Startup businesses, technologies supported through sponsored seminars on intellectual property
| To understand the opportunity in innovation and business development, WV Forward’s blueprint proposed offering shared services to support small businesses, such as "leveraging law schools to provide advice on legal issues, succession planning and intellectual property rights." The Marshall University Technology Transfer Office (TTO) did just that, recently offering two seminars to educate the university community and the general public interested in commercialization of products. Each session featured an overview of the main areas of intellectual property law (patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright) and on the various types of patent protection. Other areas included in the presentations were the statutory requirements for obtaining a patent; discussions on university ownership of inventions; the differences between a patent application and a technical publication; the differences between inventorship and authorship; issues to consider to preserve patent rights in an academic setting; and determining if an invention is ready for patenting. One session focused on medical devices and applications and pharmaceuticals and the other on 3-D printed designs and other manufactured goods. The sessions were led by attorney Terry Wright of the firm Stites & Harbison PLLC in Louisville, Kentucky. |
| https://wvforward.wvu.edu/ |