A “million-dollar” idea?
By Andrew R. Spriegel
January 19, 2012
Machine Design

Are you familiar with TED?

Have you ever heard of “him”?

TED actually isn’t a “him”.  TED is an acronym that stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  They offer free knowledge by some of the smartest and most creative people on the planet.  The idea started off as a conference which grew into thousands of local versions.  People that are part of TED share their ideas with others in the hopes that people will use them.  You can find them online at: http://www.ted.com/

So what does TED have for you? A simple look at their site will allow you to choose from a series of topics, which include: Technology, Entertainment, Design, Business, Science, and Global Issues.  From here, you can pick a topic that interests you.  The topic can be anything that a writer wants to share.  It is completely random and you are able to search what you are looking for from this huge database.  They ask only that you do the following four things, known as the TED Imperatives:

Be interested.
Be generous.
Be interesting.
Connect.

They prefer if you do the imperatives in order.  According to TED, by sharing information with others instead of keeping them to yourself, you will make the world a better place.

What’s more, you can get all of this fabulous information for the right price.  Membership with TED is FREE. Once you register, you can share an idea, ask a question, answer a question, or debate a topic.

Here’s a challenge:  Go to TED (http://www.ted.com/) and check out the site.  See what you think and let our readers know your thoughts.  If you find TED to be helpful, share your comments here so others can benefit from your discoveries.

By Andrew R. Spriegel
Spriegel & Associates, LLC
Patent & Trademarks Attorneys
www.Smart2Patent.com
330.247.2211 Business/Fax
440.225.4234 Mobile

I hear this all the time buy inventors, maybe like you!  A few years ago, I came up with a million dollar idea.  At least I thought it was a million dollar idea.  I did everything I could think of to protect my idea. No one but a select few of my closest friends heard about it until I had a prototype, drew up schematics, procedures, and developed product names.  I even went through an online attorney service so there was no opportunity someone would steal my idea. While I saved hundreds of dollars doing this, it turned out, this was my main mistake.  In the end, my concept was stolen, re-arranged, and marketed to the public because I didn’t know what I was doing. Learn from my mistakes.  I’ll never make give my ideas away again.

It all started about five years ago.  I was working in my garage and came up with an idea to make life easier around the home. I made up a couple of samples, and, after a positive marketing analysis from a government agency; I decided to go after a provisional patent.  I spoke with a couple of friends and radio commercialism and found that I could get the
provisional patent filed a lot cheaper online through Legal Zoom

or an invention promotion company like:

Davidson

Davison Disclosure: Davison’s own research, development and presentation services are provided for an upfront fee paid by the client and a contingent fee, or a percentage of royalties obtained by the client, if any. New product development is an uncertain endeavor and the use of Davison’s services typically does not result in a license agreement, sales on any market or profit to the

inventor. Davison does not perform analysis of the feasibility, marketability, patentability or profitability of ideas submitted to it.

Davidson’s success rate is .001%.

Invent Help

Invent Help - As a result of its services, 98 clients have received license agreements for their products, and 20 clients have received more money than they paid InventHelp, the company has reported. In other words, inventor clients had a 0.3 percent chance of making more money than they paid InventHelp.

What a mistake!

I filled out the patent and later found out a patent application is one of the most “difficult legal document to prepare.”  That was a major problem.  What I thought that I had done was to secure my idea with a ‘Patent Pending’.  The information was there and I was prepared to finish up my idea over the next year. I would then go after the full, non-provisional patent.

During that year, I found out that there were a lot of changes that needed to be done to my original plan.  Materials changed, I added some new features to my “prototype”, and there were some other alterations.

When I came back within the year, I discovered that my patent was practically worthless.  A new product launched had all of the benefits I found I needed but had switched the materials to make the product sleeker and even less expensive to manufacture!

I sued for infringement. This was my idea, after all and another loss of money

Unfortunately, I found out that the other company was completely in their rights to make this ‘improved’ version of my invention.  Why?  I did not have the foresight to seek out professional help, when filing my provisional and non-provisional patents.  I didn’t look at the future and I lost out on making my millions which the other company is making.

As the decision was being given, the judge offered this advice: “Patents are very complex. Ask yourself, in the future, why large corporations will do everything they can to save money, but when it comes to patents, they hire only professionals to protect their intellectual property. They do it to save themselves millions, if not billions, of dollars.”

In expensive lesson, learn from my mistakes and get professional help when it comes to protecting your inventions and ideas.

Andrew R. Spriegel
Spriegel & Associates, LLC
Patent & Trademarks Attorneys
www.Smart2Patent.com
330.247.2211 Business/Fax
440.225.4234 Mobile

Proven Results Helping Businesses Increase Their Net Worth!^tm

Patents

Copyrights

Trademarks

Company Value and Reputation

In a recent Business week article, research from The Economist Intelligence Unit has found that 75 percent of a company’s value is tied up in its reputation. If more than 90 percent of consumers use the Web to research companies and products before buying, and 80 percent make decisions based on that research, I’m asking the following question: Did Chick-fil-A have a public relations specialist at the discussion table along with the company attorney when they decided to file a recent trademark law suit against a T-shirt making, small business owner in Vermont?

The Chick-fil-A Trademark Suit and Corporate Bully Brand Perception

If you haven’t heard about this, Chick-fil-A has, in my opinion, earned a corporate bully brand perception by filing a trademark suit against a T-shirt maker in Vermont for making shirts that say “Eat More Kale”. According to the latest news from a variety of sources, Bo Muller-Moore began making T-shirts with the slogan “Eat More Kale” more than 10 years ago in support of a friend who grows kale, and to support the “grow local, buy local” philosophy. Really Chick-fil-A?

According to an article in The Huffington Post, in a letter, a lawyer for Chick-fil-A said, “ Muller-Moore’s effort to expand the use of his ‘eat more kale” message is likely to cause confusion of the public and dilutes the distinctiveness of Chick-fil-A’s intellectual property and diminishes its value.” Really, Chick-fil-A?

What Does This Suit Really Mean?

I wanted to explore this example from both a reputation management perspective as well as from a legal perspective, so I consulted with my good friend Andrew Spriegel, trademark, patent and intellectual property attorney, and owner of Spriegel & Associates LLC, to get some insight.

“The term ‘confusingly similar’ or ‘likelihood of confusion’ are used in assessing the legal standard that is required to prove infringement of a trademark,” said Spriegel. “In other words, if Chick-fil-A took this suit to court, they would have to be able to show that when people hear or see ‘eat more kale’, they tend to confuse it with the trademarked phrase ‘eat more chikin’ used by Chick-fil-A and in this example, I don’t think Chick-fil-A can effectively make that case. Based upon the research I’ve done, I think they are doing more harm than good for their company with this suit.”

Chick-fil-A Has More Than Kale on its Face

Well, that’s interesting. That’s exactly what I thought. This is an example of a corporate decision that results in harm to the company reputation. Did Chick-fil-A think they could move forward with this without some major consumer backlash, significant negative impact to company reputation, and a pile of kale on its face?

Reputation and the Role of Public Relations

We all know that a company’s reputation is its most valuable asset. In an age where companies now buy reputation insurance, a PR specialist can, as Rosanna Fiske from PRSA states, “help a company understand the potential consequences of its actions better or provide counsel to mitigate the impact of a business’ actions before they are set into motion. It requires a public relations team that provides strategic communications counsel to, and is a part of, a company’s C-suite.”

It seems that in this case, either the public relations specialist was not invited to the discussion table, or recommendations regarding this legal action were ignored resulting in a suit that is not only potentially devastating for the Muller-Moore family, but for Chick-fil-A’s brand and company reputation. Think about it!

Copyright 2012, Tracy L. Teuscher, APR, The Buzz Maker! LLC

Spriegel & Associates, LLC
Patent & Trademarks Attorneys
www.Smart2Patent.com
330.247.2211 Business/Fax
440.225.4234 Mobile

Are you making a huge mistake of unknowingly working hard to build another companies net worth rather than your business?

Trademarks are the most valuable assets available in business today – it should be a company’s pot of gold.  Trademarks let people know what they can expect from a product or service.  My strong recommendation is that you own at least one trademark but better yet, many trademarks.  Your trademarks should be the most valuable asset in your business over time and especially when you sell your business.

Good Trademarks are like Gold

What do you think when you hear the brands Ralph Lauren, Nautica, or Polo? Clearly, you think of high-end, well-made clothes.  When you hear Under Armour Apparel you think of comfortable clothing that is scientifically made to allow material to wick away water.  Each name provides a specific image about durability and quality in the consumer’s mind.

All of these successful products and services are almost always built on names that are fanciful.  This idea is critical when creating the mark of a trademark; you need to create a fanciful trademark.  A majority of the most valuable trademarks are fanciful.  In other words, they are inventive and made up of words that embody what your products or services you are going to represent.  Big companies know and use this strategy.  Companies such as GE, Lockheed Martin, IBM, and Microsoft basically file for thousands of trademarks every year on marks that they can use that have fanciful names, and they continue to pay fees on those marks.

Small businesses have yet to recognize this strategy! Small businesses do not typically apply for fanciful marks.  Often, a small business will give their business a typical name, such as “Smith’s Plumbing” or “John’s Plumbing” or “On Time Delivery.”  It is difficult to build brand equity into those names because they are “common” names.  Those companies are practically throwing their money away by not taking advantage of their name to build brand equity.  Think of your name as a potential pot of gold. Every day you, your employees or your business build value into that trademark or the name, adding gold coins to your pot.  If you have a non-fanciful name like “Smith’s Plumbing,” you are taking your gold coins and throwing them away; as opposed to putting that money into your pot of gold and building the brand of your product.  This loss occurs because no one is going to understand or separate “Smith’s Plumbing” from “Smith’s Donuts” or other common/generic company names.

However, if you think of Under Armour, their symbol is a “U” at the top intersecting with a loop below to form an “A.”  The term Under Armour gives people the perception that the items are worn under clothing to protect you like armor.  Every time the company prints the words “Under Armour” on a t-shirt or prints the logo, they are accruing investment dollars and “putting those dollars into their pot of gold”; they are building the name of Under Armour (not just using the name).  If the company ever wishes to sell the business, their name will likely be the most valuable asset they own.

Marathon Oil is yet another example of building value into a name.  Marathon has nothing to do with oil or gas.  The term actually has to do with running long distances.  So, when you hear Marathon Oil, they are building value because it is a fanciful name.

Returning to the previous example of Under Armour—without the brand that they are building, consumers would not necessarily think of clothing when hearing the company name.  They would possibly relate Under Armour to the armor people wore in battle during the Middle Ages.  This concept is one of the toughest ideas to understand: The most valuable trademarks will often be those marks that are completely made-up words.  Xerox is a perfect example.  When the term first came out, people did not even know how to pronounce it.  Now, Xerox is worth millions of dollars because it became a strong trademark associated with photocopying and quality.  Coca Cola is another example.  When Coca Cola was first introduced, the name said nothing about being a beverage.  Eventually, consumers began to recognize Coca Cola as a standard that they desired.

Build value into your name. People are generally unaware that names like “Smith’s Plumbing” only gain immediate value due to name association.  Believe it or not, the reality is that you want to start with a mark that has no value!  Every time you put out a product, hand out a business card, perform a service, etc., you are building value into that brand.  When you choose a name that is fanciful, you will get more mileage out of the name in the long run.  Your name will allow you to separate yourself from common business names, such as “Smith’s Plumbing” or “John’s Barbershop” or “Don’s Computer Services.”  American Fireworks demonstrates this concept.  They built their brand in Ohio, but it would be difficult to remember their name if they had not been around for so long and been so well established.

What is the importance of trademarks in terms of search engines? Again, depending on the name you select for your business, you can build value and thus gain business or even lose business in terms of search engines.  If the name you select for your business is two words such as “Microtool Works,” people will find all of the other “microtool” terms and all of the “works” terms as they search the Internet.  The large amount of results generated could result in potential lost business if the consumer cannot locate your company.  However, a more effective name for the tool company is one that was established recently, called “Worx.”  By changing the spelling of the name to a more fanciful one, the value and ease of locating the company has just increased.  When other people search for “Worx” there are very few names that come up in the listing.

Fancifulness is what you want to have for your business to separate yourself from the other businesses.

Another potential problem is that many people name their business something that is very difficult to differentiate.  An example of this is a company called MOMS, which is located in Hudson, Ohio.  M.O.M.S. stands for Miracle on Main Street.  Their services include printing and other related types of services.  They have a good advertising strategy and display their name on large trucks.  They have business cards, send out electronic data prices, and have a website.  However, the downside is that if you type in that name (MOMS), millions of names come up.  If the name were more fanciful, the company would more easily distinguish themselves from other people and businesses.

One last example is a current business called “Vertical Runners.”  This is an excellent fanciful name.  The name stands out because typically, when you run, you run on a horizontal surface; thus, vertical isn’t normally associated with running. The unusualness of this separates them from other people.  The name they have built for themselves should survive and thrive because when people think of “Vertical Runners,” they will think of the unique and high quality products they sell and will not mind spending more money for that product because they “know” they are buying quality.

What small companies should remember is to select a fanciful name that will build value in their product and build their “Pot of Gold”.

For further information and assistance with trademark branding and applications, please contact Andrew Spriegel at aspriegel@GotoPatentLawFirm.com.  Please also refer to my website at www.smart2patent.com.  Spriegel & Associates, LLC owns numerous trademarks that we are building value every day by providing great Intellectual Property services.

By Andrew R. Spriegel
Spriegel & Associates, LLC
Patent and Trademark Attorneys
www.GotoPatentLawFirm.com

Seth Godin is one of my favorite authors on marketing and treating customers with outstanding service.  As an Ohio Patent Attorney (Registered with the Ohio Supreme Court and the patent office).

I use many of his tools and techniques to try to separate myself from known Cleveland Patent Attorneys and law firms and Akron Patent Attorneys and Patent law firms.  Below is a great article by Seth regarding customers buying for the first time.  My comments are shown in italics.

On buying something for the first time

by Seth Godin
Reprinted with permission from the author

There are only three kinds of sales:

• Buying a refill, another unit of a service or product you’ve already purchased before
• Switching to a new model/brand/style
• Buying something for the first time

Here’s an overlooked truth: until quite recently, buying something for the first time was a very rare and almost revolutionary act. In fact, more than a billion people on Earth don’t do this as a matter of course. The standard is to only purchase the seeds, fuel or shelter that your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did. That’s the way it’s always been.

Take a minute to think about what it means for someone in poverty (which until recently was almost everyone) to buy something for the first time. The combination of risk and initiative can be paralyzing. One of the little-known transitions of the industrial revolution was the notion that companies and individuals could set out to discover and buy stuff that they didn’t know about until just recently.

You see a box or a store window or a product on the web and you start imagining how cool it would be to open the box, own the product, use it, engage with it and benefit from it. A product you’ve never purchased before. That’s new behavior. Until a hundred years ago, that sort of imagining was rare indeed, just about anywhere in the world.

If you are trying to grow your coaching practice or b2b business or widget shop, understand that you are almost certainly pushing against a significant barrier: most people hesitate before buying something for the first time (This is true with companies and Patent Law firms). If you’re trying to develop trade in the underprivileged world, understand that teaching people to buy anything for the first time is a revolutionary concept.

Campbell’s soup is almost never bought for the first time. It is a replacement purchase. No one switches to Campbell’s either. They buy it because their mom did.

The first iPhone, on the other hand, was a first time product for just about everyone who bought it… most of the people on line that first day were buying their first smartphone. Worth noting that a few years later, many millions have made the switch–we don’t make first-time purchases lightly.

And most of what gets sold to us each day at work or at home are switching products. “Ours is just like the one you already use, but cheaper/better/faster/cooler.”

The potent mix of fear of loss, desire for gain and curiousity fuel the appeal of buying for the first time. But it’s magic, it’s not science, and it doesn’t often happen on schedule.

It takes persistance to break down those barriers.  Spriegel & Associates, LLC has proven results helping businesses increase their net worth! Try us out “FOR THE FIRST TIME” you will be glad you did!

Many times, a business will question the need for a trademark on their intellectual property or they won’t even consider a trademark.  Maybe they look at the trademark as an unnecessary expense or they don’t know that they need one until it is too late.  Why do you want, need, have to have trademarks…

When many businesses are sold their most valuable assets are their TRADEMARKS!

1. How valuable are Trademarks?

The president of Coca-Cola, publicly commented that if all of the company’s tangible assets (e.g., buildings, trucks, bottles, factories and equipment were destroyed Coca-Cola Inc would immerge from the ruins and rebuild itself provided that the Trademark survived. The loss of the Coca-Cola mark nonetheless, would damage the company beyond repair.

Coca-Cola was originally developed on May 8, 1886 by Dr. John Pemberton, a local pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia.  The actual Coca-Cola logo was designed by Pemberton’s bookkeeper and partner, Frank Robinson, whose unique script resulted in the distinctive flowing ribbons that emanate from each capital “C.”

2. Whether Your Business is Large or Small You can Obtain Trademarks and Increase The Value of Your Company and Brand: By having your product or service trademarked, you have to go through the process of making sure that no one else is using your name.

3. Exclusivity: By registering your trademark, you gain the ability to be the only person to use the name in your specific category/class and geographical area.  If someone decides to use your trademark in a similar way, you can subject them to litigation for infringing upon your property.

4. Liability: On the other side of the coin, if you fail to get a trademark or make a thorough search to see if you are in violation, you could be sued for trademark infringement.  If you are sued, then you will have to change the name of your business or product and any literature that you currently have printed.  You will also have to change your web site and anything else that uses the name of the intellectual property you have violated.

5. First Come, First Served: If you decide to not get a trademark and someone else comes along and pays for a trademark, you can lose the opportunity to continue using your product that does not have the protection.  The Federal government offers national protection, but if you are not registered, then you are out of luck.

Trademark Estimated Values (Source: Forbes)

Google Trademark – Estimated at $44 billion

Microsoft Trademark – Estimated at: $43 billion

Wal-Mart Trademark – Estimated at: $36 billion

IBM Trademark – Estimated at: $36 billion

Vodafone Trademark – Estimated at: $31 billion

Bank of America Trademark – Estimated at: $31 billion

GE Trademark – Estimated at: $31 billion

Apple Trademark – Estimated at: $30 billion

Wells Fargo Trademark – Estimated at: $29 billion

AT&T Trademark – Estimated at: $29 billion

Hopefully, you can see that a trademark is vital to your success.  Your trademarks if carefully crafted and you have associated them with value and trust should be one of the largest assets of your business.

Congress recently approved some major changes in the nation’s patent system that were passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in September.  The changes, called the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act updates the way patents are processed and reviewed.

The new laws are being called a positive measure that will help business create new jobs in our sluggish economy.
Here is what you need to know about the new patent laws:

1. The main portion of the new law changes the patent system from a “first to invent” to a “first to file” system, which is similar to other industrialized nations. With this change, it becomes very important for you to file your patent as soon as possible so that another inventor doesn’t get the opportunity to “patent your idea out from under you”.

2. You will be able to file a preliminary disclosure with the new “First to File” system. This will allow for a one year grace period before you have to file the actual patent. However, under the new law, you must file your invention within that year to be eligible.

3. With the America Invents Act (AIA), the fees that are redirected to the government have been decreased. This will allow for more money to go to the inventor and the small business.

4. The Leahy-Smith Act also cuts back on the filing fees for new patent applications. More fees may follow.

5. There will be more protection for the inventor, as well with this new law. The AIA allows for updates in the examination process so that the patent holder will be protected from others trying to alter the patent so they can create a similar design.

The changes to the patent laws have needed to be changed for quite some time. Look for all of these changes to take place within the next two years with the “First to File” rule to go into effect sometime in mid-2012.

I am a big fan of Seth Godin, an American entrepreneur, prolific writer and sought after public speaker.

I received his daily email and it discusses the fact that management often involves power struggles. He say that taking over a another tribe and suppressing it seldom works.

Seth Godin defines a business tribe in part as members having common objectives, causes and concerns, where members are limited to a certain group. Group leader create an opportunity for members to communicate on the web or face to face. The creations of the group are organic and the leaders lead rather than manage.

He points out that suppressing another tribe (e.g., an acquired business, an engineering group, etc.) almost never works. It can take a long time before the two tribes get into sync, if at all.

I have seen this in my career where an autocratic leader suppresses creativity and great ideas.

However, Seth points out that allowing independence to a rising group and letting them go generally leads to a quick and beneficial relationship between the two new groups.

He uses the example of the current relationship between England and both the United States and India. In each situation, the wars of liberation were neither as fierce nor long lasting as they could have been.

Orthodox interpretations of power and authority seem to indicate that you should co-opt and capture other tribes and suppress your employees, however you can frequently achieve more by releasing your own people to contribute their vision along with yours.

By Andrew Spriegel
October 19, 2011

For anyone who has been on the campus of The University of Akron (UA) recently, the physical transformation is astounding. The campus has moved from urban grunge to a gem in the city – a revitalization well planned and executed since Dr. Luis M. Proenza took the helm and began steering toward a future of regional economic development and collaboration. Today, The University of Akron is the leading public research university in Northeast Ohio.

“My drive and satisfaction comes from making a positive difference. There is a sense of accomplishment in knowing you have a set of assets and then being able to lift those to a higher platform. That’s what we’ve done at the University of Akron,” says Dr. Proenza.

Since Dr. Proenza became CEO in 1999, he has directed many innovations, including these highlights:

“The Akron Model,” a robust and broad-based strategy that moves The University of Akron Research Foundation from a place of licensing and commercialization to a full-fledged platform for economic development in Northeast Ohio. By integrating a host of tools, The UA Research Foundation works with their own intellectual properties but also that of other companies and universities, offers services to other organizations to support commercialization, and partners strategically with other companies.  An example is the recent open innovation agreement between UA and The Timken Company, a world leader in innovative friction management and power transmission products.

Positioning the university as a regional and national leader in innovation, as documented by entities like the Milken Institute, Innovation Associates and the award of an i6 Grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Shared services between institutions, which place UA as a pioneer in this space. An innovative partnership between UA and Lorain Community College allows the schools to share IT support services. Akron and Lorain also pioneered the Innovation Alliance along with Stark State College.

Corrosion and Materials Reliability Program forged with the U.S. Department of Defense, an $11 million award to UA to continue the development of the National Center for Education and Research in Corrosion and Materials Performance, which was initially launched in 2010 and now makes UA the only university in the nation to offer a baccalaureate degree in corrosion engineering.

A five-member partnership that included Akron Public Schools, The City of Akron and The National Inventors Hall of Fame created one of the nation’s first STEM middle schools. The school focuses on science, technology, engineering and math; and in its first year, ranked among the top three schools in the APS system, and 2^nd among Ohio’s top-performing urban middle schools.

University Park Alliance is taking the diverse 50-block neighborhood surrounding the university and revitalizing it over a number of years through engaging the community and catalyzing real estate and business investments.

Austen BioInnovation Institute involves partnering with three local hospitals and a medical school in a $200M effort to create a center of excellence in orthopedics and wound healing that leverages UA’s expertise in biomaterials science and engineering.

In Dr. Proenza’s first 12 years as president, UA’s revenue and research portfolio more than doubled and private donations increased to all-time records. Dr. Proenza is recognized as one of the most influential leaders in Ohio, with many honors and awards attributed to him. He holds a BA from Emory University (1965), MA from The Ohio State University (1966) and PhD from the University of Minnesota (1971), and joined the faculty of the University of Georgia in 1971.

“My career has evolved in interesting ways,” says Dr. Proenza, who attended a boarding military high school and graduated as its ranking cadet. “During my later years with the National Academy of Science, I was placed in a position of responsibility working on behalf of the nation. That re-awakened leadership traits in me that I had previously developed.”

Dr. Proenza is no stranger to sailing a fine ship through choppy waters and into the clear. He and his wife of 28 years, Theresa, fulfilled a dream together by building a 44-foot sailing vessel named Apogee. The planned two-year construction took 15 years to complete, yet it has provided them with many worthwhile sailing adventures on the Chesapeake Bay and the western basin of Lake Erie.

To read Dr. Proenza’s biography on The University of Akron’s Web site, go to http://www.uakron.edu/president/about_dr_luis_proenza/.