Novel & Non-Obvious: Recent Episodes
Yoriko Morita
Hosted by patent agent Yoriko Morita, founder and president of Patents Integrated, Novel & Non-obvious explores the intellectual property side of founding and building a startup. We speak with entrepreneurs, innovators, founders and more to learn more about their startup journeys and the IP lessons they've learned along the way.
Because innovation is just the beginning. It doesn’t matter how groundbreaking your technology is, how skilled your team is, or how valuable your market is; without a structured patent strategy in place you’re still running the risk of your hard work being stolen by a competitor or patented by someone else.
But the legal complexities of patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets aren’t typically taught in business schools and represent just one more hurdle in the busy life of an entrepreneur. Yoriko applies her 25+ years' experience in patent prosecution and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering to help founders make sense of their IP and leverage it to build strong, growing companies.
Some things can be truly out of this world, but can IP and patents? As Vanessa Clark and William Kowalski, founders of Atomos Space, might tell you, it's... complicated. They've learned a lot about running a startup in the space industry and running a tight (space)ship diligently has taken them a long way. wpvskqzd
On this week of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko sits down with Vanessa and William to learn more about the trials and tribulations that come with leading a space startup.
Whether a company is a start-up or a multi-million dollar corporation, creating novel and non-obvious IP can be incredibly challenging for every inventor, especially IP that has monetary value. This is where 'Patent Shaman' Matt Moyers comes in. As the Managing Partner of Peak Value IP and Investment Banker at Weild & Co., Moyers is an expert at knowing what makes a product valuable.
On this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko sits down with Matt to discuss the importance of the IP portfolio, the magic of commercializing your IP, and how companies can avoid being ghosted by prospective investors.
In patent law, knowing not only what has been created but whocreated it is critical. That's because the inventor holds the intellectual property behind their innovation from the very start. But, sometimes, inventorship isn't so cut and dried and can change during the patent prosecution process as claims are updated. That's why it's so important to understand how IP ownership works before going down the road toward a patent.
On this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko discusses the concept of inventorship and how it can impact both a patent application as well as a company's entire IP portfolio.
From rapid prototyping to product testing and manufacturing, the product development process isn't as straightforward as it might at first appear. LINK's Denver-based engineering and industrial design services give startups the confidence to launch their first product and energizes big players to develop innovative ideas. All of this impacts a company's intellectual property.
On this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko talks product design and IP with Marc Hanchak, LINK founder and CEO. For over 14 years LINK's product development professionals, industrial designers, and engineers have been creating award winning designs. Here's how they think about client IP.
The startup process is never a straight line. There are go-to-market questions, management challenges, financial concerns and much (much) more. IP is one part of this process.
On this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko talks startup growth with Lauren & Justin Finesilver of Finesilver Management. As experienced founders and operators themselves, the two help scaling companies develop workflows, solve complex problems and build teams and cultures that are focused on success.
Facebook made waves in late October when CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be changing its name to Meta to reflect its growing focus on the metaverse. Interesting idea, but it turns out there is already another company out there called Meta. Cue the IP fight.
On this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko discusses the trademark implications of Facebook's name-changing move and what the future could hold for Meta.
Boulder-based Sarus Lifting is empowering the heavy lifting industry through intelligent planning tools. Because lifting via cranes and other machinery doesn't just happen. It takes planning, management and oversight. That's where Sarus Lifting comes in, with a smart, easy-to-use software platform that delivers fast and accurate lift plans.
On this episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko discusses Sarus Lifting's business plan with the companies co-founders and talks through a potential IP strategy in real-time.
Joel Davis is an artist, a connector and a Boulder entrepreneur who just so happens to produce this podcast. In addition to connecting artists with audiences, his many different ventures all center around personal relationships and bringing people together, whether that's on a bike, on the radio or as Resident DJ at Boulder tech co-op, Dojo4.
This week on Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko and Joel discuss his various projects and the mindset he brings to everything he does.
No matter where you live, chances are you've experienced a sudden weather change. You could be walking outside under a cloudless sky and then just like that, the winds pick up and you feel drops of rain hitting your head. Tired of dealing with the unexpected and a ruined hair-do, Sirena Rolfe created the Tempus Hood, an on-the-go hood that attaches to the locker hook located in most jackets.
On this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Sirena tells Yoriko about her experience through the patent process, from idea conception to defending and receiving her patent. Through the lengthy process, Sirena describes just what helped her and how she continues paying the experience forward to incoming creators.
Many founders think of their businesses as a grouping of silos. On one side you have activities like business development and marketing, while legal aspects are considered outside of that realm. The same often goes for product development.
This week on Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko explores the interconnectedness of all three areas and how smart entrepreneurs can leverage all three together to drive growth in their companies.
Dr. Maria Navas-Moreno is the co-founder of Lever Photonics, a company exploring the commercial potential of Raman spectroscopy, a chemical process that's used to identify individual molecules.
This week on Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko speaks with Maria about her entrepreneurial journey, how she has been defined her product and IP, and the business pivots that happened along the way.
The trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is dominating Silicon Valley headlines at the moment, but the real story is in how the company built and profited from its IP portfolio.
This week on Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko examines the blood testing company's patent portfolio and how it both propped up the company and led to its downfall.
If you’re an inventor, you’re likely familiar with the three requirements of patentability: usefulness, novelty, and non-obviousness. Sounds simple enough, right? Not exactly. In fact, those last two requirements are what make patent law the most stringent branch of IP law, and the key reasons why it’s so difficult to get a patent.
This week Yoriko takes a closer look at what novel and non-obvious really means.
A strong brand starts with a strong and relatable story. From there, it's about remaining laser focused on the audience you want to reach and the product you want to create, and then protecting that brand with trademarks and other IP action when necessary.
That's the path that Career Girls® founder Linda Calhoun has taken with her nonprofit organization. Career Girls is a free, non-commercial, online platform that features more than 16,000 short video clips of 800 diverse women role models sharing career and educational advice to inspire young girls to expand their horizons, improve their academic performance and dream big about their futures.
Linda joins Yoriko this week to discuss the work that Career Girls does to support the career development of girls nationwide and how it has built a purpose-driven brand.
Introducing the next generation of pros to the patent business is one of the pillars of Patents Integrated, and we work with interns every year who are interested in intellectual property law and the work that goes into a patent agency.
This week on Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko speaks with Garrett Janney and Jakob Bookspan, two students at the University of Colorado Law School who have spent the last year as interns at Patents Integrated, about what they've learned about IP, the topics that captured their attention and what's coming next.
Scripta is the company behind Clause Logic, an add-in to Word to help attorneys draft legal documents faster and more accurately by effectively reusing their best existing work products. It licenses its software to other companies who want to take advantage of its award-winning legal software development team.
This week on Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko speaks to Scripta co-founder Mike Boucher about the IP issues he's faced in his work in legal software and shares how entrepreneurs can build scalable products without giving up their intellectual property.
In the age of the internet, being able to see the teardown of popular products is always fascinating. This could, however, open up the floor to someone looking to reverse engineering your IP. In this week's episode of the Novel & Non-Obvious podcast, Yoriko goes over the differences between a product tear down and reverse engineering in terms of IP.
Whether you find yourself confused, fascinated or both by the world of crypto, there's no denying its captivating hold on today's society. Luckily, there are crypto experts like Larkin Reynolds and Zak Wolff to laydown the basics of all things crypto. On this week's episode of the Novel & Non-Obvious podcast, Yoriko discusses NFTs and Blockchain with Larkin and Zak and looks specifically at the implications they have on IP.
It happens all too often. A full-time employee with a successful company comes up with an idea for a great new product or business. Do they own that idea? If not, why not?
This week on the Novel & Non-Obvious podcast, Yoriko discusses the limitations and requirements around IP at work and whether or not the ideas you have (both on the clock and off) actually belong to you.
When your ideas get stolen, it's easy to be quick and make accusations. While this may feel like the right thing to do, in the world of patents, it may actually work against you in the long run. In this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious podcast, Yoriko Morita goes over how to prevent your ideas from being stolen and what to do when they are.
Strong intellectual property is one thing, but patents also have to make business sense. Too often, however, patent attorneys are more interested in billing their time than helping build profitable businesses around founder inventions.
Russ Krajec has been advising large and small companies on patent matters for more than 14 years. During that time, he has personally drafted and prosecuted over 1,000 patent applications and today runs patent investment and advisory firm BlueIron. On this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko and Russ discuss the business side of IP and how founders should be thinking about the value of their patents.
Contracts aren't all created equally. There are bad contracts just about as often as there are good contracts, and often the difference comes down to the details. In this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko Morita discusses what bad contract clauses look like and what the IP implications are.
From recipes, to proprietary techniques, to business processes, the restaurant business has more IP concerns than it might at first appear. That's a fact that Joan Kanner, co-founder of Bottoms Up Bagels in Baltimore, MD knows all too well. On this week's episode of The Novel & Non-Obvious Podcast, she and Yoriko discuss the role that IP has played in the development of her business and what restaurant owners need to think about when considering their unique IP.
Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) have recently become the subject of much discussion and controversy. People are understandably confused about what NFTs are, what rights they confer, how they can be sold or bought, and how they are made.
But NFTs come with some fairly basic intellectual property implications that are easy to understand. On this week's episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko Morita explains just what NFTs are, what makes them different and how they're similar to more common types of IP.
No good idea happens in a vacuum. Entrepreneurs have to contend with the market and who else is serving the same product to their target audience, and patent filings are the boxing ring where this showdown begins.
Understanding your competitor’s patent filings, vis-a-vis their patent portfolio, is your window into their business model. It gives you an idea of what they offer the world and what they don’t. On this episode of Novel & Non-Obvious, Yoriko Morita explains how to use patent filings to better understand your competitive place in the market.
The 3D Printing Store helps business add the flexibility and convenience of additive manufacturing to their processes without having to invest in costly 3D printing equipment themselves. But what intellectual property considerations do manufacturers like The 3D Printing Store and its customers face when creating new products and how is this technology changing the game for producers? On this week's episode of The Novel & Non-Obvious Podcast, Debra Wilcox, co-founder and CEO of The 3D Printing Store, discuss the unique IP issues facing the industry and how things are changing for manufacturers going forward.
It’s not a rumor: Many VCs and other investors will not sign NDAs during initial discussions. The challenge for founders, then, is to get them to that second discussion when they are willing to take more interest in you and are willing to sign that NDA.
Should you be worried about putting your IP at risk? Probably not. In this episode of "Novel and Non-Obvious," Yoriko Morita explains how IP works during the fundraising process and what investors are really looking for when they ask to see your intellectual property.
The Quick Company has developed a patent-pending workspace platform that consolidates commonly used dental materials, into an easy to use disposable tray system, that attaches to the back of a gloved hand. And its founder, Dr. Jack Nguyen, knows what he's talking about in the healthcare space as a practicing dentist for more than a decade. On this week's episode of The Novel & Non-Obvious Podcast, he and Yoriko discuss the unique IP issues that he's facing in medical devices and how founders like him can leverage their inventions to fuel growth.
The joy of launching a successful prototype can often derail a company that hasn't done their IP research. Enter the Freedom to Operate Analysis. Rather than get bombarded by cease and desist letters, startup companies can truly benefit from learning the process of de-risking their products and get a better grip on their competitors. Tune in to this episode of the Novel & Non-Obvious Podcast to learn more.
The need for a comfortable, long-wearing earbud has gone up exponentially over the past year due to COVID-19. With the increase in earbud usage through Zoom meetings and podcast/audiobook listening, Buderflys has kept the earbud user's needs in mind by maintaining an innovative and strategic earbud development firm. Shea Gerhardt, CEO of Buderflys, explains in this week's episode of The Novel & Non-Obvious Podcast the importance of IP in relation to smart earbuds, the investment community, and brand/promotion management.
We're living in the middle of the 4th Industrial Revolution, driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), connected devices, edge computing, robotics, and augmented reality. There are IP considerations at every level of this, often crossing industries and innovations.
Chris Meyer is deep in the IoT community as Director of Partnerships at RIoT and Co-Founder at Hardshare.io. A mathematics and computer science grad from the University of Colorado, Y Combinator alum, Tactical Product Manager at Sphero's R+D Lab, founding team at Misty Robotics, his work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Forbes, CNET, Venture Beat, the IEEE Spectrum and more.
As startup companies present new products to the marketplace, it can be easy to not only get lost in the world of IP, but lose your products as well. A lot of the confusion on where to begin within IP stems from the lack of clarification on which IP Protection Mechanism works best for each company. Not to mention the various factors that come into play when searching for the best IP. Wondering which IP Protection Mechanisms will work best for your company & product? Learn more in this episode of the Novel & Non-Obvious Podcast.
While IP and marketing might seem like opposite sides of most startups' back-offices, they are actually more closely related than many founders think. Typically, intellectual property concerns come into play for product companies when they take their first steps toward marketing their work. Are there features of their products that other companies might have protected before them? Should they be patenting their own IP before presenting it to the world? Is the imagery they want to use in their marketing protected in some way? Sara Bean Duncan is a marketing consultant and business strategist in Boulder, CO who works with startup founders who need help answering these questions and creating marketing strategies that work. Her company, On the Bit Strategy, combines her two loves -- marketing and equestrian sports -- and addresses every aspect of startup marketing for both product and service companies. Learn more
All investors have questions when meeting with startup founders. How scalable is your business model? How fast are your revenues growing? How experienced is your team? And, although they may not seem like it at first, many of these questions have an IP component. Patents Integrated founder Yoriko Morita prepares founders for what to expect.
M.C. Squares is creating a dry-erase renaissance, and Anthony Franco is leading the way. The company is reinventing the most basic of all business tools -- the whiteboard, the sticky note, etc -- in ways that make sense for today's digital-first world. It's a great idea, and it got Anthony funded on "Shark Tank" in May 2020, but refreshing existing products means running into some IP headaches along the way. In the episode, host Yoriko Morita talks intellectual property with the M.C. Squares founder and what he's learned along the way.
ABOUT OUR GUEST: ANTHONY FRANCO
Along with founding 5 successful companies (including M.C. Squares) and holding multiple patents, Anthony previously held leadership positions in creative direction, feature film post-production, technological architecture, advertising production, enterprise product development, computer-aided design, hospitality management, and product manufacturing. Learn more