UTPB to host intellectual property workshop

Mar. 29—University of Texas Permian Basin's Office of Innovation and Commercialization will host an Intellectual Property workshop Friday.

It will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in room 2130 of the Mesa Building (the multipurpose room) in collaboration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Sixteen different intellectual property professionals will be in Odessa to educate the community about intellectual property. The day-long event is for anyone interested in how to protect their ideas, new technologies, and creative works. This will give people a chance to meet with practicing intellectual property attorneys and representatives from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The morning session will be a general education session about the basics of intellectual property, followed by breakout sessions in software; mechanical/electrical inventions; consumer products; and art.

The day will end with one-on-one sessions with the different speakers so everyone can get specific questions answered. Registration is $10 and lunch is included. Discounts are available for UTPB faculty, staff, and students — just email [email protected] from your UTPB email to get access to the code.

They also want to acknowledge the support of the UTPB Blackstone LaunchPad, the UTPB Small Business Development Center, Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, and the IP (Intellectual Property) Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.

"We had the Intellectual Property Law Section of the State Bar of Texas reach out to us. They have a program with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to go deliver these intellectual property workshops in rural areas. They have a pretty big group of attorneys that they involve in the workshop. We actually have 16 different intellectual property attorneys that are going to be coming to town that day, along with a couple representatives from the USPTO. Some of the attorneys are also part of the Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts. So they're specifically here to talk about protection of musical and art works, as well, which I think is great," said Brian Shedd, executive director of the UTPB Office of Innovation & Commercialization.

"They really encouraged us to reach out to the community and throughout the entire university to try and promote the event," Shedd added.

Shedd was involved in organizing a similar event when he was at Louisiana State University.

"We set one up there with a local law firm. The USPTO had just established these regional offices and they have one in Dallas, and so actually the two representatives that are coming from the USPTO are coming from the Dallas office. But they had just set these regional offices in place. We got the word that ... they had budgets set aside to travel and go do road shows and meet with whoever," Shedd said.

He added that they decided to host one and it had the same type of structure as the UTPB event will have.

"We really tried to engage the local business community, as well as the university, faculty, staff and students; same kind of pull for this event. It was good. ... The structure of that one was a little bit different. I really liked the structure that they had for this event. ...," Shedd said.

The first session is for general education talking about the basics of intellectual property — patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets.

In session two, they break out into subgroups.

"We have four tracks there — software, mechanical, electrical, consumer products and art. ... The last session is one-on-one consultations. Anybody who attends the event can sign up for a 20-minute meeting with one of the speakers, with one of the attorneys. That's a great way, I think, to get really specific questions answered," Shedd said.

The event goes on all day, but if people just want to attend one session they can.

"They don't have to spend all day. ... If they already know about intellectual property, they could skip the probably the morning session and maybe just come for lunch and stay for the afternoon piece ... if they want to take advantage of those one-on-one consultations," Shedd said.

He added that it's important for his office to host an event like this because they are going to be tasked with managing all the intellectual property for the university.

"I also looked at this as a great way for us to get to know the community a bit better. We're working with the chambers to ... promote the event and reached out to some of the similar offices that at the colleges just to try to get the word out about the event, because I think it'll be relevant to any kind of entrepreneur or home tinkerer; companies big and small. They all deal with intellectual property. As you're starting a company, even simple things like getting the trademark of your business name registered. They'll cover that in this event," he added.

They will also cover protecting inventions that are truly groundbreaking and yourself.

"I like the tracks that they're doing just because you've got software, which is pretty complex because it tends to bridge patent and copyright and the art, which I think is great that they're involving that, as well," Shedd said.

He added that his office has had a lot of inquiries from music and art at UTPB asking how students can protect their works and what goes into that."

"I invited them all. I hope they'll come to the event, as well. It would be great for their students to learn that," he added.

He noted that most attorneys have hourly rates.

"That can get pretty expensive, so that's one of the reasons I just thought this was going to be fantastic because $10 you get lunch and you get access to a really distinguished group of attorneys and the USPTO representatives. The consultation time, that's really invaluable. That's something totally unique," Shedd said.

They have room for about 80 people.

Shedd said intellectual property law is at the federal level and there has been some redrafting of those laws from time to time.

"What's always ... evolving is the case law. That's something that they will probably talk about ... what's patentable as proven through ... what takes place in the courts has a lot to do with how people write patent applications or submit copyright registrations," Shedd said.

Software is one item that can be kind of amorphous.

"There will be some case law that comes out and it really sides more on software not being patentable, and then it'll kind of switch back. That one's one that as the courts ... are still shaping their determination of what's protectable and how the intellectual property is going to be treated, that can change a little bit. But that's probably something that they will cover in the IP workshop. There's always some really interesting legal disputes over intellectual property that take place," Shedd added.

And I guess with all the technology that that's kind of a great can be kind of a gray area because of what's not something that there's a precedent for filing patents can be expensive because of the lawyers' fees.

"I think the thing about IP is it's an investment. Protection is an investment and you're trying to protect the opportunity, the market opportunity, around the intellectual property work. If the market opportunity's there, then it can justify spending a lot of money and seeking broader protection," Shedd said.

He added that the U.S. Patent and Trade Mark Office has a process where inventors, like sole inventors, can represent themselves through the patent filing. That's called the prosecution examination process.

"You can save a lot of attorney money that way, but you also lose a lot of experienced counsel. So, if you're paying for a patent attorney, again, that can vary a lot. Really good patent attorneys can charge a lot of money to write and draft patent applications. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office does have fees ... for filing your patents, for having a patent issued, for registering a copyright. The fees are pretty reasonable," Shedd said.

He added that his office is going to try and host a lot of these kinds of workshops for the university to connect with the outside the community, the external community, especially with the business community.

"If there are people that want to come and learn more about our office, because our office is pretty new, or just ways that they can work with the university, that'd be great to have them come to and also just to give us some feedback on what other kinds of topics might be of interest. We can certainly organize additional workshops in the future on other topics ...," Shedd said.

Blackstone, LaunchPad and the SBDC are local UTPB partners for the event.

UTPB's website said the Blackstone LaunchPad entrepreneurship network helps students at the university succeed in entrepreneurship and their careers. It is open to all students and recent alumni in all majors, the campus-based Blackstone LaunchPad enables participants to access mentoring, grow their network, and access the resources to accelerate their business success, the site said.