Thank you. Good afternoon. Welcome to day T.V. say I always love coming down here and talking to prospect of inviting entrepreneurs' and especially about intellectual property topics since that's pretty much all I know about I do I have been at it. Actually now I'm in my thirtieth year of law practice. And my first exposure to the A.T.C. was in the early one nine hundred eighty S. when it was called a T.D.I. and had tangentially involved with lots of companies coming through for a long time. So I've seen a lot of companies come through here. Some have made it. Some have and we hope that all of you in here will be one of those that make it big. Because the economy needs you last night. I'm not actually to magic words that I was very happy to hear one album was entrepreneurs' and the other was small business. We don't know exactly what's in the record of the the recovery act that's targeted towards entrepreneurs and small business but certainly things like energy is clearly up there health care medical devices electronic medical records. If you're so fortunate to be in those places maybe they'll be some money coming in your direction. Go look for it will help you find it. Now my talk today is not going to be a patents want to one seminar presumably you've had other people telling you about patents and how to go about them. I was going to do some practical issues of patents at the second half of the tongue but I'm not going to get into the basics of patents because that's really not what we're here about today I'm going to presume some modicum of a experience or exposure to patents and try to give you some information that will help supplement what you're. Already know and give you some things to think about for example I'm going to talk at the beginning about the two extremes of basic pattern strategies one being the commodity side. The other being the complex side. It is a spectrum and there's a range in between which you can pursue your patent strategy and how quality comes into play. Also like to leave with you the impression of the importance of patent searching and competitive intelligence you have to know who your competition is and you have to know what their patents look like or you're going to be in trouble or you could be put out of business having that competitive intelligence early on is critical and there's toward the end of the discussion we'll get into some of the basic structures of the patent application and the expenses that are involved with that and why it can be expensive and what you can do to address that documents that are required what you need to be doing when you meet with a patent attorney or a patent agent and also we'll talk about some helpful hints and tips about how to go about it and then finally control of cost. There's legal. There's project management techniques that can be applied and I want to reserve some time again for questions which reminds me and. Alarm clock and hope that by i Phone will sound loud enough but it won't. Otherwise ring. So here are two major topics. First I'm going to spend a little bit of time giving you some thoughts about patents and patent value for entrepreneurial companies and then we'll shift into the secondary topic of how do you actually go about obtaining these patents economically and what practical steps to take that action issues. What makes for a valuable patent presumably entrepreneurs like to have some value in the work that they're going to invest in the patent process. Me rephrases let me put a question slightly differently. How do you know if a pattern is any good. I get asked that question all the time. Notice that the question is not how do you know if a pattern is valuable. That's a whole discussion that we could have is the valuation principles a plan. What about how do you know if a pattern is any good and I want to give you my favorite answer for that it expired at the end of its term and was not declared invalid. Well that's true. I mean basically a good patent is one that you can hold in front of you. Honest hasn't been declared invalid because no one will know whether that patent has any real intrinsic value or not but it's a good patent it's got claims it issued to pay the fees. I attribute that quote by the way to my mentor genes Emer bless his departed soul. He was a Georgia Tech Masters Double A and was a problem most brilliant people that I've ever worked with and there are a few other anecdotes some to pass along from him and what are patents for not for your company. I'm going to give you several different things to think about as to what they are and what they can do for your company. One thing to look at is they are and can be and often are speculative investment vehicles. You're rolling the dice to some degree. There's If they don't have a clearly established market and the information about the value proposition in any patent is very difficult to come by. They're spurting indicators of value and quality that you can look at but for the most part. You can't go and take a patent and stick it in a marketplace and have someone come out with a number. They're just way too many variables for that to be the case valuation methods the conventional ones are rarely useful unless there is a cash flow associated with a particular. And that's your ideal circumstance if you come to me and say I have this patent that covers this product and I can see royalties or I can see revenues right can see profits coming from this product and I know that this patent covers this product then the valuation process becomes a lot easier but when you're in the entrepreneur all stayed pretty revenue. It's a lot trickier. And so you're having to look more at the value proposition the speculation. Henschel or the value of a patent and how you go about getting that. Here's another of my favorite metaphors that relates to the speculative nature of patents and this is also a story this is a story from my partner in mentor Gene Zimmer he was from Kentucky grew up in Lexington Kentucky. That's horse country. I'm sure of a lot of you will know and he always told me you know John and Sara are horses and I said What on earth are you talking about well how are patents like Rights horses like race horses very few patents actually RUN IN THE MONEY probably one percent two percent of patents that you can actually find monetary money coming from them a good pattern will have good breeding just like a good rice horse wears the breeding of a patent it comes out of the combination of having a good invention a good technology coupled with a good patent a good quality application. That's a well add patent. But that's not the end of the story to get to the money they need care. Just like a horse you care and feeding and training. That's your prosecution of your patent. That's the effort that you have to spin after you Poppy. You're the first. Very careful about these kind of a deal. The drawback. You know because you're playing the numbers game. You're not to be able to get shot. You're right you're right you're right you're right yeah. You're sure you're right you're doing this to her. For all her. Text for your. You're in this fight for your proof your. This is really the true story there. Well that's why you're the president. You're just you're. Good. That's right that's it for your sticky jurisdiction jurisdiction. I mean talk to the sceptics until you're at the same time or does it with a very. Well you know there are three right there. Particularly when there is a. You know I think you're going to be there so good luck with your self. They are forced to write your due. List right here are your friends your site. You know you sit for your period. Looks like a good look for. You know why I get to be there for you are you know you're very very good for me I still feel like that's just your. Us there. Good proof there that brought her to do this very very very OK let's start with her or her for the week. Yeah really. Sure this one here or there. You're right we have always our resources were very poor or really it was easy to see the list or not to do it. To your case you're good you're right. Really likes it for what you are very very good good very very do very very much for your. You know. You're right you're right you're right. If you're. You're very right yeah. Very true. If you try to write for her to start up the funds available. Extend the time. Is there any sort of loophole or something that will probably tell us your city you are going through your mind as for your rights. We need to make sure that what we were when we were with the story that you're a good story you're actually proposing us right now. And now rethinking the wording like can I rework the contract so that the product is actually actually make the revenue here not the problem solved. Right here. Here. If you want to get the product out there but you don't want the parts for your very hard for this interview where you go where you place your your head you know where you're you're you're you're right that's the road to. You know you're good for your life of service. You can feel that you're. Yes you are less than you are and next week to the present and you are getting ready to kill their friends you know what I mean for money go. Thank you your way. You just like to post it looks like there's a good bit of. OK we hear on the news. No no it's not designed for that will I was calling you know you need to live a little bit and they're just you know there are wired up to the drawings. You have a more robust larger more comprehensive case where there are only so little I next day or so that is the only danger. You know anything about what your kids are reading are your only choice really. Sleep is your regular back in the hallway. Do you get. Well there was just sort of go there and he was just here to wait till the last minute to develop it and you know take the whole role of a feel of it doesn't mean your last minute your you know that are big you really really really think you know you're there. If you want to thank you very much. I hope you join her.