Category Archives: Intellectual Property

For the purposes of our group, Intellectual Property (also known as IP) typically refers to a patent, trademark, or copyright.

Inventors Club Gets Some Press

Big thanks to Jeff Wiehe of the Journal Gazette for writing a great article about our November meeting! You can read it here.

June Meeting Photos

At the June meeting, Dan Templeton demonstrated some of the innovations his company Plastics Composites Company has been working on.

Following the hybridization techniques suggested by Val Prushinskiy (and by doing some wonderful creative thinking of their own), PCC has produced some product evolutions that either already are, or soon will be, surprising their competitors.

Very nice work, Dan!

Inventor Heaven

The Patent Behavior of Entrepreneurs

Dan Templeton forwarded this link to a three-part series of articles about the patent behavior of entrepreneurs. It describes the findings of a Berkeley survey of over 1,300 technology startups.

Go read about whether your patenting behavior fits their findings!

Photos from June 2010 Meeting

Update (May 12, 2015)

Dr. Merkel gave us an update on his invention, the Toothbrush Corral, at the May 2015 Meetup. He has now gone through the entire invention process–concept development, invention, patent protection, trademark protection, production, packaging, and promotional materials. Now he is entering the sales phase and working on the distribution chain.

Tri-fold promotional material for the Toothbrush Corral.

There was a lot of discussion about all aspects of the invention process. Talk ranged from the amount of time devoted to the project to issues concerning trademark protection. Dr. Merkel also brought samples of the invention, packaging, and promotional materials. It is always nice to hear about an idea, but it is better to be able to see and touch an invention as a way to truly understand how it works.

Original 2010 Post

We had a good group at our last meeting, including some new people.

Dr. Ralph Merkel and Dave Byrd gave us an update. Dave had created a variety of packaging prototypes for Dr. Merkel’s Toothbrush Corral. Very cool, Dave!

Dr. Ralph Merkel and Dave Byrd

Dan Templeton facilitated brainstorming of possible brand names or words that could be used in brand names for Dr. Merkel’s product.

Dan Templeton in red shirt in foreground