Hello to everyone. Good afternoon. I'm so excited to be
here today to have this discussion with our
distinguished panel. My name is Sean mentioned is Valencia
Martin Wallace. My my job here at the USPTO is the Deputy
Commissioner for patents. I oversee the areas of
international patent cooperation as well as oversight over
technology centers examining
applications. Or mechanical technologies telecommunications
And our design applications as
well. I also have the privilege of being the executive
lead supporting the director of USPTO on our implementation
of the National Council for expanding American Innovation. A
council made up of the.
A large group of of wonderful leaders in the field of
innovation. And international I'm sorry, an intellectual property
community. We've come together to help USPTO, support and
assist in the development of national strategy for expanding
innovation, which is a perfect segue to our our panels topic
today, which is creating a pathway to innovation and we
will hear from our panelists.
About the their insights.
I'm creating a more inclusive innovation community hearing
from their own experiences, as well as what they've done to
help support others. So with that I will not. I will not
waste anytime because I'm very excited to hear from all three
of these panels I've I have heard from them before. I've had
conversations with them, and I've heard from them on this
topic and many others and and they are very, very impressive
group of leaders in the IP and
innovation communities. So I will just start by asking a
Dara Kendall, Vice president and associate general counsel of
Global Fabric and Home Care for the Procter and Gamble Company
to please give us a little bit more information about about you
and introduce yourself to our our group today.
Yeah, it's my pleasure to be here, so greetings everyone. I
have been practicing in the area of patent law for I think 24
years. I don't know how this happened. I actually I came out
of law school back then and and actually was trained as a
chemical engineer. So I went to law school to study patent law
and I came to PNG straight out of law school. So as you can see
from the Gray hairs, it's been a minute and The funny thing is
it's like I remember diversity
being talked. Very strongly when I first entered the walls of
Procter and Gamble, and I was thinking, Oh well, you know
that's a problem that will go away. What will figure that out?
And here we are like, 24 years later, we're still having
the same conversation. So clearly there is still work to
be done. But um, I'm really looking forward to the
conversation on how we can expedite us getting to a more
diverse and inclusive environment for us all. And so I
think the key there is for us all to be uncomfortable. Always
talk about that, just get out of
your comfort zone. And as soon as you do that, you'll grow. So
let let's let's be diverse and inclusive. Absolutely thank you.
Next, I'd like to introduce our next panelist, Suzanne Harrison,
the founder of The Gathering. And if Suzanne, if you could
share with us and and our participants today on your
background. Sure, I'm. I'm actually not a lawyer. I have an
economics degree an I came at this through the finance world.
Originally helping companies calculate damages for litigation
cases. Patent infringement as an example, and I found myself
really liking the inventors and realizing that I didn't want to
work on the outcome of what happened. I wanted to help fix
it before it started and so I changed the consulting to become
to work with companies around what we now know as intellectual
property management and I've helped. I think established that
you can use intellectual property is both illegal asset.
And a business asset and that companies can make better
informed decisions about intellectual property and how
they can get value out of that. And so if I created a
group called The Gathering, which is a group of about 20
companies at a time that meet and create best practices for
how to do that routinely, and it's been, I think, 27 years
that Group's been going now.
And as you said, and your background may not be in a
typical of of IP, but in innovation it's pivotal, an
vital as as we grow our innovation ecosystem. So I would
our last panelists. I'm very pleased to introduce Holly Fechner
partner at the law firm of Covington and Burling. If you
could please give us some more information about yourself.
Such a pleasure to be here with you and Dara and Suzanne for
this important conversation and just at top I want to
thank you for your leadership at the NCEAI. It's been a
tremendous process. I'm sure we'll talk more about that
today, but you've really been a star in leading that effort, so
I am a partner at Covington and Burling law firm in Washington
DC. I'm Co chair of our technology industry group but
I also serve as executive director of a group called
Invent Together and would very much encourage the people
participating in our event today to go to inventtogether.org to
learn more about the
organization. But what we found is that there are large and
disturbing patent path.
Where women, people of color and lower income people don't invent
and patent as much as their share of the population, or
certainly as much as we all think they should an want them
to. So the organization has been doing extensive research on
the patent gaps, but also leading up efforts both in the
public policy and the private sector to try to close those
gaps so very much. Looking forward to sharing more details
about what we're up to as part of our conversation today. And I
I come with these issues from very long history of.
Working on gender and race justice issues before coming
to the law firm, I worked for Senator Kennedy And
worked on very similar issues in a different context.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you thank all three of you for being here with this, just
with your intro. Just that's just the tip of the iceberg with
the three of you, but it's it's it's amazing. The work that
you've done not only as professionals in this career and
leaders in as I mentioned in IP communities and innovation
communities, but but how you're bringing people with you. This
is not in an individuals.
Challenger fight it has to be all of us together working on
this and and all three of you have an amazing way brought
others with you to help to champion what's going on here.
And I I use that word specifically champion. There's
always something in on the personal side as well as
professional side of doing work like this and being a champion
to provide more diversity, bringing more women, more people
color into a community into into a business that has not been the
most welcoming in its history. It takes more than just the
professional takes a passion for doing the work.
So if you could each share with us and maybe we start
with Holly on what drives you to be a champion to create a
more diverse and inclusive IP and innovation community.
Oh absolutely, I mean. For me it's a. It's a moral
imperative. Our country is certainly not perfect. I think
we've been striving to to perfect our union for over 200
years. We still have a long way to go. I think the
particularly the events of the last year have shown us some
cracks.
in how we include people based on race based on gender based on
other factors that are out of peoples control. So to me it
really is a moral imperative to work on this issue. But in
addition to that, there's no doubt that we would all benefit
in so many other ways by doing this too. I don't think anybody.
Knows more about.
How important intellectual property is to our economy than
those of the USPTO.
But one of the things that we know is that if we did include.
Every all women, people of color and lower income. Individuals
who want to invent and patent in the innovation ecosystem that we
would have four times as many inventors and we would have up
to a trillion more dollars in our gross domestic product. As
we think about the future, both of individuals, their families,
and our our nation.
Just a no brainer there. There is no doubt that we need to be
committed to trying to expand who participates in our
innovation ecosystem.
Absolutely, you bring about some really great points there. That
this is. This is for the individual, but it's for the
nation as well As for the betterment of our society and
growth. Dera can you please also share with us?
I think Holly pointed out some great points around why it's
important. You know, I think this is a really easy one for
me, especially as a corporate attorney. You know, I see what
happens when our workforce does not mimic our consumer
based. So like the big or the easy example for me is in the
area of black hair care.
Black women spend thousands of dollars a year on their hair.
Whether it's natural like mine or whether they wear it
straightened. And even though I don't have that material, I
still spend a lot of money. So it seems like a no brainer to me
to have people who are on our research and development teams
that understand the culture of hair, the challenges and what are
the delights that the consumer is looking for. So our company
has been on a journey to build R&D teams, IP teams that.
Basically, get it so we're starting to make headways in
black hair care, and we've seen a bunch of launches over the
last few years just trying to get to what is it that consumers
want in another area that I think of most prominently as
skin care. That's an area where.
You know you've just got so many different types of skin. It
helps to have people with different skins, different
perspectives, different experiences. So if we can have
an R&D team legal team that includes men, women, Asians,
latins, black, white, you've got the reference representation
that gives you an understanding of what that consumer is dealing
with. So for me, diversity makes each of us an integral piece of
the puzzle, and we need all of those pieces to make that
complete picture. So for me, I just want to make sure that I'm
doing my part to make sure that my legal team represents the
consumer base and that that keeps me fired up.
Oh, I absolutely understand exactly what you're saying. It
really is. Is diversity of opinion? That's going to help us
grow and and we all have to be included and we all have to be
conscious of making sure that we are all included. Suzanne, if
you don't mind also sharing of what is made you a champion in
this in this arena.
Yeah, I think a lot of it just has to be my experience being
the only women in the room for most of Mycareer and realizing
that's horrible. I mean, I don't want to go to the bathroom and
talk to myself when everyone else is having a whole party in
the Mens bathroom. It just makes you. It's only lonely and and
also you don't really get that networking. You don't get that
growth experienced and so I too like Dara Thought well, you
know this will be solved in a few years. It'll be done, you
know. I've been doing this for 30 years and you know, I I
finally just reached my point where I was like. OK, if I can't
help companies figure out how to solve this, that it's useless
right? And so for the last year and a half I've been working
with the gathering to get them to think about what are best
practices that we can implement today to get more diversity in
inventorship. And the first thing again follows on some
pretty obvious. Let's tie it to a business goal. Co. solve
problems. All the time when they feel it's in their best
interest. Maybe it says Dara said, maybe it's getting close
to your customer base. Maybe it's going to help you in PR and
marketing. Maybe it's going to help you in a different way, but
let's figure out what those are and tie this issue to that.
'cause. That way companies will solve it and also find other
things that we can do and and I will say that we are not done.
This is a complex problem, you know, but we are almost there
and we're getting to the point
where. Looking to begin to share those with the world. I'm a
board member with a group called the US intellectual property
alliance usip.org an I'm the Co chair of the Diversity and
Inclusion Committee and so we are working with invent together
USPTO. All these organizations have desperately been doing
really good work in a piece of the puzzle and trying to bring
all those together in a cohesive framework so that people can
learn and implement immediately.
All these things they need to know with how to solve this
problem. Absolutely thank you and and let me stop and just
tell our audience right now that you've already heard of some
really great organizations that are working on this, this this
issue. This challenge with invent together with US IPA with
gathering. We would love to share the links and we will
share the links with you after our panel so that you can get
more information on how what they have to offer, as well as
how you can get involved so.
No, that that will be coming for you soon and I just want to just
go back to what you said Suzanne about we're, you know, we're
almost there. We've made great strides and we're almost there.
An I. I agree with you, we've made great strides for women in
two fields in technical areas, as well as a law that are not.
We're not, you know, created for us, or we were very inclusive
of. But we've made great strides in it. But you know what? We
still have a lot of challenges.
Ahead of us, where do you see if each of you could answer
and maybe start with our this time? Where do you see the
the biggest challenges for women as we are advancing in
innovation ecosystem today?
OK, I'm gonna do that equal in my mute somebody.
But you know, I honestly think a lot of times women struggle with
not being a natural part of the boys Club. And I think that's
where a lot of the magic happens on a daily basis. I mean, it
could be in the area of tech, business, finance, law, so it
doesn't matter what the arena is. Those Nuggets are being
passed around in those circles, and sometimes you know that
sharing of information is intentional, but oftentimes it
just happens as a matter of
course, because. They're all together talking, so I feel like
we, as women have to be a bit more proactive and making sure
that we're connected with those that are that have that
experience in the field of our interest, or even those
tangential fields that might be useful for the field that we're
in. So, like in the old days, you know folks would head to the
bar, play tennis, or maybe head to the links or something like
that. But like today, you know we're focusing on OK, how do we
connect virtually right And We figured out that we can do it.
And we can do it very well. So I think that is something that is
going to have to continue in the future even if we get back to
you know a real world where we can meet in person like we we
have to continue to be intentional about our connects
and we have to get out of our own way. I think some of the
speakers in the earlier hour we're talking about. We just
have to get out of our own way and believe that we can and
speak up and ask for just a few minutes of their time to have a
conversation because people are more than willing to just talk
and pour into. You know their counterpart parts, or the next
generation, and I can say that I've done this way more in the
last year than I ever have, and I'm connecting with people in
the areas of finance 'cause I've been clueless about finance for
the last 20 years as a patent attorney, logistics engineering,
regulatory advertising. Who would have thought and then IP,
of course. So I think we just have to know that we're capable
and give that air of confidence off that our counterparts.
Do and make sure that people are hearing what we have to say.
So and then I think the final thing that I would mention is
that I think another challenge that we have to overcome is
maybe it's as a society. It's the mindset of certain men so
that they can start seeing us as their equal. So a lot of times
if you think of women in the room as a sister, a mother, a
daughter, you're not going to want your relative to be treated
as less than. So if men can keep that in mind, then it becomes
very easy to see.
All that we bring to the table.
So absolutely thank you. This is an do you have anything to add?
I mean I, I think all those things are true and I also think
that if you know fundamental if you want to be an innovator, you
have to go kick down some doors, right? I mean, unfortunately
people just don't open them to us automatically. You know, back
in 2007 and 2008 I.
Was starting a company I started a company to create a patent
marketplace and I was fortunate enough to hook up with one of
the first women BCS who decided to mentor me and you know, she
told me a couple of things that were really interesting. The
first is that you know The Dirty secret for venture capitalists
is that first time inventors have the biggest ideas and will
make them the most money in. Largely they have those ideas
because they don't know how hard it is to do this, and so they
think really big and so they.
are in searching for those people who don't. Yet I haven't
been beaten down by the system or don't know how hard it is
because those are the ones that are going to make money into.
What I found is, yeah, sexism is rampant in Silicon Valley,
right? That's where I am. I had to have people curate who I
could go speak with. I had people tell me to my face. We
will never find a woman. You know all of those things. And
yet, in spite of all that, I had more people who came out to help
me than I ever thought possible. And you have heard.
In the course of this morning, I don't know, maybe 50 times that
advised to ask for help. I can only say that do it because it
will happen without with little with little effort. Even people
want to be helpful. Men really want to be helpful and so they
would like to know if you want help. They don't want to come up
to you to see if that you know. Do you need help something?
Sometimes that happens, but not
very often. And so I would just encourage women to do that. It
was. It was helpful for me and I would think it would be helpful
for you. As another note, when I I give free. Sorry, I give
frequent talks. I am almost never had a woman come up to me
afterwards, and I get asked for help by men all the time. So
again, just my own experiences that no ones even asking me or
offering for me to help. And again, these are virtual so it's
hard for me to know who I'm impacting or not. I mean, you
know we can't even see the audience at this point, so you
know, again, you don't know what resonates and what doesn't. So I
think just reaching out and asking for help is is always a
good idea. Excellent advice.
And Holly, you have anything to share. Absolutely one associate
myself with the remarks of Dara Suzanne. Entirely agree.
I would love to add a few other thoughts. This is just one
measurement, but according to some terrific work that the
USPTO has done only 13% of all women on AUS patent in 29 on
a US patent in 2019. So I we absolutely have to celebrate
those women and people of color who have made it in.
Gonna be innovation ecosystem, but I do think we have to
acknowledge that we have a tremendous amount of work to do
to get to where we want to be.
One thing that I think is really useful is is to think about in
terms of buckets. There are things that individuals can do
themselves. There are institutions that need to be
changed, and then there are public policies that need to be
changed, and I think if we work on all those different front we
will make progress and and we are making progress. I think one
of the developments.
Over the last five years is that people are looking more closely
all the different phases of the innovation ecosystem to try to
dig into more. What we can do because many people had this
sense that it was just a quote pipeline prog problem. If we had
enough women and people of color who got certain kinds of STEM
degrees that this.
Problem would solve itself.
And that's certainly as we've seen it. It's not the case
because there there are just so many points along the way
as somebody is trying to succeed in this field that
they could advance or be set back. And so I think it's up
to all of us to think about.
The complexity of the situation and try to figure out how we
can make change one really interesting piece of research
that that we have come across is work by Doctor Alex Bell about
the exposure effect the idea that somebody is much more
likely to become an inventor if they are exposed as a child.
To other inventors even get down to the level of if there
you know if maybe one of their friends parents or their scout
leader or somebody invents in a certain field. It's more
likely later in life that they will invent in that field. So
focus on invention education at early ages.
Clearly more investment in STEM education. We also want to
ensure that our universities and employers have fair employment
Policy is because we we know that there there still is
discrimination. An I think the pandemic has really laid bare
some of the work, family and work life challenges that that
people face with schools have closed in child care centers
have been closed. I mean sadly we are at the lowest level we
have been in years in terms of
work. Forced partition participation by women, but we
can think of entrepreneurial activity and other types of
innovation. Innovative careers as opportunities for women to
have more control of their time in their lives. So I I do
think it's important to sort of focus on all these areas. We've
talked a lot about networking
and mentoring. Absolutely, no doubt that that's an important
piece of the equation, as is access to capital. So I've got
this great business idea, but you need to convince something
to to give you the capital to to get that business going. So
there is no one size fits all solution, but I think we're in a
much better place of understanding all of the
different level. Levers that that we need to to try to
improve the situation.
Absolutly. So we we've had a couple of questions already
come in. Based on the comments you've already given us, so I'm
going to take one now because I think it says fits perfectly
with what we've been discussing. And just as a preface to the
question, you know, one of the things that I found throughout
Mycareer and. And even now, sometimes I think maybe more so
where I do have a voice. I use that voice, yet somehow, and
I've I've known other women who've gone through this as
well. It wasn't really addressed my what I've said until.
My counterpart Male in the room, set it as if it was the first
time it had been heard, you know, and that's a challenge
that that I face now that I must overcome now as a as a woman as
a leader in OPQA I know there are big challenge challenges for
each of you as leaders you know you have your all three an I'm
proud to say. You know I've I've witnessed hearing you speak and
speaking to you very strong
women. Who have forged your way in in this career and
you've made something created something beyond what you
found in it. But that doesn't mean you don't have
challenges. Still, as leaders in your fields, if you can
each maybe share some of the challenges that you're still
meeting as a leader in your field. And if we could start
with Suzanne.
Sure, so I have less challenges about being a woman for me in
the legal since I work in intellectual property for me, I
still get challenged alot about not being attorney.
Um, and you know, I will say.
Yeah, that the legal profession is not very open to hearing
other opinions right? And so you know, my perspective has been
that business people need to understand intellectual property
in order to help make better informed decisions and so really
when I start to question things or I start talking with business
folks. And if that's in House counselor outside counsel, I
cannot. I can often say that many attorneys don't appreciate
being questioned. About what they are doing, particularly
since I've spent.
30 years creating best practices, but I think we
need to be more open to different types of thought
that no one function or no one type of person has the
all the answers and anything and it's that
diversity of thought. I would like to really push
for in organizations.
Thank you, that's a very unique perspective. the IP field in
innovation feels so. Thank you very much. Holly. Can you also
share some of the challenges in your position now? Absolutely. I
remember Suzanne earlier in this event said something about being
the only woman in the room, and I'm sure all of us have had that
experience more times than we possibly can count or remember.
And it it is a challenge. It continues to be a challenge.
I think some of the research shows that institutions don't
really change until about a third of the people are from,
you know, whatever the
minority group is an. I think we probably all
experienced that and I think it's a matter of getting up
every day and trying your best and doing it again and having
your support system.
People that you can always go to have your back. You know you
invest in other people and you're that person for them. And
and then there are people who are that for you and you know
it's a. It's not always exactly the same people and and
sometimes you feel like you know you know you don't have
everything you need in the way of support but but I I highly
recommend that. Thank you, thank you very much and Dara.
Question I've gotta say. Honestly, the challenge
that I face.
Daily is public speaking. I can't stand it.
And that's one of the reasons why I became a patent attorney.
I was like, well, I'll just go do my job. Well, you know,
review is your here on this panel, right? But this is the
reason I do this is because even though I think I don't know
much, I evidently know something because I've done OK in this
career mind. But I think it's incumbent upon me and other
people like me to share our experiences right? So with that
comes public speaking, and it's about forcing yourself into that
uncomfortable place. And so the more you do it, the better you
get at it, but.
I don't like it until it's over, but so that's why I would say,
you know, you know I would challenge anybody to lean into
their discomfort, right? Because once you do that, you're not
only benefiting yourself, but you're benefiting others because
you know, I think the benefit that I bring is not the public
speaking, but it's just the sharing of the journey. And you
know what? Have I experienced that help somebody else? So
there's that challenge. And then you know, on a daily basis I run
into. Stuff that I'm like. How do I deal with that? So it's a
challenge. Every day I say I saw one problem and then two
more show up. Like really?
But yeah, that's that's it.
Thank you, thank you. I I want to move on a little bit to
another topic. I wanted to share with you and we've actually had
a couple of questions that have come in that that really fit
into it. It's about resources that are out there to
support and to help along the way of this pathway of
innovation. So the first question along this way from our
our audiences are, are there online networking groups
That you know of that week that we can connect and
find like minded peers. So any type of networking
Organizations that can support.
So actually I was going to talk about some of the resources and
some of them have pivoted to be on line so I can kind of talk
about those. And honestly a lot of the work that I do, all of
the work that I do is internal right? So all of my clients are
at P&G, so I don't have to go too far to get help. But I do
try to reach externally. So for my own benefit, like I might
reach out to AIPLA and IPO so
American Intellectual Property Law Association or intellectual
Property Owners Association for consult with my legal
counterparts, but they also have mentoring programs for
inventors, an members that are attorney. So I would say look
into those organizations because they will partner you with
people who are maybe in the same geographic location. So from a
time zone standpoint, it's easier. You guys can talk about
intellectual property, whatever.
It's whether it's patent or trademark or Copyright related.
And then maybe you have a commonality in the area of
technology. The other thing that I would recommend is the small
Business development Center. Now this is something that is
present here in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area, and
they have partnered with Northern Kentucky University And
in Northern Kentucky, but also at the Urban League in
Cincinnati, so I would.
You know, ask people to check out their Urban League in their
respective region because they may very well have an SBDC that
is offering services virtually so they've got one to one
consultations and they offer comprehensive business
management in an inclusion services. And they do this at no
cost to entrepreneurs. And then I think piggybacking on, I think
Kimberly mentioned it score. You know they are the nation's
largest network of volunteers and they've got some.
Expert business mentors that are here to talk to small businesses
to help them get off the ground and provide a lot of resources.
I mean, I was taken aback by, you know, the vast amount of
resources that they've got. They've got like over 10,000
volunteers that are focused on helping entrepreneurs succeed
and they offer you know when we're in the normal world they
have in person events, but they've also got live and
recorded webinars and courses on
demand. And they've also got, I think. And I checked into this
is their online resource library. I mean, they've got all
kinds of tools that startups can use and then also here in Ohio
we have a women's business center and they actually offer
various office services like coworking, office space and they
help with loan package preparation and mentoring. So
that's just in this area, so I'm certain that there are
counterparts around the nation. So if you just look into
mentoring. And then finally, I would probably just say
podcasts. I mean, I never would have thought you could
learn so much from podcasts, but for me, listening to
other peoples stories of success has been pretty
insightful. So there's this one podcast called How I
built this with, uh, with Inez and it's I mean Guy Raz
and It's RAZ. And it's an NPR podcast, so there he talks to
folks at Strava Chipotle.
There's a act one group in that that organization was founded by
a lady that went to my alma mater, North Carolina A&T. So
she was like one of the first.
Black billionaires in the US. And that's just a talent
management organization that she's developed. And then you've
got like the lip bar cosmetic company, Lyft, Yelp, and then,
of course, Bumble. So I mean, it's just great to hear about
how you know these other companies have started up until
needed. Yeah, absolutely thank you. That's a wealth of
information. Thank you so much Holly. And anything that you
would like to share.
That was really impressive.
And I wholly endorse the idea of getting involved with
professional associations. I mean, I know how important that
has been in for me in Mycareer, the Women's Bar Association, in
particular, when I was more junior attorney was both a
professional home, but also a place where I found friends and
people that I continue to talk to today. So I think for every
different person. It's it's maybe some different
professional Association. There's associations for women,
engineers for black engineers.
Really, honestly, like whatever area you're in. Dara mentioned
the intellectual property associations which have women
and diversity subsets of them.
I think universities can be great places if you're at that
stage in your life. the Institute for Women's Health
Research did a paper where they covered the the best practices
programs. So a number of different universities and this
of course, is is more in person. But I think many of them have
online components now. But women's entrepreneurship
program. So University Florida.
University of Illinois. The Association for Women in Science
has a great entrepreneurship program, so their local inventor
club, if that, if that's your thing, I I think, you know, just
think of like what what kind of people would you like to hang
out? 'cause there there's likely organization for that.
Thank you very much. Thank you once again a wealth of
information and Suzanne. I'll ask you to also share.
Yeah, I so I don't know how much more I can add to that, but I
would say that I would look at places like the national Venture
Capital Association where they have a lot of draft contracts.
An investor, things you can learn how to do a pitch. I mean,
again, I find here in Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Bank,
First Republic Bank both offer introductions to investors. If
your client and also they can hook you up with some resources.
About what loans are available, all of those types of things. So
try to be also a little bit unconventional and who you're
going to and asking for help. I also know that a lot of alumni
associations at universities, whether undergrad or grad, offer
again a lot of networking groups and places to showcase what
you've learned or even hear about what other people are
doing. So try to think a little bit out of the box.
Absolutely, absolutely great advice and I'll just say from
the from the side of the USPTO, we have events such as this, the
Women's Symposium, where normally is on our headquarter
campus. But also, you know, even in this virtual environment,
sharing into chat, giving information to each other a lot
comes out of coming to events like this or the USPTO. Also,
yearly puts an invention con where we bring entrepreneurs.
VC's attorneys in to discuss innovation. And
growing your invention and growing your ideas and from each
other. It's absolutely amazing. The ideas that come out from the
people who come to get more information and they they are so
willing to share. So attending events like this I think is as a
huge step also.
So we do have another question along the line of resources and
the question is as a finance professional. Alot of my clients
are women and minority owned businesses for the one set
express ideas around launching an invention or solution. Do you
have suggestions as to next best steps to take for them?
And maybe Suzanne if you don't mind starting.
Yeah, so I think the first thing you have to decide is whether or
not you can have intellectual property protection. That's
first and foremost. You know whether you get a patent or
trademark or have a trade secret. These are all forms of
competitive advantage and you need to understand whether
that's something that will work with your invention or not. The
second thing I would try to do is figure out.
You know, is this a?
A little idea? Or is this a big idea? Is it worth a dollar? Is
it worth $1,000,000? I mean if I were to go to dinner with an
invention, the first thing she's wanting to want to know it is
like, how important is it right? Is it is this something that's
going to work for all people? There isn't going to work for
like 5 people, right? So we need some sort of scale option or
scaling or scope or an understanding of what is this
gonna do? And is it enough to make whole business around it or
is it just one incremental idea
that maybe is? Interesting, but you couldn't start a
whole business around, so you know there's just a few quick
and dirty ideas. No, thank you. Thank you, Holly.
Well, I think Suzanne is the real expert on this and
appreciate her thoughts. I would encourage people to recognize
that even though legal help for protecting your intellectual
property can be very expensive, there are pro bono resources
available for that Valentia. I know the USPTO has a strong
program, many law school,
actually. Help uh clinics that can help with this, but but I
can't reiterate enough how important that East of it is
because we we know how key that intellectual property can be for
the later success of the business in terms of garnering
venture capital in terms of there, there's a reason that's
been done that shows that.
Five years later, a start of the had a patent or patents on
average, has 16 more employees than startups that didn't have a
patent, so would very much encouraged people to to protect
that intellectual property.
Thank you and Eric from from the point of view,
from the corporate side, do you have any advice?
This is going to say because I don't have much experience from
the entrepreneurial aspect of it, but as a corporate attorney
I know we are approached with requests for consideration of
ideas all the time. But what is critical for us is that that
person has protected their idea because, you know, we we as a
larger entity do not want to be accused of having stolen idea.
So it really helps if it's already memorialized in some
type of intellectual property.
And then we can evaluate. Is that something that to Suzanne's
point is worth? You know our time is it? Is it something that
we've seen a consumer indicate interest in and we haven't
necessarily put the work 4th but you have as the inventor? So
having that IP base is a gives us a really good running start
to have a conversation, because maybe your I mean, maybe you are
an entrepreneur that invents, maybe you don't produce. Maybe
you just license and get rich.
That way.
Absolutely thank you. So we did have another question that came
in. The question is do you know about University programs that
have programs to support women with a startup program or as
business accelerators? And and maybe you know beyond 'cause
University programs do have it. But if you know of any other
programs as well, it's it's. It's beyond universities, we
have federal government programs. We have a we have
corporations that have them private owners. So if you have.
Any information and start with Holly on on these types of
programs will Blench if we should definitely put in the
resources. This report by the Institute for Women's Policy
Research because they do cover, I think it's about 8:00 or so.
Best practice program, and I think these are just the kinds
of programs that the person asking the question is looking
for. I am not aware.
One resource that has all these programs together, but I do
think I am aware of these programs at Florida, University
of Illinois and the Association for Women in Science as as at
least a starting point.
Absolutely. And Suzanne anything to share on this point? Yeah,
actually corporations are doing more and more and more, so
Comcast is a great example of that. They have actually an
accelerator where you can apply to be apart of it. It's like a
three month program. You come in and you. They provide you some
resources and look about what to do with your invention. You
don't have to do it can have nothing to do with Comcast
business business, but they're just all good ideas.
They will actually have Comcast executives come in mentor. Many
of the people in the program. Some of the technologies do
apply to Comcast business and that might pick that up. Maybe
they don't, I'm not sure, so I think more and more companies
are beginning to realize the value of helping to build that
entrepreneurial community in their locations. And there also
networking together so Comcast can also point you too.
10 or 12 other places in other locations of companies who are
doing similar types of things.
And also on the plug for the military, Naval X is an example.
A lot of the military or now creating innovation funds to
help find technologies that can be utilized within the military
to scale up faster. So those are other sources that may not be on
peoples radars. Thank you, thank you and Eric sure. So I
did mention the small Business development center that's
based in KU here in the Urban League, and I'm pretty sure
that's not limited to that University, so I would
probably give that at Google to see where else it exists.
But here in Cincinnati too.
Holly's point, you know we have a organization called Centrafuse
and it's a 501C3 partnership that has been established to
help build sustainable tech based economies here in the
area. So you've got folks there serving as advocates for
entrepreneurs in the high growth tech space and those startups an
like. Suzanne mentioned, we've got a number of big companies
and P&G is one of them. Partnering with universities and
private investors and other
startups. Trying to make Cincinnati like a technology
hub, so I would probably, you know, check out Sentra fuse
to see if there is a similar model in your area, because
even though we'd like since Eddie to be the hub in the
Midwest for a technology, I'm sure there are other areas.
Yeah, thank you so some that I have heard of. I know NYU has a
program for startups so they have a great program that is
open actually to to anyone. There's some universities like
Virginia Tech and there's others where it's it's more surrounded
around their students and but their programs that you can
certainly go onto their web pages and take a look at to help
get ideas from also government.
Agencies like NSF has an amazing program for startups and getting
getting the right, the right start and moving on to grants.
And of course there's the Small Business Administration that has
grant programs as well as the minority business administration
that can help gear you in the right direction. So there are
actually many out there that can help, but you, all of you have
given a great.
Great information for our participants, so I had a series
we have about 6 minutes left. I had a series of questions that I
wanted to ask, but the questions that have been coming in are
just so fantastic I think I'll I'll. I'll ask another of those
of the entire panel. It's what is the one thing that helped you
achieve your leadership role that you would suggest to others
to follow an for young women just starting in the corporate
world. And if we could start with Suzanne.
Wow, that's actually kind of difficult.
Like there is this your nightmare, right?
Honestly, you have to believe in yourself. You have to believe
that your ideas are valuable in your idea should be heard and.
I can say that while I don't always understand, or you know.
I see when it when someone doesn't have that quality right?
I went to Graduate School and when we were all interviewing
for jobs, how I was treated versus some of my other women.
Colleagues were wildly different, right? They got all
sorts of questions that they shouldn't have gotten. You know
things that were not at all HR appropriate Ann. I didn't have
any of that and I think it's just that I came in with the I'm
going to do this. I'm going to be successful and I know that.
Sounds silly, but it makes a big difference for you to
project that face to the world, and it's important to
believe it. And even if you don't believe it then fake it
till you make it but.
Have to you have to project that error becomes really important.
Absolutely agree completely Allie. Do you have anything
to add well?
Second dad, but also I think some concepts related to
perseverance and grit Grid is sort of in Word these days, but
just just the idea that you're going to get up every day and
you're gonna keep trying an part of that does involve trying to
tune out all of the negative messages that one might get.
Wendy, of course. You have to listen to 'cause you could learn
something valuable from feedback, but unfortunately a
lot of feedback, particularly for women. People of color,
younger people, you know people who maybe didn't come from the
elite parts of society or our education system. There there
are things you want to do in and out, and you need to believe in
your. Self and persevere and keep trying. Even though
things are hard, it's it's the long game. This is
absolutely the long game.
Derek sure honestly. I have to piggyback on what Holly said. I
for me. I think it's been my ability to take constructive
feedback in process it and improve upon it. I've seen a
number of people in my field that are not receptive to
feedback and they don't go far, or if they yeah, they don't go
far. They may stay around, but they don't go far. So I think
being open and I think pairing that with humility, like being
able to hear that and say, OK, I need to pivot and do something
different to achieve. You know what the client wants or what
the business needs that has gone along way for me. And then I
think it also helps that people see that in you. And when I say
people, not necessarily the people above you, but the people
below you because then that makes it OK for them to accept
the feedback that you're giving them, because again, you're
investing in them. It's a gift and they should take that with
all the seriousness that you're
delivering it so. That's cool, thank you. I would just a share
from my own side of one of the things that we've already talked
about that was really crucial for me in Mycareer was mentor
ship and and really putting yourself out there to others.
You know it's not always had to be someone's going to come to
you and want to cradle you and tell you what to do. You have to
put yourself out. You have to build your network an for me
there are two.
Tune strong mentors in Mycareer won an African American woman
who mentored me that I could completely relate to and she can
relate to what I was going through. An I found that just
the advice she gave me amazing, but the other is a man about 30
years older than me that I had absolutely nothing in common
with. But hearing his perspective on things.
An understanding a different point of view I found to be, you
know, also very crucial as part of Mycareer. So you know, just
as as this panel has said. Really look to the people around
you and and and absorb it all and put yourself out there. You
know just you.
Mic is not going to get you there.
And be it, it's OK to make mistakes at times, as long as
you're learning from those mistakes and growing. So I am
going to. I know we're at the very end, but I'm going to ask
of each of our panelists. Might just have one thing to
leave our participants with on this topic about.
The careers in the time and working and what have you seen
the progress that's really stuck to you? And, really.
He felt strongly about in your career over the last few years
about women in this field where we're going, what's what's
really resonated with you, and if we can start with Suzanne.
You know, I think the most important thing is don't be
afraid of failure. I mean, if you haven't failed, you haven't
tried hard enough honestly, and you know, I'm in Silicon Valley
and investors won't fund someone
who hasn't failed. Because then you don't know what to
do. Alright, if that's your biggest fear, then you're
never going to push it hard enough to actually fail. And
frankly, as an inventor, you're going to fail. You'll
probably fail multiple times half the time. It won't even
be your fault, so you just need to learn how to adapt and
keep moving. And you know 'cause it's going to happen,
so don't be afraid of that. Wear it as a badge of honor.
Thank you Ann Holly.
Well, thanks so much Valentia for for having me.
I do want to say that this has really been. I'm in the history
of our country where there's a bunch more focus on race and
gender, and I think we have to take that as an opportunity. One
thing I am heartened about is that even though we feel like
maybe there are many partisan battles that are being fought in
our country, this is an issue that I've seen members of
Congress from all parts.
Come together and say that this is an important problem to
solve, so the Congress passed the Success Act. The USPTO did
tremendous research on these issues that led to the creation
of the National Council for expanding American Innovation,
which is going to be putting out national strategy. An report in
June. the Congress is working on
new legislation. Called the Idea Act and I would encourage
everybody to take a look. We've got that on our website at
inventtogether.org. Learn about that support that legislation
that will drive even more attention and knowledge to both
understanding the patent gaps than what the problems are, but
also the solution. And so I mean, I am excited because
there's a focus on these
Issues, and I think there's real interest in trying to make
progress. Thank you and Dara. I will give you the last word.
I honestly I would say women still need to keep entering the
stem field for some reason. There's scarcity. I don't know
how that is after 20 years ago, when I thought we were making
headway, but I think we need to just keep on pressing and I
think offering up practical but bold solutions on the various
problems that we're encountering because we're always skilled at
wearing multiple hats. So let's let's wear those bold practical
solution hats, and then just reiterating what Suzanne said.
Just don't be afraid to try.
Anan fail get out of your own head. Yes, thank you to
our Panelists. You've done just what yet. Again, I've had
such an amazing conversation with you all and learn so
much so thank you so much for giving us your time and
I will give it back to Sean.