Panel offers tips on protecting ideas- Experts say companies’ futures at stake

Protecting intellectual property is critical to a company´s future,
business leaders were told during a panel discussion Friday.

The program, which featured a panel of experts discussing intellectual
property issues, was sponsored by the Boise law firm Hawley Troxell
Ennis & Hawley.

In fact, not setting up protections can result in no future at all, said panelist Jim Hawkins, a
founder of Highway 12 venture capital firm in Boise.

“When you come to Highway 12 seeking funding, we want to know if you can protect your
knowledge or product,” said Hawkins. “We want to know who owns the copyrights or patents
on your knowledge.”

Hawkins said Highway 12 rejected a request to fund one local company because an individual
owned the patents and wouldn´t sign them over to the company.

“Ownership of the patents is critical, and it can´t go into the hands of a person who can walk
away and take it with them,” Hawkins said.

Start-up companies need to investigate their ownership of intellectual property before
pursuing venture capital, he said.

“When you come to a VC firm, you´ll need to respond to these issues,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins joined three other panelists: former Hewlett-Packard Co. vice president and general
manager Neal Martini, Seattle patent attorney Larry Graham and Hawley Troxell attorney Ken
Howell.

HP frequently deals with patent infringement issues, said Martini, who headed HP´s laserjet
business printing division until retiring last year.

“HP asks its engineers to keep notebooks and to use them to jot all their sketches, the type of
thing that would normally get thrown away,” Martini said. “At the end of a project, the
notebooks are collected and archived. You´d be surprised how often they end up being used
in patent infringement cases.”

By aggressively pursuing patents — with about 5,000 issued to the company last year — HP
not only keeps competitors at bay, but also can avoid licensing fees and lawsuits if others
patent the process first.

“What happens when a small company files a claim? If it was a valid claim, we would negotiate
a fair price to buy the patent — in many cases, we´d buy the company,” said Martini.

There are four basic ways of protecting intellectual property: copyrights, trade secrets,
trademarks and patents.

Copyrights and trademarks are easy to obtain. Original work is automatically considered the
property of the author, unless the work was conducted for an employer or under contract that
specifically said the work would belong to the hiring party. Howell said authors no longer need
to even put a copyright symbol on their work for it to be copyrighted, but said doing so serves
notice to the world that the work is protected.

Trademarks, however, should be registered to keep others from using the symbol in other
geographic regions and to protect one´s own territory, said panelist Graham.

“If another company in another area started using the same trademark and went national with
it, you might find yourself restricted to a very limited geographical area where you could use
yours,” said Graham.

Panelists agreed that when in doubt, companies should seek protection for intellectual
property.

“How broad a patent should you apply for? Your approach should be as broad as possible,
encompassing as broad a concept as you can and then start filling in the cracks around it,”
said Martini.

To offer story ideas or comments, contact Julie Howard
[email protected] or 373-6618

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