Past Meetings 2008

January 22, 2008
The meeting topic is on patent reform and how it may adversely effect both businesses and independent inventors. Chris Gallagher of Amberwave, Stan Fendley of Corning Inc., and Richard J. Apley of Litman Law will be our guest speakers.

February 19, 2008
The guest speaker is Allen L. Phelps, CEO of Innovation Data Solutions (IDS), LLC. Allen will be speaking on protecting intellectual property in a global marketplace. Mr. Phelps worked for the U.S. government in technology counter proliferation before founding his company. IDS provides its clients with information on companies that may potentially be infringing their technologies. Learn more about Allen's company by visiting their website Innovation Data Solutions.

March 17, 2008
Our March meeting speaker is Andy Zhang. Mr. Zhang is a Braille mobile phone inventor, author, and entrepreneur. Andy will be speaking on doing business in China. His talk will cover the surge of patent applications in China, an overview of China and its market potential, how to apply for a patent in China, and how to find a business partner and or manufacturer in China. Check out his website www.AndyZhang.info This meeting will also include our annual INCA elected officer nominations and elections.

April 21, 2008
This meeting will feature an "Inventor's Roundtable" discussion headed by our new President, Andy Kennedy. Come with your ideas, insights, opinions, questions, answers, and comments.

May 19, 2008
This meeting will feature local inventor Frampton Ellis who will speak on his footwear inventions and licensing experiences. John Calvert of the US Patent & Trademark Office will speak on an opportunity in which INCA can help inventors.

June 16, 2008
This meeting will feature Riaz Virani, an undergrad student at Johns Hopkins University. Riaz works for the Hopkins Technology Commercialization Agency (HTCA). He will speak on HTCA's intellectual property research and consulting services and their current plans to reach out to private inventors.

July 21, 2008
This meeting will feature Riaz Virani, an undergrad student at Johns Hopkins University. Riaz works for the Hopkins Technology Commercialization Agency (HTCA). He will speak on HTCA's intellectual property research and consulting services and their current plans to reach out to private inventors. Riaz spoke at the June 2008 INCA meeting that unfortunately was cut short due to bad weather and a power outage at the library.

August 18, 2008
This meeting will feature Keith B. Segerson, Managing Director of the Mason Enterprise Center of George Mason University . He will speak on how this organization helps entrepreneurs and small business owners succeed.

September 15, 2008
Michael Q. Lee, director of the Washington DC intellectual property law firm of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein, & Fox P.L.L.C., and vice president elect of the Licensing Executives Society, will be speaking on commercializing intellectual property via licensing.

October 20, 2008
Inventors round table open discussion.

November 17,  2008
Licensing expert and attorney Andrew J. Levison will be speaking on licensing agreements best practices. Mr. Levison will be most likely returning to speak at an INCA meeting in 2009. Look to our meetings page for an announcement on his return. See his biography below.

Mr. Levison is a sole practitioner attorney in the area of intellectual property law who has also served as a corporate vice president of copyright and trademark licensing. He has over twenty five years of experience in the drafting and negotiation of licensing agreements from both the licensor (grantor of rights) and licensee (user of rights) perspective. He is also in the practice of drafting and negotiating all forms of business contracts. In addition, Mr. Levison, provides trademark and copyright registration services to his clients.

His clients have included manufacturing companies that make and distribute many types of products including toys, house - wares (both soft and hard lines), motor scooters and computer-related products. His practice also includes the representation of inventors and artists. 

He has served as a Vice President of Licensing at ISIX, Inc., (a subsidiary of Hasbro Toys), Senior Director of Licensing at Universal Studios and Vice President of Licensing and Licensed Product Development at TSR Hobbies, Inc. (the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons Role Play Game System).

He has appeared as a panelist on symposiums on licensing at The American International Toy Fair and at the SURTEX Design Show in New York City, as a speaker at the Interactive Media Conferences in New York and Los Angeles on the topic of "Licensing In Interactive Media".  Mr. Levison is an instructor of attorneys and licensing industry executives and managers at the annual symposium entitled, "Anatomy of a License Agreement" held in New York City.

December 8, 2008
The INCA holiday party will be at Jerry Porter's house in Maryland. There will be plenty of food and snacks at the party, but feel free to bring your favorite holiday food.

 

Past Meetings 2007

January 18, 2007
Even if you are not planning on attending the Everyday Edisons casting call on Saturday 01-20-07, you may want to attend tomorrow night's (01-18-07) meeting. In addition to being a judge on the Everyday Edisons casting crew, Louis Foreman is CEO of Enventys, a company that develops ideas from concept to distribution. Louis will be at tomorrow night's meeting. I've asked him to share about his company, the TV show, and marketing.

January 23, 2007
Patent attorneys Russell S. Travers, Ph.D. Esq. and Konstantina M. Katcheves, M.S., Esq. (both ex-patent US Patent & Trademark Office patent examiners) will be sharing on how to deal with patent examiner "rejection" of your patent application.

February 26, 2007
Steven P. Hefferon will be speaking to INCA about marketing your product on the internet. One of Mr. Hefferon's businesses/products can be found at www.losethebackpain.com.

We may also be hosting, Colin Drane, a representative of the Maryland-based television marketing/infomercial company Brand New Direct at the next/Monday 2-26-07 INCA meeting. He may give a short talk on his invention and also the inventions he has sold on TV. More information on his company can be found at http://www.brandnewdirect.com/home.html

March 28, 2007
Bob Gootzit of Precision CAD/CAM Systems (PCS) of Hunt Valley, Maryland will be speaking on prototyping and in particular rapid prototyping.

April 30, 2007
At our April 30 meeting Konstantina M. Katcheves, M.S., Esq of Travers Katcheves & Associates will be speaking on patent licensing basics. Her firm's website is www.traverskatcheves.com. Be sure to be early to the April 30 meeting as we will be giving away twenty free copies of Inventors Digest magazine. Inventors Digest donated the copies as part of their upcoming re-launch under a new editor and publisher.

May 21, 2007
During our May 21, 2007 meeting patent attorney Russ Travers of Travers, Katcheves & Associates (www.traverskatcheves.com) will speak on patents and patent application basics. Russ is an inventor and formerly worked as a patent examiner at the United States Patent & Trademark Office. We still have some free copies of the latest Inventors Digest magazine to give away at this meeting.

June 18, 2007
During our June 18, 2007 meeting INCA Vice President Maurice Daniel will be leading a round table discussion.

July 16, 2007
During our July 16, 2007 meeting Ellen Galant and Catherine Shaw, of MediaStudio, will be speaking about branding and marketing. MediaStudio is a branding, marketing, media design, and strategy company local to Falls Church, Virginia. Visit their website MediaStudio.com.

August 20, 2007
During our August 20, 2007 former US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) patent examiner and current patent attorney Bijan Tadayon will be our speaker. Bijan will be answering your questions concerning patent claim construction, patent reform, and more (questions concerning patents, business, and entrepreneurship). He will also share about two lectures he is giving at the USPTO the week before this meeting concerning information technology issues and patent portfolio valuation.

September 17, 2007
Jean-Yves F. Van Halle a financial advisor with Citi Smith Barney will be this month’s speaker. In a roundtable discussion format Mr. Van Halle will present the financial side of commercializing an invention. He will focus on finding angel inventors, growing a company, and how to bring the company public. See his resume at: Jean-Yves Van Halle Resume

October 15, 2007
Richard Neifeld of Neifeld Law PC will speak on how recent changes to patent rules have changed the patenting world. Richard's presentation will also cover proposed changes to patent laws and how they may impact the patent practice for patent attorneys/agents, inventors, and business. See his company's website for articles he has written on these topics. Neifeld.com

For more background on these issues, especially the current patent reform bill before the senate, do a search on Google for "senate patent act 2007."

November 19, 2007
John Melius, inventor of the award winning Mor-Fin low-drag scuba swim fins will be November's speaker. He will speak on the patenting, prototyping, manufacturing, and retailing of his invention. Visit his website Mor-Fin.com. Raoul Drapeau, inventor of a Henkel Innovation Trophy winning spray bottle, will also speak about his invention. Frampton Ellis will show a DVD video excerpt of his interview on Public Television's Nightly Business Report concerning patent reform.

December 10, 2007
The INCA holiday party will be at Jerry Porter's home. Jerry is the inventor of an improved turkey baster, newly designed sipper cup and many other inventions. Bring your prototypes to this meeting for your elevator speeches, demos, and show & tell. Also feel free to bring some desserts and snacks.

 

Past Meetings 2006

January 23, 2006
At this month's INCA meeting we had the unique opportunity to host speakers that have a great deal of experience helping entrepreneurs and inventors in many different areas of business. Please read below the short topic descriptions and longer bios concerning the speakers.

Patricia Xeller, Business Development Manager, Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, will be speaking on a variety of programs available to entrepreneurs and inventors in the Maryland area. She has consulted with inventors, entrepreneur startup companies, and large companies such as Lockheed Martin. More info

Henry Ahn, M.B.A. is Program Manager, Technology Funding Programs, Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), will be speaking on programs to aid startup companies in the areas of product development and licensing. TEDCO's focus is on high tech and biotech companies. More info

Dr. Martha Connolly, Director, Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS), University of Maryland will be speaking on programs designed to connect inventors and entrepreneurs with the University of Maryland and other institutions. More info

Ray Dizon of the Maryland Venture Fund will be speaking on issues related to raising venture capital for your business. An article on the Maryland Venture Fund (Note: there is no bio available for Mr. Dizon at this time.)

February 27, 2006
Arash Behravesh, patent attorney, will speak on the fundamentals of intellectual property law and strategy at. Website: www.pkpatentlaw.com.

Arash Behravesh's extensive experience in drafting and prosecuting patent applications in the chemical arts includes technical expertise in metallurgy, organic chemistry as well as polymer chemistry. More info

March 27, 2006
Our president, Glen Kotapish, has held our march meeting open for inventor 5-minute and 10-minute presentations. VP Maurice Daniels has asked Ray Gilbert 703 971 7443 to preside over a 2006 - 2007 officer election.

Richard Leshuk will introduce this session with a brief discussion about "What an inventor can and should say about a product, idea or new process".

Bryan Ruffner will update INCA members on his robotic project and his current needs. Bryan's friend, Anthony Brown, a new inventor to INCA will share description of his project and his approach to its market.

E-mail includes a lot of comments about American Inventor. That subject's pros and cons inevitably will be spoken-to during the meeting.

Ray will be conducting an election process that is compatible with our by-laws. A list of candidates has been offered by phone to him, and the March card also solicits volunteers for this year's officer-ship.

April 24, 2006
INCA member John Melius will share about the creative, business, patent, and prototyping challenges he has experienced while bringing his evolutionary swim fin to life. See his website, www.mor-fin.com , for more on John's really cool Mor-Fins.

May 22, 2006
Jonathan Aberman of Amplifier Venture Partners will be speaking at our MAY 22nd meeting on Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists.

June 26, 2006
INCA member David Whiteis talked on his recent appearance on the American Inventor TV show on ABC TV. He made it to the final 24 with his Video Gift Box invention, and video of his Bubble Ring Generator invention was shown on every single episode. Website: bubblerings.com

July 24, 2006
Bijan Tadayon spoke on the patenting process and invited an open discussion afterward. E-mail: bijantadayon@comcast.net and his number is301-294-0434

August 21, 2006
Open meeting.

September 18, 2006
Ron Riley, president of the Professional Inventors Alliance and founder of www.inventored.org.

October 16, 2006
Don Kelly, CEO of the Intellectual Asset Management Associates (IAMA), will be speaking on patenting, licensing and negotiating deals. Before founding IAMA Don worked in many other roles in the field of intellectual property which included working for the US Patent & Trademark Office.
See his bio

November 20, 2006
Richard J. Apley of Litman Law will be speaking on patents and other issues of importance to independent inventors. Before joining Litman Law Dick worked for the US Patent & Trademark Office's Independent Inventor Program. See his bio

Speakers: James H. Daly and Daniel J. Eisenberg, Wood & Eisenberg PLLC www.Premierpatents.com

Topic points:

• Newest revision to "Procedure to Make Special" (effective 8/25/2006)
• Purpose/Goal of revision
• Claim limitations
• Additional application requirements
• New handling procedures for accelerated applications
• Who should/should not use the new procedure
• Pros and Cons
• Q&A

December 18, 2006
Mike Messenger, Director of Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox, P.L.L.C. will be speaking on the "Impact of U.S. Patent Reform Proposals on Inventors and Small Invention-based Businesses."

 

Past Meetings 2005

January 24, 2005
Our speaker for this meeting is David Dougherty, Patent Attorney at Dennison Schultz, Dougherty & MacDonald, of Alexandria, Virginia.

February 28, 2005
Rodger Flagg, Inventor and patent research company, Express Search, owner and founder.

March 21, 2005
Frederick Provorny, Director of the Maryland Intellectual Property Legal Resource Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore.

April 25, 2005
Kathie Kirik of the USPTO and a supervisory patent examiner, also of the USPTO, will be speaking on the USPTO's 2005 Independent Inventor Conference and on other issues. This year's Independent Inventor Conference will be held at the site of the USPTO's new headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.

May 16, 2005
Raoul Drapeau, INCA member, and Terri Raines of the USPTO will be speaking on the USPTO's Electronic Filing System (EFS). Raoul will speak on his experience with the existing EFS and Terri will speak on the improved new version of the EFS.

June 20, 2005
Christopher Wood, a patent attorney with the firm Wood, Ngo and Eisenberg PLLC, will be speaking on patent application drafting in the biotechnology & biochemical art. He is also open to speaking on other topics related to the patent prosecution field. Chris has a B.S. with honors in Microbiology from the University of Wales, a M.S. in Biotechnology from the University of Central Lancashire, a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Glasgow, and a J.D. from the DePaul Law School. Chris has prepared and/or prosecuted over 100 patent applications in a variety of technical areas, including pharmaceutical, immunology, industrial, tissue culture, surgical devices, microbiological, downstream processing, chemical, biochemical, bioinformatics, agro biotechnology, telecommunications, software and mechanical. Chris is an expert in handling DNA and amino acid sequences. Chris has worked on patent projects for several Fortune 100 Companies including: ADM, Abbott, MERCK; and not-for-profit organizations including Scripps Clinic while working for top rated law firms.

July 18, 2005
Dr. Shyla Shirodkar, a patent attorney, will be speaking on "Design-Around Patent Strategies for Patentees and Competitors" (see abstract below). She received her Ph.D. from University of New Hampshire in Organic Chemistry, and her law degree from Pace University. Her experience includes working at national intellectual property firms of Fish and Richardson P.C. and Pillsbury Winthrop. Prior to her legal career, Dr. Shirodkar managed projects and obtained several patents as an inventor/research chemist at Texaco R&D. She prosecutes patent applications, prepares opinions such as non-infringement, validity and clearance opinions, counsels clients in all areas of chemistry, with emphasis on pharmaceuticals, small molecules, polymers, specialty chemicals and material sciences as well as advises clients on Food and Drug Administration regulations with special emphasis on Hatch-Waxman issues. In her spare time, she enjoys speaking on patent related topics, running, organic gardening and keeping up with her two rambunctious boys.

Abstract: Patentees and competitors must take proactive steps to handle design-around issues related to intellectual property matters. Scenario: Your company has created a new invention and secured an issued patent claiming the invention. Patenting your invention is an important step in commercializing and marketing an inventive product; you have a market-driven incentive to invest in innovation. But is your patent "design-around" proof? Using a design-around strategy, a competitor can produce an equivalent product which is legally non-infringing on a patentee's issued patent. Successful design-around strategies can not only present a time and cost savings in terms of research and development costs, legal fees and potential litigation costs, but also minimize the delay in commercializing an equivalent product. For example, by designing around, a competitor has the incentive to potentially capture a significant market share by producing an equivalent product while undercutting the patentee's profits. This talk discusses design-around strategies available to achieving both competitors' and patentees' goals.

August 15, 2005
Members of the product development and marketing team for the iBOT 4000(tm) will be speaking and demonstrating the iBOT 4000(tm) wheelchair. Martha Najib, a product consultant for iBOT(tm) will be one of the speakers.

The iBOT(tm) 4000, pictured below, is a four wheeled robotic wheelchair with gyroscopic stabilization and other technologies. This wheelchair has been designed to climb stairs and allow the user to access all of their kitchen cabinets while standing on its back wheels.

Independence Technology, LLC, who developed the iBOT 4000(tm) is a Johnson & Johnson company. The iBOT(tm) mobility system was invented by Dean Kamen (who also invented the Segway Human Transporter). See the links below to learn more about the iBOT 4000(tm):

The iBOT(r) Mobility System
Photo Gallery

September 19, 2005
Rodger Flagg, inventor and founder of Express Search. Rodger will be speaking on the value of receiving a thorough patent search.

October 17, 2005
Richard C. Levy, president of Richard C. Levy & Associates, is a professional inventor of toys and games and an author. In the past 26+ years, he has licensed 125+ concepts, including Furby, the animatronic creature that sold 43 million units between 1998-2000. An enhanced Furby has been re-introduced by Hasbro this year.

His licensees range from Hasbro and Mattel to General Foods and P&G. Richard has created best-selling board games such as these based upon popular books: Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (Mattel), and Chicken Soup For The Soul (Cardinal).

Richard's newest family board games include: (1) "Can You Beat Ken?" (University Games). Players match wits with Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings; (2) "Mental Floss" (Pressman). Funny, quirky, trivia with a twist. www.mentalfloss.com; and (3) Adverteasing (Cadaco). Players recall popular commercials, slogans, and jingles.

Richard has written twelve books. The most recent titles are: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cashing In on Your Inventions, and The Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook, both published by Alpha, an imprint of Penguin-Putnam. These books can be seen here.

His products have combined retail sales of over $1 billion.

November 21, 2005
Dick Apley of Litman Law will be speaking patent applications and other intellectual property issues. Mr. Apley is the former head of the United States Patent & Trademark Office of Independent Inventor Programs.

December 20, 2005
INCA Holiday Party