic, they'll soon have Smartees of their own. Tyler the Teacher and Victor the Veterinarian arrive this Christmas.

Role playing is always a good way to spice things up. So when Andy Levine, president of Development Counsellors International, needed a way to nix the blank stares he got at his monthly financial presentation, he had an idea. At the development marketing company's New York City office, Levine decided to give each of his staff members the chance to be chief financial officer for a day. It's a management tactic increasingly being adopted by companies trying to get employees more involved. "We're trying to create an environment where people operate like business owners," says Levine. The employee with the task of presenting the financials is given two days to pore over the figures and come up with explanations. Five years into the project, team members now know where they are making and loosing money. "It's helped tremendously," he says.

Presidents can pretend to be rank-and-file staff too. Anthony Baradat, founder and president of Miami-based Anthony Baradat Iglesias Advertising & Public Relations, plays an assistant on a regular basis. " I realized I'd been making unrealistic demands. The things I wanted done in five minutes took 30."

Corporate role playing gained popularity among dot-coms looking for creative management solutions, says Arky Ciancutti, co-author of Built on Trust: Gaining Competitive Advantage in Any Organization. But unlike much that came out of the new economy, role playing should be a management tool with some staying power. Says Ciancutti: "Role switching can build new levels of trust, understanding, and respect."