如何保护您的创新+支持妇女与Angela Freeman的女性和Hi Tech

“我不知道专利法的存在。我只是没有暴露。所以，我真的相信曝光是至关重要的。”—安吉拉·弗里曼是巴恩斯&桑伯格有限责任公司的知识产权合伙人，也是妇女与高科技公司的总裁

为什么故事对创新过程有关？分享故事的创新者可以灌输哪些值？创新领导者如何激发创作者告诉和分享他们的成功和失败故事？

Angela Freeman是一个知识产权助理巴恩斯桑伯格有限责任公司和主席女性与高科技. 安吉拉承认，在她作为一名分子生物学家的职业生涯中，很多年她就知道了什么是专利律师礼来. 她的科学背景帮助发明家保护他们的发明，确定专利是否是组织的正确途径。对安吉拉来说，知识就是力量。这就是为什么授权年轻女孩参与STEM是她的激情项目。她说：“你不能成为你看不见的人。”

听播客

成绩单

这一集是由WordsMith提供的：繁忙专业人士的在线写作课程。专业人士花费40％的工作日写作。WordsMith赋予您更有效地写作以获得更大的影响和影响。通过现实世界的案例故事，从Untold的工作与全球的创新组织以及25个可下载的作弊表一起使用，您可以随身携带，以增加您的写作和讲故事的信心。了解更多https://undoldcontent.com/wordsmith//。

Katie[00:00:04]欢迎来到创新的未解故事，在那里我们扩大了洞察力，影响和创新的解开故事。由未结块内容提供支持。乐动体育足球我是你的主人，Katie Trauth Taylor。我们的客人今天是Angela Freeman。她是Barnes和Thornburg的知识产权助理，她是妇女硕士学位。安吉拉，谢谢你在播客。

安吉拉[00:00:30]谢谢你邀请我。我很感激。

Katie[00:00:33]告诉我们，成为一个知识产权助理和你与之合作的客户的意义。

安吉拉[00:00:39]当然。所以我是一个知识产权，就像你提到的那样。有几种味道。我是一名专利律师。您也可以是商标律师或版权律师。我很欣赏成为一名专利律师，因为它是唯一的法律领域，要求您有科学和技术背景 - 某种类型的工程，艰难科学。我很欣赏。这可能是法律最具挑战性领域之一。这是大多数律师会告诉你他们不喜欢这样做的，因为它涉及数学和科学。你知道，典型的律师会远离数学和科学。 That’s why they go into the practice of law. So we are the kind of rare creatures in the legal field that, you know, have—some people’ say— are able to use both sides of our brain. And I enjoy that. I enjoy being in what I think to be an elite class of legal scholars and practitioners. That’s exciting to me because it completely capitalizes on my background. So it’s been an interesting journey.

Katie[00:01:55]你持有什么科学背景？

安吉拉[00:01:59]所以我是通过训练的分子生物学家。乐动体育266我收到了B.A.在生物学和化学中，在路易斯维尔大学的硕士学位，然后去了Eli Lilly，因为我的第一名大工作，并是一名研究科学家和临床科学家，在十年内学习遗传学，约十二，13年。那太棒了。我绝对喜欢它。喜欢它的一切。喜欢在实验室里。喜欢我的同事。曾经是一个伟大的职业生涯，让我遍布世界。我参加了各种不同的科学会议，你知道，展示了我的研究和解释。 And it was awesome. But just got to a point in my career where I wanted a little something different. You know, getting a little older and looking at the future and realizing, you know, OK, this has been great, but I don’t know if this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. You know?

Katie[00:03:07]是的。

安吉拉[00:03:08]并开始调查，好的，还有什么？那里还有什么？你还做些什么？并发生在专利法领域。I didn’t know anything about lawyers, didn’t have any lawyers in my family, weren’t really exposed to lawyers and certainly not African American lawyers and just didn’t have a clue that that kind of law or practice of law existed. And a female attorney at Lilly—she was one of the highest positions in the field said “Angela, if you ever wanna study law. You got to practice law. Go talk to the patent attorney.” And I’m like “What is that? That’s a thing? Like that’s a real thing?” So kind of chased that path and realized that there was this whole practice of law that kind of capitalized on the whole background I’d had as a molecular biologist and scientist. And I love it. You know, I loved every bit about being able to use that knowledge and experience to translate into a different profession and a different career.

Katie[00:04:19]是的，我打赌，这准备了你真的看到真正的等式的两侧。所以从 -

安吉拉[00:04:27] That’s exactly right.

Katie[00:04:29]是的。

安吉拉[00:04:29]这就是它的感受。你知道，我在研发，研发，制作，制作这些东西和新发明。而现在我是在另一端，那种，创新管道，我在那里帮助我的客户可以保护那些正在制作的创新。而且这是我在生命科学，生物技术，食品，农业的实践领域，你知道，然后是生物技术制药。所以这是令人兴奋的。它确实是我以前的生活和经验的应用。人们问我，你后悔你早先做过吗？我说，根本没有。我不知道我能够在没有所有多年的经验，而不仅仅是，你知道，还要学习，但实际上是在实验室，看到创新如何发生。你知道，管道和研发，药物开发，临床试验，所有这些事情都在乐器上工作。 I mean, I’ve worked on a couple patent applications where I’m like, I did that experiment. You know, I ran that machine. I know exactly what they’re talking about.

Katie[00:05:42]是的。你能以如此强大的方式将这两条路融合在一起，真是太美了。你能和我们分享一下你最近在申请专利方面的一些产品或方法吗？

安吉拉[00:05:56]嗯，这一切都基于客户，吧？和我的客户。而我的客户是多元化的。因此，他们确实培养了从技术保护食物，我们每天吃的食物的新鲜度，以及治疗各种疾病或研究诊断工具的方法，我们将在实验室中使用的设备，不同类型的工具您将在研究中使用的技术。所以，这是一切的一切。它只是取决于客户，无论它们都在发明的内容，在那种生物技术的研究空间中，然后分支成不同类型的更多工业技术。所以这是一个真正有趣的一件事。它总是不同的，对吧？你永远不会，有点，知道什么是派徒，你会在日常工作的是什么，因为它是所有不同的东西。 And that’s fun to me.

Katie[00:06:58]你知道，知识产权是如此核心创新，你知道，创新团队。It doesn’t matter if you’re a startup or if you’re working in a large corporation, in an innovation team or in research and development, you’re always having to question whether the innovation is, you know, if it’s able to be patented, if it’s able to be protected or copyrighted, whether one should or not.

安吉拉[00:07:24]对。

Katie[00:07:25]所以把我们带到一点点。假设我们的一些听众了解了很多关于这个过程，并假设其他侦听器可能不知道这个过程。所以告诉我们，在它的核心，您如何决定是否能够从知识产权的角度受到保护？

安吉拉[00:07:45]是的。所以让我重新解释一下这个问题，因为我们的工作不是决定它是否能得到保护。那是专利局的工作。但我们的工作是确保客户有最好的机会来保护这项发明，我认为真正的问题是，如何才能做到最好？因为如果你有任何一种你正在创造或生产的有价值的资产，无论你是大公司还是小公司或实体，如果它有任何实际的经济价值，它都会，你知道，被侵犯，拿走，偷走。所以问题是，通常，尤其是对小公司来说，你计划从产品中获得的收入是否值得你为获得法律保护而付出代价？而且，产品周期的长期性是否证明了通常为产品申请专利所需的时间是合理的？

Katie[00:09:10]那是多久了？

安吉拉[00:09:12]是的。这通常是我对客户的谈话，因为它通常是教育过程。我们这样做的原因是因为它是您必须知道的法律代码的整个不同的部分。通常 - 再次，现在我在生命科学。Remember—biotech—for different technical fields, the patent cycle to actually get issue made patents may take a little shorter or longer, depending on what you’re in. You know, typically I tell clients about two to three years, two to five years maybe.

Katie[00:09:50]是的。

安吉拉[00:09:50]但它需要很少的时间。我的意思是，这不是你只是什么，哦，我有一个美好的主意，并认为你明年要获得专利的专利。但是当您在文件中获取申请，专利申请，寻求保护，法律保护，联邦保护，您就可以在您所在的产品中向您所在的产品提出专利挂布，您正在进行中获得专利。不是今天有专利，但你在那个过程中。所以，你知道，为人们营销通知。当您正在考虑与投资者交谈时，通常具有显着的价值和重要性。但是你知道，假设有关于这个过程的不同信息级别。通常存在。One of the biggest things I would implore to any of your listeners who are entrepreneurs looking to, you know, start a business on a product that they’re generating or making, you know, they’re taking it to market is please, please look and at least consider whether patenting is a process that you need to protect your product. Sometimes it’s better just to keep however you make it a secret. It’s called a trade secret. Right? You keep a secret. You protect it. Make sure only certain people have access to it. Certainly that’s less expensive. But the difference is when you patent something, you’re kind of trading off that time frame. Right. If you get a patent, it’s worth—it’s good for 20 years. You have, kind of, exclusive protection for 20 years. Whereas with a trade secret, you—it’s good as long as it’s secret. But if anybody figures it out, your protect (word unclear), period. So, you know, there are considerations that any entrepreneur, person who’s being innovative, inventing things, should consider about protection before the rush to go to market. Too many times I see young entrepreneurs especially just rush to market. Right. And there is a disclosure that occurs there that can prevent you from patenting it if it’s not done within a certain timeframe. So there are considerations, you know, to get in that process.

Katie[00:12:24]我真的很高兴你提到这一点，因为，你知道，企业创新团队和经营研发业务的大公司，这是众所周知的流程。几十年来，他们一直在为新发明申请专利。而对于初创企业来说，这对许多初创企业的创始人来说是如此不同，这对他们来说是一个需要理解的新领域。我特别想到你已经提到的那种紧张关系，既需要知识产权保护，也需要投资者能够落后，在理想的情况下，在7年左右的时间内获得回报。因此，如果获得专利的过程需要三到五年，但你真的只有，你知道，五到十年的时间来建立公司，并退出以回报投资者。你能分享一下你对创业公司如何平衡这一等式的看法吗？

安吉拉[00:13:24]是的,这是一个挑战。I mean, it’s challenging. I give my hats off to all the young entrepreneurs. Young and old. I keep saying young because I’m dealing with a lot of, you know, young entrepreneurs who are just going after it. And it is so impressive. But it’s challenging. It’s challenging to, you know—particularly pursuing a patent is not inexpensive. So it’s time consuming, it’s expensive and is not scheduled. It’s not on any kind of routine schedule, where a young entrepreneur or young business can even budget for. I’ve had clients ask me, give me a budget. You know, tell me how much I need to plan for, for this year and next year. And I do that. But it could be right or it could be absolutely wrong. Just depending on the patent office and those kind of things. So it is challenging for entrepreneurs. But again—and that’s a real consideration is whether you spend the money. And again, I say it’s expensive, but it’s all over the course of those two to five years. Right. It’s not all at once or any bulk. But again, I appreciate that for, you know, a young business that’s trying to get its grips or, you know, even seek investor dollars. It can be challenging to, kind of, predict what those expenses look like and what considerations. But it is possible. And I think my best advice would be to seek some counsel early. You know, I mean, at least go talk to someone, legal counsel, about whether, you know, that’s necessary. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes the best protection, like I said, is just keeping it secret, particularly—and not all the time, so this is not. Ain’t none of this is legal advice. But it’s certainly worth considering that, you know, for software when things change so fast. Right. You know, you’re already onto the next iteration, the next validation, whatever it is— that sometimes it’s better to just keep it to yourself and do it and make those iterations. But it’s worth seeking counsel? You know, what does concern me and I’m seeing as trends is all these entrepreneurs that are jumping into business without necessarily having, you know, good legal counsel, which you need for things like this. You know, just to—do I need to worry about, you know, trademark? Do I need to get a trademark? You know, is it worth getting a trademark? And some of the balances, I mean, of the good and the bad. The pros and cons. There are plenty of clients who I say, go file the paperwork to start. Like you can do that. You know, I’ve had clients—they’ve gotten their own trademark. Like, it just depends on everyone’s needs. But having a good attorney you can trust, particularly in business, small business. You mentioned these companies and you’re absolutely right. These large companies, they’ve been doing this for years. They know the players. They know the industry. But when you’re a startup, how do you jump into that? You’ve got this great idea but how do you know? And oftentimes it’s as easy as trying to at least get some type of search on your product. It’s not always the right answer just to run and get—go file a patent application. Sometimes it’s better to just see what’s out there and see if you would even be able to get a patent before you spend the time and money trying to pursue it. Maybe somebody in Europe or, you know, in Texas has already invented that. You just don’t know. So once again, all considerations. Right. I mean, and that’s kind of what it is. What works for you and your business? What makes you comfortable? That’s how you proceed.

Katie[00:17:34]是的。它似乎也依赖于行业，当然也是由商业规模的。所以让我们转移一点。非常感谢你，因为我知道这真的很重要。这些都是创新社区的重要考虑因素。让我们稍微转动齿轮。我想了解更多关于您的女性兼高科技总统的信息。所以。

安吉拉[00:17:57]哦，我的善良。

Katie[00:17:58]所以，告诉我更多关于这个组织的信息。

安吉拉[00:18:01]哦，我的善良。所以这就是我所说的 - 我想我刚刚在这一刻创作了这个，但我的激情项目。像女性和高科技真的是一个组织。我不知道我对任何事情感到充满热情。这是一个20年前在印第安纳波利斯成立的组织，由一位女科学家和莉莉的女性一位女性科学家在印第安纳波利斯。所以露丝在莉莉和一个女学术在IU。同样，20年前，只是围绕着妇女在科学的妇女的重点。当时，它是 - 然后尚未创造出来。正确的。所以这是女性和高科技，他们定义了这些行业的内容，但现在他们是我们认为的词干：]科学，技术，工程和数学。 And just really began as a support organization around women and, you know, realizing that there are so few women, right, in these areas. And how do we promote more and make sure there are more of us? And it literally, over the course of the last 20 years, has become, you know, the same organization but much bigger. I mean, I’ve been involved for six years now and the amount the organization and the activities and the programs and the outreach that we are doing just now for when I started it, it’s just amazing. I mean, we focus on women in STEM from K-through-12, collegiate, and professional. We have STEM days. That’s an event that we’ve been doing for like the last eight years. It’s basically a STEM day for the public to come out and just see various facets of them and get them exposed and inspired about what the cool way STEM can manifest itself in our lives. So we do that. We give college scholarships out to collegiate women. Last year was our 20th anniversary, so we had a 20th anniversary event. We planned to give out twenty thousand dollars’ worth of scholarships, and we gave out thirty thousand. It was awesome. 17 young women from many universities, different girls around the whole state. It was just awesome. So this year is our leading light awards, which is coming October 1st. We’re going to do the same thing. It’s the 20th anniversary of our first leading light award, which happened in 2000. So we’re going to give another twenty thousand dollars of scholarships away. We’re super excited. And it’s just a fantastic organization that just does good stuff to not just promote girls and women, but now we have a particular focus on diversity and equity and inclusion of all girls and all women and just make them have the opportunities to be exposed to STEM, to know that they can excel and advance in STEM, that you can be independent and just build that confidence in young girls so that the next generation of women in science, technology, engineering and math, you know, don’t face some of the same obstacles that me and my generation have. That’s all you can do, right, is try to instill and invest in the next generation. So that’s what Women & Hi Tech is all about. I’ve been blessed to be the president this year. And it’s just been amazing. I mean, I just remain, you know, just in awe at passionate my board is, my colleagues. We’re an all-volunteer working board of directors. And I had a partner a few years ago who was also the president of Women & Hi Tech. She’s who got me involved. And she used to say that we’re an all-volunteer working broad. And I never understood what that meant until I got involved. And I’m like, oh, yeah, you know, like work.

Katie[00:22:11]是的。

安吉拉[00:22:11]我们工作。我们没有员工。但是，人，我的意思是，我们被激情推动，我们举办了很棒的事件。你知道，我们为我们所做的事情和受影响的人感到兴奋。你知道，我们只是在这个城市获得越来越多的影响。我们刚刚为印第安纳波利斯的所有女孩干学校留下了筹款人。肯定的第一个在国家之一，也许甚至是国家。而且，你知道，我们非常兴奋。我们很高兴与那项倡议一起参与，以及印第安纳州中部的女孩童子军。每个女孩都可以栓。 So, you know, it’s just like the real momentum around women in STEM. And, you know, International Women’s Day and, you know, just all these things that are kind of really culminating. And diversity, equity, and inclusion. That has all kind of been culminated into our mission. It’s just a good time for the organization right now. We’re celebrating a couple of awards and some of our board members are being recognized for their expertise in leadership in the community. And we’re doing good work, you know, affecting real change, real people. And I’m excited to be involved with this.

Katie[00:23:33]我热爱组织的使命。从你的一些社交媒体工作中可以明显看出，讲故事和分享故事在你如何互动、如何授权和鼓励方面起着重要作用，尤其是，年轻女性进入STEM领域，成熟的职业女性能够将自己视为导师，并在职业生涯中不断成长的过程中继续寻找导师。这是如此重要的工作。

安吉拉[00:24:01]是的，这很重要。而且，你知道，这是授权。你看，你知道，在这些干天和这些女孩，你知道我们有一个活动叫做点燃你的超能力与印第妇女在科技和康纳草原。这是专门为我们学校里的不同类型的女孩准备的，你知道，如果不是这样的话，她们可能没有机会接触到她们，而这种接触方式可能会真正鼓励她们，激发她们，或者引起她们的兴趣。太棒了。我的意思是，这只是一个极好的一天，一个极好的机会。800个年轻女孩中的一些人真的有机会，否则他们不会有。通常在大学校园举行。所以他们接触到了校园生活以及校园生活的样子。我们可以和学生交谈，让他们知道你也可以来学校。还有，你知道，所有这些。这只是一个继续建设未来的好机会。这些将是年轻的女孩谁，你知道，是下一代。所以对他们进行投资并提供榜样是令人兴奋的，因为，再一次，我告诉过你，我不知道专利法的存在。我只是没有暴露。所以我真的相信曝光是至关重要的。你不能成为你看不见的人。你知道的，很难想象如果你不接触它们会是什么样子。所以我们试着定期这样做。

Katie[00:25:34]如果您也受到这次谈话的启发，您肯定可以签出所有社交媒体渠道，女性和高科技。那是我可以关注LinkedIn的Angela Freeman，以及Barnes和Thornburg，它是Twitter上的@btlawnews和其他社交媒体账户。和安吉拉，我非常感谢谈话。非常感谢您在播客。

安吉拉[00:25:59] Oh, thank you so much for having me. It’s been great talking with you. I hope there was some value in this, but I certainly appreciate you giving me an opportunity of seeing. It’s been great speaking with you.

Katie[00:26:09]谢谢。感谢您在本周的剧集中听。请务必在社交媒体上关注我们，并将您的声音添加到谈话中。您可以在未销售内容中找到我们。乐动体育足球

You can listen to more episodes ofld体育下载 。

*访谈不是个人或企业的认可。