Blog 37: Benefits of the Class

As someone extremely interested in the startup environment, learning about Patents is extremely important. I felt that this class gave me a great basic learning of what Patents are and how to write them. Before I took the class, I had no idea what a patent was and how it was even different from copyrights and other types of intellectual property. The type of material I learned in this class will help me with my entire career. Even if I don’t end up applying for a patent, I now know all the essential steps and methods needed to successfully file my patent application. This is a skill many people do not have and I was fortunate to learn this semester.

I definitely recommend this class to anyone interested who wants to start their own start-up! There is so much you learn from what a patent is, how to file any application, what needs to be in your patent application, to patent litigation, infringement, court cases, and so much more! It is definitely a worthwhile class to take!

Also, Professor Lavian is a great lecturer and he has so much passion for the topic. He is also extremely experienced and has a lot of knowledge to share about the topic! I am so glad I took the class with him. I not only learned a lot, but really enjoyed the topic and had fun each week.

Thanks for a great semester, Professor Lavian!!!

Blog 36: Future Career

This class had helped me in a number of ways that has positively impacted my future career:

1. Communication Skills

Each week we had to create Youtube Videos and write blog posts in a strong and succinct manner. Although I struggled at the beginning to keep my videos around 2 minutes, I am now able to cover all my main points in a short amount of time. This is extremely important because being able to explain concepts concisely and clearly is extremely important in the field of business.

2. Social Media Presence

Many times in class Professor Lavian told us that everything is moving online, so creating our social media presence is becoming even more important. Later when recruiters search my name on Google they will be able to find blog posts, tweets, and youtube clips of me talking about Patents. This is really beneficial when applying for jobs or any job related manner.

3. Patents

I learned a tremendous amount of information about Patents! Before this class I had no idea what the difference between copyright and patent was. Now I am able to tell you what a patent is, how it can be used, how to file it, how long someone can keep a patent, how to do research on patents, and even about patent litigation. I am now able to talk about a topic that most people have no knowledge about. This information is so valuable and I am so thankful to be able to know about it.  

Blog 35: Importance of Social Media and Online Presence

Now, I have a much better understanding how to work a blog and create engaging content that will allow others to want to interact. In addition, I really loved learning how to maintain my YouTube channel because it was so interesting to be able to talk and generate video content, which is a lot harder to do than print content! Overall, I have been able to start my online presence through these platforms, which I will touch upon next!

Many times in class Professor Lavian told us that everything is moving online, so creating our social media presence is becoming even more important. Later when recruiters search my name on Google they will be able to find blog posts, tweets, and youtube clips of me talking about Patents. This is really beneficial when applying for jobs or any job related manner.

Blog 34: Collaborative Learning

I really enjoyed collaborative learning and it was really valuable to learn from others. I feel like I learned so much more from reading everyone else’s blog and youtube video post. Each post I read, I learned something new since everyone had a new idea or take to the assignment. Also everyone’s comments were really beneficial as I was able to improve my own posts based on what everyone said. The peer engagement through the comments was a great way to learn through the semester, from the minds and brains of our peers! I loved that I could get constructive feedback and positive encouragement at the same time for all of my assignments. It was great to see the passion that my peers had for helping my own content become that much better! It was also really interesting tweeting during class and engaging with the class during lecturers. I was able to give out my thoughts and see what everyone else was thinking during the lecture. This was really beneficial as I was able to learn much easier and quicker! I also learned that we can build off of each other! Creativity comes from finding whats good and making it even better! This is not plagiarism! We should learn from other products and figure out how we can improve them.  I believe this type of collaborative learning is extremely important and feel that more teachers should have assignments like this.

Blog 33: Forces Impacting the Patent Marketplace

Forces Impacting the Patent Marketplace 

1. IP Litigation at an all time high 

Patent infringement is the act of making, using, selling, or offering to sell a patented invention, or importing into the United States a product covered by a claim of a patent without the permission of the patent owner. Further, you may be considered to infringe a patent if you import items into the United States that are made by a patented method, unless the item is materially changed by subsequent processes or becomes a trivial and nonessential component of another product. A person “infringes” a patent by practicing each element of a patent claim with respect to one of these acts.  Further, actively encouraging others to infringe patents, or supplying or importing components of a patented invention, and related acts can also give rise to liability in certain cases.

2. Very active patent transaction market 

The patent transaction market is rapidly taking off and is currently very active, which directly impacts the IP Marketplace. 

3. USPTO moves to "First to File" 

Today, if you file a patent, someone can come along and tell you they had that idea first, and with much documentation and legal wrangling, deny you the right to apply that invention. Tomorrow, nobody will care who came up with the idea first — only who filed it. It’s called “First to File” (as opposed to the previous “First to Invent”) and it shifts the system’s emphasis from the date it was invented to the date its inventor dropped an application at the patent office. (It does preclude stolen ideas; it’s been more accurately termed “First Inventor to File.”)

4. Global Competition is changing the IP playing field