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Don't Get Caught With Unprotected Intellectual Property Assets

By Jeanne Winnick Brennan

The next time someone tells you that you can take your idea to the bank, remember that its a long trek between your inspiration and deposits at your financial institution.

In an increasingly global economy and technology-driven world, intellectual property (IP) assets dominate the U.S. total economic output. More people than ever are seeking U.S. patents; as a result, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov) is granting nearly 200,000 patents annually, double the rate of a decade ago.

In addition to all this IP activity, many laboratory shelves and garage rafters are filled with good ideas and inventions that actually received patents but never made it out the door and into the marketplace.

How, then, can you get your idea protected, manufactured and all the way to the finish line? The good news is there is a process. It works well, but as with many good things, it requires time.

For more than two years, Ive been watching this nail-biting process up close. My husband, Bill Brennan, is an attorney whos partnered with one of his clients, Lou Garcia, an inventor, to turn ideas into products and now finally profits.

Collapsible Cones

Together they formed Worldwide Safety, LLC, to manufacture and distribute the first of several highway-safety products in their companys patent portfolio, including collapsible orange traffic-safety cones.

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