Online Signature Licitness for Assignment of Intellectual Property in Canada

How to eSign a document: online signature licitness for Assignment of intellectual property in Canada

- Welcome, and thank you for joining us as we discuss licensing your intellectual property. We'll learn the when, the why, and how to license your intellectual property or IP. This afternoon I have a distinguished and accomplished panel of subject matter experts who will be joining us to share their experiences within the world of licensing and all of the possibilities related to the types of intellectual property one can license, as well as sort of a future look in terms of licensing. Our first guest I would like to bring to the stage, the virtual stage, if you will, Ms. Chinwe. Chinwe, please turn your camera on and introduce yourself. - Hello, everyone. My name is Chinwe Ohanele. I am a entrepreneur, a content junkie, as well as an attorney. My expertise is in business law and intellectual property. And I'm the founder of Ohanele Law Firm, which is a boutique legal practice that serves purpose-driven creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs. In addition to that, I do quite a bit of education through different trainings, workshops, as well as speaking at conferences. I also write some of my thoughts about industry and intellectual property on my blog "The Content Biz." And in addition, I recently began working with the Michelson Institute of Intellectual Property. And in that role I'm really working to foster partnerships and ecosystems driving, you know, the sort of success of entrepreneurs, creators, and entrepreneurs through IP education and just making sure that that information is out there. So I'm really excited to be here and hopefully have a really interesting conversation about licensing and IP. - Awesome. Thank you, Chinwe. Our next panel member is Mr. Warren Tuttle. Warren, please introduce yourself. - Thanks, Charesse. My name is Warren Tuttle. Really happy to be here on this panel, this terrific panel. I have been helping inventors for many, many years. I served as the president of the largest 501C3 nonprofit inventor education group, the United Inventors Association, for many years. I serve on the national Pro Bono Advisory Council and also on the Council for Innovation Inclusion, CI2. I also run open innovation programs for several large companies, including publicly traded lifetime brands, the largest housewares company in the world actually. And I wrote a book called "Inventor Confidential," which goes into licensing a lot. I've done over 150 licensing deals, which have generated over $1 billion in sales. So I've been through the ins and outs. So however I can be of help today, please put me to work. - Awesome. Thank you, Warren. Our next panelist is Daniella. Daniella, please introduce yourself. - Hello, everyone. And thank you all for being here and thank you for having me. So my name is Daniella Zakon, and I have a slightly different background from the other members of the panel. My background is actually in marine biology and then I went back to school to study environmental studies and business management. My area of focus is on creating businesses that have a low carbon footprint. I am the founder and CEO of a company called Upwell Cosmetics. And we have the exclusive rights to a patent bundle from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which is one of the leading oceanographic institutions in the world. And they co-own our patents with Western Washington University. And the bundle includes some process patents as well as field-of-use patents, which basically states that our company is the only company that can manufacture and sell algae wax, which we are using to replace petroleum wax in personal care and cosmetic products. Thank you so much. - Awesome. Thank you all for introducing yourselves. And I'll use this time to give a little about my background and how I've come to work with you guys today. I am, as Deepak described, I'm working as a senior advisor to the undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the USPTO, where I am working on a, or with a portfolio of initiatives and projects around increasing intellectual property access, education, and transactions within the broader community, specifically working on or connecting with under-resourced communities such as women, people of color, HBCUs. And very interested in making sure that intellectual property education and access is available to everyone. My background started as a patent examiner in Technology Center 1600, where I examined innovations in the bio-affecting compositions art area, as we reference in the patent world. After leaving the patent office, I worked in the private sector doing licensing, commercialization, technology transfer before coming back into the federal space with NIH just prior to my role here at the USPTO. I too am happy to be here and happy to engage you guys this afternoon. So as our panel is titled, we are really gonna start with the basics. And that's where I would like to start my interactions with you guys. Warren, you probably are the one that has the most experience of all of us, and so I'd love for you to start with really the basics, you know, answering the question: What is licensing? I think you're muted. - Oh, I'd like to say rookie mistake, but I should know better. Thanks. So a great place to start. You know, licensing, very simply, is the art or science of getting your product or your technology to market through others. There is a path, obviously, of going to market directly, which is quite complicated, it can involve a lot of investment and risk. The easier and simpler way sometimes is to license to others, it could be a company, it could be a distributor, it could be a large entity, it could be an individual, but someone that gives you help along the way. And typically, though, when people license your product, they want some sort of collateral or skin in the game from you, and that typically is intellectual property. So that's why we're here today. And I'd say that's the basic definition. - Awesome. Chinwe, you work with a variety of clients who come to you with issues, questions, opportunities, if you will, assets, that cover a spectrum of intellectual property topic areas. What would you say is really a good definition of what licensing is? And I would like for you to use that as a launchpad into what can be licensed. - I think that's a great question. So, yeah, a lot of the small business owners that come to me, they come with either a business that they've sort of started and they're excited about or an idea and they're not entirely sure what it is that they've created other than, you know, somebody out there wants it. So usually we start by identifying what the assets are. So someone may come in and say, you know, "I have this course that I've created. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I know that it's important and it's different from everything else that's out there," right? And so we parse out what is that course, you know, what is the bundle, right? So if it's some audio-visual content, written handbook or something, I'm looking at, "Okay, there's some copyright there." If it has a name that is recognizable in the market that people are, you know, gonna look at and say, "That has value and I can trust that source," you may be looking at a trademark. If you are teaching or you have a unique approach to something, you've developed a tool or a way of doing things that is unique, right, you might be looking at a patent. So I think that the most important thing is coming in and being able to parse out what are these different assets that you've built and figuring out what bucket it goes into. Then in terms of, you know, what can be licensed, I think ultimately it's a question of... And I'll take a step back. Just because you create something and you can register it does not mean it has commercial value. So I think that that's something that really needs to be teased out. I can draw a stick figure right now and copyright it, it doesn't mean that someone's going to give me money for that stick figure, right? I can name a course something, but it doesn't mean that someone's gonna buy it at a sort of a premium price because I think it's a premium price. So it's one thing to create something and register it, which is sort of the foundation. You have to have something that's protected, registered so that you can leverage licensing, but it has to have some kind of market value, some kind of commercial value for someone to say, "Hey, that's something that I can build upon. That's something I can collaborate with someone on. That's something that I can turn into a product or a service that, you know, has some ROI." So I think that's a really critical piece of, you know, that conversation: What can be licensed? - Excellent question. And you touched on so many key areas, and some of which I will parse out as we proceed in the conversation. One of those pieces I would love to sort of drill down on, and this is where Daniella will come in, you mentioned in terms of the types of assets you can license, one of those things was a patent or are patents. And I think that's where Daniella comes in in terms of what she used to start her business. So, Daniella, can you speak to us about how you found this patent? Or did the patent find you? - Yeah, I'd be delighted to speak to that. And before I kind of get into that, I also think it was really important to point out the kind of need. Because when you are coming with something novel, which is the reason that it can be patented in the first place, you really do need to kind of do your research and see: Are the consumers actually going to need this? Are there any regulations in place already? There's gonna be a steeper learning curve. So for us, talking to customers was really, really important. The way that we actually came about our IP is maybe a little bit of a different story than others, I'm not entirely sure. But I happen to live in the village where the institution is located and where the inventors, you know, did the research, made the discovery, and filed for the patent. So I was already somewhat aware that there was a lot of amazing discoveries in this town and that I really wanted to find something that I could commercialize. When I initially was brought into the project, the inventors were making one product, just did lipstick with algae in it; and that was great, it showed that it worked. But what we did was then we went out to the market to really, really understand, talk to brands, talk to customers, and see is there a need for algae wax. It's a totally new thing that no one had ever heard of. And what we discovered was, yes, absolutely, because the other waxes in the market come from petroleum, which are from fossil fuels and, you know, cause carbon dioxide. There's plant-based waxes which are contributing to deforestation. So we found there was an immense need for some kind of sustainable alternative. No wax innovation had happened in a number of years, so we really found this incredible need and opportunity. And it was an honor to then work with the tech transfer department, which you guys have more experience and I'm sure we'll speak on, and to really be able to take this completely new, novel, you know, discovery out into the world. - Awesome. And thank you so much for covering that, Danielle. And, again, just from the sort of the baseline questions, we've uncovered and identified that there is a wide range of intellectual property assets that can be leveraged or licensed or used in some form in transactions. And so which brings me then to sort of drilling down a little bit more, you know, sort of getting to the nitty gritty, if you will. And Warren, I'll throw this question to you. In your experience, what are typical licensing terms that you've seen or you've negotiated? And then sort of as a part B to that, do those terms differ based upon the type of intellectual property you have? - Yeah, great question. And the answer is yes. (laughs) So I'm enjoying listening to other panelists today because it does round out the conversation. And it just, I guess, kept going through my head as they were both speaking about consumer demand. Just remember that term consumer demand, okay? Without it, you know, we're nowhere. But, yes, so there's a lot of things you can leverage or use as collateral. And I typically, in the consumer products good area, you know, work with patents, and those patents are usually utility patents or design patents typically. Typically, though, utility patents are much more valuable and they're much more difficult to, I think, to file and to make sure that you have something that's truly unique. And typically those are based upon building prototypes. So if you have a new approach... Now obviously we've talked a little bit about services and goods and other things, but for actual products you wanna develop a prototype that actually functions, okay? It's very important, folks. If it doesn't function or it doesn't work, you don't really have anything. So there's a lot of effort and work, and I'm sure we just heard about that too in the nautical world. But I think that once you get there and you build those prototypes and you figure out specifically, mechanically you turn it into a utility patent. And when you bring a utility patent to someone like myself who puts together licensing deals, you know, all the time for housewares and hardware manufacturers and so forth, the typical royalty rate if you have a file patent... Mow, I'm gonna describe that because we have provisional patent applications, PPAs, which are 12-month provisionals; that's okay, we'll talk to you. we'll listen. Typically those have to be converted after 12 months into a non-provisional patent filing. Those are actually considerably more valuable 'cause they actually include the specific claims. And then eventually after a number of years, depending upon the process and the approach you take, you'll get, you know, an issued patent. Either a non-provisional or an issued patent typically can command somewhere between 2 and 7% royalty. And then the question of royalty rate based upon what. And that's usually the wholesale sales to retailers, okay? So let's say a lifetime brand produces a garlic press and it's a $10 cost, it's gonna retail for $20, you know, at Walmart or something. The royalty rate, 2 to 7%, would be based upon that $10, okay? I don't wanna get too complicated, but there are other things that get subtracted off that, but there's a net royalty rate. So you might make between 20 and 70 cents per unit, Typically 2% is very low and 7% is quite high. A very good royalty rate is typically around 5%. Now, there's things that sometimes affect that negatively. If you don't have what they consider a strong patent, it might go down a little bit. If it's only a design patent, it's a lower rate. But if you have a strong utility patent, that's a typical rate that you might be, for consumer goods, that you might be... That might, you know, be something that you should look at and understand that that's a good rate before you start saying, "I want 20% of the box," and they never speak to you again; that's a pretty good rate. - Awesome. Well, well thank you. I really appreciate you making the distinction between what typical rates might be for consumer goods and perhaps the sort of the upper range when it comes to sort of academic-based or more technical or complex patents. But you mentioned something a moment ago, and I would like for Chinwe to weigh in on this. Warren mentioned basically exclusive... Actually pardon me. Daniella mentioned she and her company have an exclusive license. And so that folks can understand what that really means as a term of art and as opposed to a non-exclusive, Chinwe, can you speak to what those differences are? - Yeah, I'd be happy to. And it's perfect because I think exclusivity is something that is even coming up in pop culture. When you look at, you know, influencers, everyone's talking about what's exclusivity, right? Why does it matter? So the idea of exclusivity is when you're giving that right over to, you know, the third party who is purchasing this right. If it's exclusive, they're the only people who can exercise that right. And that's exclusive even to yourself, meaning now you can't exercise that right. So they're buying that control. If it's non-exclusive, then that means perhaps that you can sell it to them and you can sell it to somebody else, or you can sell it to them and you can exercise the right as well. And so it's really about who can control this particular asset, for how long, in what territories or regions. Sometimes you see in other areas where exclusivity may be geographic. So they may say, you know, I have an exclusive right in the Pacific Northwest, right, but maybe it's non-exclusive in other regions. And some of those terms, when it comes to exclusivity, is really driven by market, maybe business, maybe best practices in that particular industry, you know? Because at the end of the day, the reason why someone would want exclusivity is you wanna protect that investment that you've made, right? So if you're gonna pay, you know, for exclusivity, it's gonna be at a premium because obviously you're restricting who has access to it, and you're doing that because you realize that if it's non-exclusive, you're really in competition with whoever else, you know, has access to this asset. So exclusivity can be a really interesting thing to negotiate in licensing agreements, especially in different industries, because it allows you to weigh, you know, some of the business considerations when you're trying to figure out how to leverage an asset. - Thank you for that. And, again, I think that's a really appropriate segue back to Daniella regarding, again, referencing the exclusive patent you licensed. And I would love to hear from you. Your concept is quite a unique concept. And as you mentioned, there is a market need based upon some of the research and studies you conducted. So from a sort of a technician/businesswoman's perspective, what advantages is it to have this exclusive license, you know, specifically for you? And if there are any disadvantages, would you share those as well? - Yes, I'd be happy to. And thank you for setting me up very well, Chinwe, so that I can kind of elaborate a little bit more. I would say it's a huge advantage for us. And this kind of circles back to one of the first things that we mentioned, which is that because you're bringing something completely novel to the market, you have this incredible opportunity but you're also taking on more risk. So I feel that having that exclusivity kind of protects us a little bit more because we have more hoops to jump through. We're a new ingredient, which means we need to be registered in all of the continents. We have to be submitted as a novel ingredient on the list of ingredients that exist. There's kind of all of these additional hoops that we have to jump through. And so it kind of buys us some time and gives us some protection as we bring this new ingredient to the market. And, again, because we're still, we're the first ones that are getting this material into the hands of people to actually play with, you know, if there was, if someone were to come back and say they didn't like it, or something like that, we're taking on that extra risk. So having that moat around our business is really helpful. And of course it's a huge competitive advantage considering the fact that now we are the only ones that anybody can purchase this from. And it gives us a lot of leverage as we're negotiating with our supply chain. It gives us leverage as we're negotiating contracts with our distributors. So I think it's a really powerful thing and it's a really unique thing. There are so many startups and so many businesses that don't have something that they can copyright or that they can patent. And while those are wonderful businesses as well, it just means you have to spend more of your focus on kind of the competition and standing out and being unique. So I think it's a huge advantage. It's something that we negotiated for very hard. And now we're also in the position that if we would like, we can always subcontract out to other people; so we have that right as well. - Oh, that's fantastic. And, again, you guys are making my job really, really easy because you're setting up very nicely sort of the next place to go in terms of something you mentioned, Danielle. So you referenced the hoops, really, that you had to jump through in order to take on this exclusive license. You mentioned new materials and ingredients registrations, you mentioned risk. So with these variables as part of your equation, sort of your business equation, that seems like it may start to rack up expenses and costs. So, Warren, for you, sort of, you know, with those considerations in mind, for the layperson, how much would you say it would cost an asset owner? So whether that's content, coursework, a patent, a trademark, how much does it cost generally to license that asset? - Well, okay, I wanna answer that, but I wanna also just add something to exclusivity, because I think it's important, before we go on. By the way, there's also a price, and I'm sure that Danielle was referencing it, for exclusivity. And it also, sometimes you have to negotiate. If you're on the other side of the table from us, if you're an inventor, you wanna make sure there's minimums involved and that the company has certain responsibilities to do a certain amount of volume over a certain period, a reasonable amount of time. And so there's also the issue of advances that come up too. So these are also things that you can negotiate and pine down and learn a little bit more about that go hand in hand with that. But as far as the cost, see, here's the thing. When you develop your product, and we're speaking to an audience now of product developers and inventors, regardless of whether you wanna go to market on your own or whether you wanna license it, it's really the same beginning. You're coming up with the concept you're turning into a real object or a real service. You're figuring out all these technical things that have to be figured out and hoops. And you need to put a fair amount of money into all of that, into your research, into your prototypes, into your product development, into your IP filings and all these things. Now, if I've heard one inventor say, I've heard a million say, "I put 200,000." I mean, I've heard the number $200,000 so many times, I almost laugh. But there can be a significant amount of money. And that's one of the things that we talk about it when you wanna profitably invent, is to watch your expenses. Now, you don't wanna cut corners. I will tell you right now that I look at thousands of products a year. And for those people that just sketch out something and send me an idea, it's going in the trash can. And yet I know that there's, like, inventor marketers who are saying to people, "Just send in an idea," all the time. That doesn't work. But you do need to do some due diligence, you gotta do some prototyping, you gotta... These other hoops that are really important to look at, they cost time and money. But you gotta budget your time and money carefully. This is a business at the end of the day to you, it has to be profitable. So instead of just throwing out hundreds of thousands of dollars, which some people do, maybe you could do it for 20,000 or $25,000. You gotta look for sources, you gotta educate yourself, and get out there and find out different ways to do it. And then regardless of whether you wanna license or not, that is a decision that's made down the road. Now, the farther along you are and the better prototype you've built and better patents that you've filed, you are gonna be way up the food chain and way up the ladder when it comes to licensing when you get to talking to someone like me that's analyzing your product, and it can really go a long way towards getting a more profitable deal for you. So it's all, you know, risky and reward, but you're going to have to spend some money to get in the game. There is a barrier to entry into most of this stuff. But at the end of the day, you can control some of your expenses and you have to choose your choices, you know, very wisely: "Where am I putting my money? Where am I traveling to to trade shows? Where am I going to meet people? What companies are..." These are all things that you have to, you know, put into your equation. So if you just think you got an idea and you're gonna send it in, you're probably gonna fail right out of the box. But if you weigh these things carefully and think about 'em, and you'll get better at it, it might be helpful. - Awesome. Thank you. And, again, piggybacking on a couple components you included in your response. Number one was reference to inventor marketers, or as we in the intellectual property space, we refer to them sort of as third-party service providers. You know, we've been, you know, at home and have seen the commercials offering to either patent your invention or to license or market your invention, again, being referenced as third-party services. So I say that to say there has been some discussion/controversy, if you will, around whether or not it's a good idea to utilize those services. And then, so, Chinwe, I would like for you to address that question along with whether or not a content creator or inventor need, whether or not it's required, if you will, to have a lawyer do this work for them or negotiate these deals for them. So that's sort of a compound question, but I see the relationship and I would love for you to address it. - I'm happy to answer this question because a number of my clients come to me after working with some of these entities. So I think that there's a wonderful benefit to democratizing information and education through platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. I think, you know, these are great places where people are getting sort of the, just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to new industries and what's possible, and I think that that's fantastic. But I just caution people to equate that to someone who has spent almost two decades in school and has a license and has past experience and sort of has the industry knowledge to guide you, that is a very different level of expertise and understanding. And, you know, as... And I'm not just saying this because I'm a lawyer. Because, trust me, when I went into law school and when I went, you know, when I graduated, I would say I was a completely different person. And a lot of that is the molding of, you know, the way you think and the way that you sort of perceive the world, not even just the law itself; and I think that that's an invaluable perspective, And at least in my practice, there's a difference for my clients when they come to me and we have a discussion about, you know, an asset that they're developing. And I'll give you a quick example. There was a young woman who came to me who wanted to trademark an asset. She had gone from doing a service for clients at a very premium level, but realized there was a bit of a liability attached to her doing it for the client and decided she wanted to take a step back from doing that and develop a system that she could teach the company to do themselves. And so she wanted to trademark the name of this system. And I asked her, I said, "I think that's fantastic. But do you have a strategy to increase the value of this trademark over time so that it's not just tied to this one service that you're, you know, providing?" And so we sat there and we brainstormed. And this was the first time she was thinking about this asset as something that can grow, that can increase in value over time, and that can have multiple iterations and versions just off of this one, you know, brand name. And I gave her the example of, you know, like, Maybelline. You know, when Maybelline started, it was one product. But as they added additional products, additional services, right, the value of that brand grew over time. So it's important to work with an attorney and not necessarily someone who's in the sales position or the marketing position because an attorney is looking at it from the perspective of a portfolio. A portfolio of IP assets is incredibly powerful for growing your brand over time. And if you're intentional and you have the right support, you can do that and see dividends, you know, over time. But if you're not intentional and you don't have someone looking at it from that perspective, you might actually make really critical mistakes that could undermine the value of your asset over time. So I think that in the short run it seems like, "Oh, man, lawyers are expensive." But in the long run, if you really think about the expertise and the value add that you're going to get from someone who's an expert who's gone through this, you'll see that it actually ends up making you money down the line. So that would be... Hopefully I answered both questions. - You did and very well, I might add. And you touched on really leveraging the collective expertise of folks who have experience in these areas, whether it is of sort of the substantive subject matter area as well as the transactional experience. And so that made me think about how transformation happens when it comes to the types of ways or processes for leveraging intellectual property assets. And that really puts me sort of in the next segment or group of questions I wanted to touch on, basically bringing the topic- - Hey, Charesse. Charesse, can I... I hate to interrupt, but can I just add one more thing before we go on to the next plateau? Legal services are very valuable and worth a lot. And by the way, lawyers like Charesse actually have law degrees. What I was referring to before are these people that sell air, okay? And there are these invention marketers who in some ways prey on inventors and try to sell them services that they don't necessarily need. And I would just say that it's a completely... They show up in the middle of the night, and some of them claim expertise which doesn't exist, and it's a big reason why I wrote my book. And so you have to be careful for them and you have to make sure you ask the questions, you know, "What is it that you're providing? What is the value in it? And what have you done before?" And by the way, some of them are obviously, you know, jokers, but some of them are very subtle about it. And if you're going to get outside help, because inventors are incredibly naive, really make sure that you ask the question, you know, have they had other profitable inventions before, not just, you know, help people down the road. So I hate to interrupt, but I wanna clearly separate those folks from the wonderful work Charesse does or Chinwe does. - May I add as well? - Sure, please. - And just to say that the lawyers that we work with have been probably the most important asset to us. So I would say don't cut corners. I don't know, Chinwe, how your firm works, but there are a number of firms that specifically work with startups. So our payments were deferred until we actually secured the license agreement. So we did not pay a single penny for two years while our legal team fought for us to get the IP. And they are the ones that are gonna be negotiating all of the royalty amounts, the minimum annual fees, just all of the things that maybe don't seem like they matter at the beginning but will eat into your profit margins down the line. So it's worth it. I love, love, love all of the lawyers who have helped us. So thank you, Chinwe. - Well, perfect. Thank you both, Warren and Daniella, for adding that extra piece of information, because I think that is very helpful in particular for any of our audience members who are laypeople who are sort of new to this space and new to, you know, some of the language we tend to use in this space. And so I was touching on, a moment ago, a topic related to sort of transformation. And so, Chinwe, you addressed how the process can be transformed in terms of the models that law firms use when engaging with their clients. Daniella, you just spoke to a similar sort of transformation in terms of the industry, because that was not always the case in terms of law firms' willingness to sort of defer payments. And so as I was referencing a moment ago, the concept of transformation applies also to sort of the receiving end. And it's related but a slight topic change. And I want to loop in Warren again on this one. One of the things that is probably more recent in terms of changes in the industry relates to student athletes and their ability to receive payment for use of their likenesses and images by their colleges and universities. I'm not sure if you've had any, Warren or Chinwe, have had specific clients where you've negotiated some of those deals. But as a practitioner, if you will, tell us about that change and how that relationship or those relationships relate to licensing. - Well, I hope I didn't cut Daniella's time off. I didn't mean to jump in there before. But I will just say this. I'm not an expert on this arena, but I do read about it. I'm a huge sports fan. And I think it's... I personally think it's absolutely awesome that these students and these athletes can trade in on their own name. Because guess what? Just like everybody else, I don't know if you're aware of this in America, there's a few people that seem to get everything they want in this country and kind of own the place, and everybody else, you know, is subservient to them. And in this case it was the NCAA who was like literally profiting from selling jerseys that had Johnny Manziel's name on the back and meanwhile Johnny Manziel wasn't making a dime off of it. And they say, "Well, we give you a free college education." Well, la-di-da, he could be making millions, you know, if he was able to do that. So I think this whole new world of understanding that, and it really brings home, I think, also to younger folks the value of intellectual property that exists in a lot of different ways, that you are a unique individual. This is what this is all about. The whole USPTO is to protect individuals and individual rights so that big organizations, big companies, big folks can't just run you over, you know? I know Elon Musk said patents are for the weak. Well, yeah, he's right. We are weak, okay? This is who we are. We're trying to get off the ground here. We have things that we own and we shouldn't be, you know, just the product and service of someone else that owns it for us. So I think it's all awesome. I'm sure the other panelists have more to say on it, but I'm 100% behind it. - Awesome. Chinwe, would you like to weigh in? - Yeah, so I think that this is a really interesting development for a couple of reasons. For me, I think about intellectual property as a form of social justice. And I'll explain what I mean by that. I think that IP is one of those properties that is so dependent on individual creativity, individual imagination, that anyone is capable of inventing, creating, bringing about something incredible to benefit society. But I think that where the challenge is is particular individuals, communities aren't aware of that power, and so they can't exercise it, they don't have the education or the information to leverage it. But once you give a community that has historically, systematically, continuously created, for centuries, the knowledge, that this work has value and you can protect it and you can write your name in the annals of history, literally, by registering this invention, it changes the narrative and it changes the entire discussion. So when you talk about a young kid who grew up, you know, without the resources to pay for an education, who gets a scholarship to go play a sport, that doesn't have to be the end of that particular transformation. It can actually be the beginning of a complete transformation not just for that child, but also their community. And so name, image, and likeness is not just about a couple of dollars in someone's bank account, it's the ability to leverage that individual personal creativity, however it's expressed, to some form of economic development, ad eventually, with the right resources, a future that isn't tied necessarily to that sport or ecosystem. And I think that's the powerful linkage between intellectual property, what's happening at the NCAA, and this new generation of entrepreneurs who are doing incredible things. So the key is giving the information and the education so that people can leverage this incredible, you know, ability to create in so many different ways so that they can, you know, better themselves in their own communities. That's why small business owners are champions in the United States, because they are willing to take the risk and build something; and when they build it, they hire other people. It's a ripple effect. And I think that if given the right resources and the ecosystem is supportive, these young students will be able to do the very same thing. - Oh my god, that was unbelievable. Please take that and frame it and put it out there. It couldn't have been better said. Thank you. - I totally agree, Warren. And, Chinwe, you know, just in terms of the contributions this new generation of creators and contributors to our collective intellectual property, collective body of intellectual property, I think it's spot on. And in fact, I wanna share this statistic that I learned recently from a July 2022 article published by the BIO organization or Biotechnology Industry Organization. And it basically referenced that the licensing of academic patents contributed up to $1.9 trillion to the US economy and supported up to 6.5 million jobs in the last 25 years. That is huge. And mind you, we are just talking about academic patents. And so if we extrapolate, to your point, Chinwe, we're really on the cusp... Well, really not on the cusp, we're sort of in the midst of some transformative and life changing opportunities. And so I'm looking at our time, we're at the end. But I wanted to make sure we left our audience with some helpful tools and information in terms of resources. For all of us, whether we were practitioners, as former examiners, or on the client side of the equation, or as a licenser of technologies from academic laboratories, we've all had access to and have utilized various resources available to us. Some of them are, you know, free or at no cost. One of the, you know, the big places, of course, is the organization that I represent, the US Patent and Trademark Office and using tools like the IP identifier, which is a new tool that people can use to help figure out the type of intellectual property asset they may have. And that references back to your initial conversation, Chinwe, in terms of figuring out what you have. Also one has the ability to search for patents or what we call prior art, search the trademark databases, see if preexisting trademarks exist on something that they've created. We also have patent and trademark resource centers. So outside, though, of those resources through the US Patent and Trademark Office, if you could, share resources that you used when you were getting started. Daniella, I would love to start with you. And, Chinwe, you next. And, Warren, if you could finish, that would be great. - Well, first and foremost, to anybody that is new to starting a business, there are tons of local accelerators in whatever city it is you live in. And if you have a full-time job and you just have a few hours, there are part-time accelerators. But I would say to look one up in your area and try to enroll in it because it's really a crash course in everything from understanding the market landscape, comparing yourself to competition, positioning yourself and pitching. And pitching and being able to tell your story, I think, is one of the most important things as a business owner. Whether it's pitching to investors or to customers, you have to be able to sell your story. So just on a very kind of basic level as a new entrepreneur, I would say to look up what services are in your area. I would also strongly advise that you don't quit your day job until you have raised funds because there is a lot of risk, it's a lot of work. And one of the things that I regret is that I didn't continue with my kind of full-time job at the beginning. So hold onto that income as long as you can while you're fundraising. And then there's also really good resources online for writing just your traditional business plan, which can be a very daunting task. For anyone who is opening just, you know, a brick and mortar shop in your town, to a digital asset, or an ingredient like us, you're gonna need to write a business plan. Ours was like 40 pages. It was something I had never done before, very daunting. There's a lot of services online that can help you just with those basic fundamentals of starting a business. So those are my suggestions. And grants, grant money. Anything that you can apply for to get free funding is a win. - Yes, Michelson. (group laughing) - Thank you. Chinwe. - So I concur with everything that Danielle said. I think she's spot on. The other thing that I would suggest is... So the institute that I'm working with, Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property, we have a resource page for innovators, entrepreneurs to learn about intellectual property. I think the beginning of this entire conversation is really understanding this ecosystem. And it doesn't have to be intimidating. I know that it can seem very intimidating. Even law school, right, for those of us who are learning this stuff, it feels abstract and intimidating. But once you get over the language, you'll understand that it's really just, we're talking about creation, invention, and, you know, expression. And once you sort of figure that out, it's very easy to sort of navigate the space. So I would strongly suggest Michelson's, you know, resource hub as a place to sort of get that basic information. Another organization that can be helpful for those who are starting out is called SCORE. It's an organization that helps small business owners. Sometimes you can get a mentor, people from different industries can support you. And these are typically people who maybe have retired and they were working in the corporate world and so now they're giving back by, you know, mentoring young entrepreneurs. And then the other thing I would say that can be a resource are the professionals that you choose to partner with on this journey. There are a number of my clients who, you know, we start out with: "I would like to set up a business," and it turns into a whole conversation about, you know, "What is this business? What are the things you're thinking about? How do you want to grow it?" Because, believe it or not, those will impact things like what kind of entity you're going to set up, in what state, the permits and licenses that are gonna be required to run this business. And so I tell my clients all the time, "It doesn't have to be me, it can be another attorney, but I need you to get a relationship with an attorney that's invested in your business." Because those professionals who have that expertise and that perspective, you'd be surprised they have their own network, they have their own community. And you might be getting a whole team of supporters just by plugging into one or two professionals. And, you know, when I have a client, you know, our firm, we go to bat for them. So if you need a resource, I'm looking around too. It's not just about the transactional, you know, I do a service for you, you pay my my fees, I really invest in my clients because I'm invested in their, you know, their long-term growth. So I think that at the end of the day, you wanna make sure that you're working with people that believe in you and want to see you grow and want to see you succeed. And while services, like, you know, the online legal services can be helpful and they may seem less expensive, you're just not gonna get that from them, you know, it's going to be a transaction. And then when things go up in smoke or you realize there's an issue, they're not gonna be there to pick up the phone and answer those questions and troubleshoot with you. So don't forget that there's no substitute for a human being, right? That, you know, heartbeat, it matters; that mindset, it matters; that passion, it matters. So make sure that you're getting with people who are aligned with you 'cause they'll run the race with you. - Beautifully said, Chinwe. And thank you for that. Warren, you mentioned at the top of the discussion your book "Inventor Confidential." So I know that's one resource that's out there. Tell us a little bit about what's in that book and if there are any other resources. - Sure. So, first of all, I'm so impressed with the panel today. I wish I was half as smart as they were when I was their age. (laughs) I'd really be so much farther along today. But, yeah, so I'll go... Yeah, I was gonna list my book last, but I'll go there first since you mentioned it. So I did spend a lot of years trying to figure this industry out. I've learned a lot along the way. My mission statement... I remember spending a couple days in my mission statement years ago, thinking, "What do I really wanna do when I grow up?" And I decided to simplify it 'cause I was having a hard time, and just said, "I just wanna meet the 200 coolest people in America and then I'll figure out the rest of the things from there." But I learned along a lot by trying to reach out and socialize in every possible way of connect with all the communities and research and learn. And I ended up putting time into writing a book. A friend of mine said, "You gotta write a book," he said this for like five years. I didn't have time to write a book. I was too busy living life and trying trying to accomplish things, but eventually sat down and spent a couple of years. And half of the book is very much dedicated specifically to inventors about what you need to do functionally and mechanically to get where you want to go. And then the other half of the book is filling in, you know, all the things you have to be worried about. So it's called "Inventor Confidential." It's a fairly easy read. And you can refer to a lot of the basic stuff that's in there, so I would say that. Number two, the United Inventors Association, which I spent 14 years dedicating myself to, a 501C3 nonprofit, and a lot of my resources and money. First of all, you can go on their website, uiausausa.org, uiausa.org. By the way, we were born out of the United States Patent Trademark Office in the early 1990s, so we have a very proud history. There are unbelievable video collection there that you can go on and access and learn from entrepreneurs and successful people and all types of things, which is great. The other wonderful thing that the UIA does is it runs inventor pavilions at trade shows. And it's something that I really got involved with early on and had the vision for. There used to be these national inventor shows, and nobody went to them. And they were in, you know, East Oshkosh, nowhere. And so we went to the hardware show and said, "Can we set up an inventor pavilion?" They said yes. We went to the housewares, we went to the golf show, SuperZoo pet shows, lawn and garden shows, all these things. So now we have inventor pavilions with many, many booths, sometimes over 100 booths, educational forms and all. And it's really worthwhile if you're inventing consumer goods products to go out to one of these shows, whatever industry it is that you wanna exploit. So if you have a housewares or if you a hardware, go to the show, spend two or three days, walk the shows. Meet companies, meet people, find out what's going on there, be educated. So the UIA does an unbelievable job in that. And then the last thing is I've had nine businesses in my life, some of them have been very successful and some of 'em haven't, not to mention my snowplowing and window washing businesses when I was in high school and college. But my last run here is gonna be with a partner, starting a company called MarketBlast. And we've been working on this for a couple years, but we just launched it this past year. So if you go on marketblast.com, we already have about 100 companies on the platform that are taking outside submissions and you can connect with directly. There's no cost involved, and for the company either. And we're just trying to connect people. People, especially men, always say, "Well, how are you gonna make your money?" Well where are we gonna make our money eventually is if we build the platform to a big enough platform and has use. And we wanna get to thousands of companies. We have about 5 or 6,000 inventors early on on the platform now, but we wanna get to hundreds of thousands. And then when we have a platform that big, then we'll be able to go back and give people advice and charge for things that we're not doing now. But we do have an advanced program membership platform. It's not particularly expensive, but it does allow access to a database of over 20,000 companies that we have assimilated by category. It allows you to go on and put in keywords and be able to do that. And, Chinwe, we're gonna be coming to attorneys at some point, probably in the summer or fall, to let you guys know... 'Cause you guys do under unbelievable work, and usually you have to charge for it. It's hard to do back end. But if you can at least pass on information to your clients, sometimes it can be very helpful. We're gonna be very involved in the pro bono platform of giving free access to people who otherwise don't have access to the innovation ecosystem. I do completely agree with your social justice comments before. And had hance to interview Sheila Jackson Lee and hear about John Lewis and the social justice movement and how it pertains to inventors. But we wanna be a part of that, we wanna be a part of trade shows. We wanna be a part of all these things and basically give information and resources to people who are motivated to go out and find it so they don't have to pay or they don't have to get BS, you know, pedaled to them by people that, you know , otherwise haven't had really any success themselves. So I know that's a handful there, but those are a couple resources that people can... United Inventors Association, "Inventor Confidential," and MarketBlast might be helpful to people. - Fantastic. Well, thank you very much to Warren, Chinwe, and Daniella. This has been a most engaging and exciting conversation. And we really appreciate your thought leadership in this space. And we're super excited about the energy and the focus on intellectual property awareness, engagement, and access. And you three have definitely helped add to that today. Have a good afternoon. - Thanks, Charesse. Thank you, Deepak. - Thank you. - You did great. Thank you. - Thanks you so much. - Thanks for having us.