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“The changes in legislation significantly impact start-ups,” advises Intellectual Property (IP) attorney Emily Harris of the Davis Brown Law Firm. As the rhetoric around who is business friendly is intensifying, two pieces of legislation – one passed and one pending – will quietly make life more difficult for the small start-up. At the February BIZ Luncheon, Harris will explain the impact of the legislation on small businesses, as well as strategies that will help them work within the new system.
“It is the most sweeping change to patent law that has taken place in the last 150 years,” says Harris, speaking of the Leahy-Smith American Invention Act signed into law September 16, 2011. “The goal was to stimulate innovation,” she says. But Harris fears the results will be quite different for small businesses. Noting that the old system was a “first to invent” system, Harris explains that the changes will result in the U.S. Patent Office now operating under a “first to file” system.
Harris, Co-Chair of Davis Brown’s Emerging Business Group, worries that start-ups are going to have a hard time with the new patent law. Bigger companies with more resources can afford to quickly, and frequently, file patent applications so they literally become patent-filing machines. Start-up companies have limited resources, which makes it more likely that the big companies will win the race to the patent office.
Two other pieces of pending legislation have importance for start-ups with a significant online component. Stop online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), heavily supported by the movie and music industries as a means of reducing pirating, are almost universally opposed by major internet companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Provisions of the legislation are viewed by most companies as an unreasonable restriction on free-speech and trade with the legislation, as written, so broad as to threaten the viability of many providers of online content.
Noting that the most common mistake she sees among start-ups, as it relates to IP issues, is thinking that they can wait, Harris is concerned that the Leahy-Smith legislation along with SOPA will serve to exacerbate the difficulties faced by a startup that has failed to get its legal ducks in a row prior to launch. “If you don’t deal with it up front,” she warns, “you can get that cease and desist letter. I’ll talk about strategies for dealing with the patent law and what you can do to prepare for the pending legislation, as well as how to make your objections heard before it becomes law.”
$15 admission fee (includes lunch)
11: 30 a.m.
February 15, 2012
The Greater Des Moines Partnership
700 Locust St., Suite 100 (map it)
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To register or for more information, contact the BIZ at events@bizci.com. RSVP cancellations need to be made at least 24 hours before the event.
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The BIZ’s mission is to connect entrepreneurial needs with qualified community and state resources and to provide guided professional and business direction. The BIZ helps entrepreneurs maximize their successes by helping them navigate resources, strengthen knowledge, improve skills, form strategic alliances and secure proper capitalization.
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