Tag: Patent and Trademark Office

Female-secured Patents Could Boost Economy by $1 trillion

Posted on by scott.hodges

Small businesses and startup entrepreneurs are known to rely on funding from government agencies like the Small Business Administration; minority-owned businesses might turn to the Minority Business Development Agency. Kathi Vidal is pushing to have entrepreneurs consider applying for patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office alongside their application(s) for funding.

Vidal, who is currently serving as USPTO director, is an experienced intellectual property lawyer. A primary platform of her work in the USPTO, since her appointment by President Biden in April 2022, has been the diversification of those applying for and receiving patents. To date, only 13% of U.S. patents have been issued to women. When offered free legal guidance for the patent-application process, women-led filings increased by 41%. Vidal believes that the inclusion of women in the patenting system at equal rates as men could boost the U.S. economy by as much as $1 trillion.

According to Vidal, legal support is not the only barrier to female inclusion. The patenting system is inherently confusing and excluding. While the government views rejections as an opportunity for re-application, most applicants don’t understand. Vidal is introducing a cover letter to patent decisions, assigning an examiner who will be available for consultations and be the human face of an otherwise amorphous and overwhelming process.

Patents are a tangible way of supporting the economy and expanding business competition, particularly in growing fields like artificial intelligence and technologies. Similarly, Vidal explains that patents facilitate partnership and cooperation. Without patents, companies are resistant to sharing their ideas.

Bolstering Entrepreneurs

Posted on by scott.hodges

New business individuals and those wanting to become successful entrepreneurs often need a bit of a boost as they begin to navigate their way in their industry. It’s not easy breaking into it.  Here, we look at some of the recent endeavors that have been engineered by politicians and those who have been through the same thing of getting started and maintaining a new business

Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren recent proposed legislation to allocate $7 billion in federal grants to aid entrepreneurs in minority groups looking to start their businesses.  Her idea is to administer the program by a newly created department – of Economic Development – which would replace the current Commerce Department. If created this agency would take on the work of both the Patent and Trademark Office and the Small Business Administration.  And it would develop into a Small Business Equity Fund which would be in charge of enforcing conflict of interest rules, assembling information on outcomes, etc.

Residents of Maine are used to small businesses; they are one of the driving forces of the economy.   They all began modestly also; a struggling individual trying to make money from an idea.  But now there is something to really help them.  Startup Maine is an organization and an event (that was held in Portland last week) on teaching would be entrepreneurs how to make themselves attractive to investors; how to begin a crowdfunding campaign; to create a company that makes a profit; to develop a firm that serves a community, etc. Startup Maine tries to network entrepreneurs with business investors and people who have had experience in this area.

In Louisville, a group has gotten together to facilitate women in their work toward becoming business leaders. Cliff Elgin Insurance created Network of Entrepreneurial Women nearly a decade ago. According to one of his clients Lynn Cooper:

“He saw a need for creating a group of women that could work together and help each other and network. [Being a female entrepreneur back then was very hard and] “When I first started going about five or six years ago it was a lot of men in suits and it was very intimidating.”

Today the organization focuses on networking and helping the entrepreneur individually, also trying to help them find a work-home balance. Members meet once a month.