Entrepreneur sought out advice from Legal Advantage's CEO Mirza Baig on the topic of pursuing leads, the importance of personal connections, and putting yourself in the position of the prospect. "Time is of the essence, no matter what business you're in, people appreciate responsiveness. If we don't follow up within one or two hours, there's a good chance we won't close the prospect."  The article highlights why every brand needs to embrace the phone call, and why emails are great for scheduling, not for closing deals. 

Read it here

As way of introducing myself for future posts, let me tell you about how I got here to be a Senior Patent Analyst at Legal Advantage.

My educational background is in the life sciences; more particularly, I graduated with an undergraduate degree in Cellular/Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Maryland in 1999. Soon after, I began working at an upstart biotechnology company; Celera Genomics, located in Rockville, MD. I was a research associate in the DNA sequencing team, where I worked along the sequencing pipeline. Although I started in one lab, I quickly learned the rest of the pipeline and made myself an invaluable researcher; able to step in anywhere to help. At Celera, I helped in the sequencing of mouse, dog, and most importantly, the human genome. This was a monumental feat, and something I am proud of to this day.

Here is something different; a departure from the day-to-day, utilitarian concerns of intellectual property protection. The German artists Julius von Bismarck & Benjamin Maus have recognized the world's 7 million patent applications and 22 million interconnecting prior art references as a rich tapestry from which to pluck complex stories from the collective id. Not only this, but they have invented and constructed a machine to illustrate such never ending stories, one patent illustration at a time. They call this 'the Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus'.

In the FY2011 budget announcement last week, the Obama Administration proposed a program to bring to market some of the over one million patents held by Universities and Colleges. Called IMPACT- Innovation Model Program For Accelerating The Commercialization of Technologies- a vast majority of these one million patents are driven by $50 billion in Federal research dollars. Only a limited number of start ups (estimated at 550 in 2007) are spun off from this treasure trove of Intellectual Property. Recognizing this vast challenge and opportunity, the Administration and University of Southern California Provost Krisztina “Z” Holly proposes an ambitious new project.

The goal of the program is to stimulate innovation, create jobs and utilize these great assets held by our universities and colleges. These intellectual property assets are federally funded to the tune of easily over $50 billion per year.