Inspiring Innovative Entrepreneurswww.theventureforum.org

September 2013

“Visions of Growth” was the theme for the new season’s first meeting of the newly revamped Venture Forum in Clark University’s Higgins University Center. Addressing a packed hall full of students, entrepreneurs, and other business professionals, Clark’s Dean of the Graduate School of Management Dr. Catherine Usoff opened the meeting by urging entrepreneurs and members of the region’s vibrant technology business sector to take advantage of Clark’s growing business resources, noting that “we have the interest and enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.”

Former Massachusetts lieutenant governor and current president of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce Tim Murray delivered the keynote address, providing his insights into the region’s strengths, depth of economic and academic resources, and room for economic growth. Murray mentioned the importance of mentoring and the need to build strong academic, economic, and political relationships.

Murray challenged students to actively seek out mentors “while you’re in school, to build those vital business contacts and networks,” while telling entrepreneurs that “it’s worth being in business

only if you bring good people along with you.” He cited the region’s incredible breadth of resources, entrepreneurial spirit, and sense of cooperation between the public and private sector as a major source of value to the country and even the world.

“We would have our own unique national and even international identity if you plunked Central Massachusetts down in any part of the country because of the incredible set of assets we possess,” said Murray. He pointed out that the Chamber’s mission is to seek out and convince businesses throughout the country to relocate here for the economic advantage and valuable technological workforce available.

Murray’s address was followed by the evening’s case study of Cambridge-based online private coaching marketplace CoachUp.com, presented by CEO Jordan Fliegel. The startup matches amateur athletes nationwide with coaches to help them learn a sport or improve their abilities. Fliegel said the key to startup success is passion, finding the right partners, and limiting risk for investors.

Visions of Growth

AdvantageThe Venture Forum

The Venture Forum Kicks Off New Season at Clark UniversityBy Jim Schakenbach, BIGWORDS Content Development

TVF Executive CommitteeTVF Chair Mitch Sanders

TVF Past Chair Paul Danis

TVF Vice-Chair and Marketing Committee Chair Joe Vignaly

Clerk/Secretary and Sponsorship Committee Chair Dick Prince

Treasurer Rick Powell

Program Committee Chair Ed Leary

Membership Committee Co-Chairs Steve Munevar & Rick Koenig

Governance Chair John Ayers

Interim Director Gina Betti

Sponsors Bowditch & Dewey Boynton Angels Burns & Levinson Dingman IP Law ECI Biotech Fidelity Bank Friedman Suvalle & Salomon Goloboy CPA Greenberg, Rosenblatt, Kull & Bitsoli Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds Mass Ventures Mirick O’Connell Morgan Stanley Polachi Schuler Patent Law Agency WPI

www.theventureforum.org innovation@theventureforum.org

85 Prescott Street Worcester, MA 01605

The Venture Forum

Advantage

It is my pleasure and honor to serve as Chair of The Venture Forum. As you may already realize, The Venture Forum (TVF) spun out of WPI in 2012 as a non-profit dedicated to educating and inspiring

entrepreneurship through the Central Massachusetts region. Our entrepreneurial juices are flowing, and this year promises to demonstrate a renewed commitment for innovative programming and collaboration.

This year, members will experience an energetic series of monthly programs with a focus on collaboration and deepened relationships with the City of Worcester. We continue to reach out to the city’s colleges and universities to expand our presence and grow our membership. In addition to our traditional meetings at WPI, our events will be hosted by several local universities, and we began with Clark University in September. I would like to personally thank Amy A. Whitney, Associate Director Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at Clark University, for coordinating efforts to host our first program there. We have been in discussions with other universities, and welcome further interest.

Preparations for The Venture Forum Business Plan competition in November have been in high gear, and we are heartened by the volume of entries we received from companies ready to evaluate and strengthen their business plan.

We are also partnering with organizations that share our mission of growing successful businesses, such as the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Worcester Business Resource Alliance. Worcester is undergoing an amazing renaissance, thanks to the efforts of many, but leading the charge are the City Manager, Michael O’Brien, and former Mayor and Lieutenant Governor, Tim Murray. Mike and Tim stand out as leaders that have worked tirelessly throughout their careers to make Worcester a vibrant new city and a point of destination. Tim Murray’s new role as the CEO and President of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce brings his expertise and energy back home.

Tim helped us kick off a new and vibrant year with his upbeat keynote address at our September 10 meeting. I don’t think that we can thank him enough for his tremendous service to the Worcester community and the Commonwealth. I encourage you to attend a second Tuesday Venture Forum meeting. You’ll quickly learn that entrepreneurship is alive and well in Worcester.

Mitch Sanders, Ph.D. Chair, The Venture Forum

When a potential buyer or investor is interested in acquiring rights to

your company or its intellectual property (IP) assets, it will conduct an IP due diligence assessment to identify your material IP rights, assess their commercial value, and determine the potential risks associated with their acquisition. A potential buyer or investor will want to examine all information and documents that may be relevant to assessing the quality of your IP portfolio assets. Therefore, careful record keeping will be essential for maximizing the value of your IP assets and reducing the potential for delays during negotiations.

The professional conducting an IP due diligence will usually request a list of the relevant issued pat-ents, pending patent applications, invention disclosures and/or any related documents, both in the U.S. and abroad. He or she will also want a list of pending trademark applications, registered trade-marks, and common law trade-marks. Maintaining up-to-date lists and files for your patent and trade-mark portfolios will help expedite the due diligence process.

With regard to your patent rights, well-documented laboratory notebooks and invention records must be maintained. The quality of invention records can affect the validity and scope of your patents. Although the America Invents Act (AIA) has instituted a “first-inventor-to-file” system for U.S. patent applications filed on or after March 16, 2013, maintaining adequate records such as lab notebooks is crucial for a number of reasons:

• The previous “first-to-invent” system still applies for establishing the date of invention of patents filed prior to March 16, 2013. Therefore, any patent or patent application you filed before this date falls under the previous rules, and you may need to establish that the inventors listed on your patent invented the invention before others.

• Detailed and timely records help to establish the correct inventorship of your patent claims. This can be essential if a challenger tries to assert that another inventor has rights to the invention you are claiming.

• Careful records may establish prior public disclosure by an inventor, in order to disqualify certain references from being “prior art” to your patent claims. This is especially essential now, since under the AIA, new classes of references now qualify as prior art that would not have qualified in the past.

• Complete records can also ensure that you are adequately capturing all the IP assets being generated and that the relevant products and services are protected.

• Invention records can be used to establish a “prior user rights” defense to charges of patent infringement. Establishing prior user rights may allow you to avoid liability if you previously used the patented subject matter in the U.S., under certain circumstances established under the AIA.

• Careful record-keeping helps to ensure that all necessary documents are filed and all fees are paid on time, to avoid unintentional abandonment or expiration of IP assets.

• Detailed records help to establish credibility for the inventor and invention, and are often key to the “invention story” communicated to investors, attorneys, courts and juries.

Careful records are also necessary to establish crucial trademark dates of use and maintain trademark rights. These are but a few reasons for maintaining best practices in IP record keeping. Your IP professional can help you to develop specific guidelines for your record-keeping in order to maximize and maintain the value of your intellectual property.

Ask This Key Question About Your Intellectual Property Portfolio:

Am I Keeping Adequate Records?By Deirdre E. Sanders and Judith D. Kuntz, Ph.D.

Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds is a full-service intellectual property law firm founded in 1980. Today, the firm has more than 50 attorneys, patent agents and technology specialists, most with advanced degrees in the sciences and/or professional tech-nical experience. The firm repre-sents many independent inventors, start-up companies, corporations of all sizes, as well as academic and research institutions located in Mas-sachusetts, across the United States and around the world.

Deirdre E. Sanders, a principal and shareholder of the firm of Hamilton Brook Smith Reynolds, is an intellec-tual property litigator and patent prosecutor, with particular emphasis on strategic biotechnology patent prosecution counseling, trademarks, and licensing. Deirdre can be reached at deirdre.sanders@hbsr.com. Judith Kuntz is an Associate with the firm and practices in the areas of chemistry, biotechnology and phar-maceuticals. Judy can be reached at judy.kuntz@hbsr.com.

Membership Moment

by Steve Munevar, PhD

What was the last group you joined? Were you looking for community? Opportunity? Information? Did you

have an idea or innovation and wanted to share it with like-minded colleagues or new friends? In an age of virtual hyper-connectivity, the value and impact of real-life interactions can often be lost. Real conversations with real people that are free (and encouraged) to exceed 140 characters can be both inspiring and refreshing.

Membership, fellowship, shared knowledge/insight, and a desire to transform ideas into innovations...this is The Venture Forum. After more than 20 years serving the entrepreneurial ecosystem as the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Venture Forum, innovation took root in the organization, new ideas spawned, and a desire to serve an even greater and more diverse populace ensued, giving rise to the new Venture Forum.

With a strengthened commitment to all things entrepreneurship and innovation, TVF has embarked on its journey toward building a community that will carry us into the next 20 years of inspiring innovation and supporting entrepreneurial endeavors. Would you like to be part of that future? Become a member today!

TVF membership gives you free admission to our monthly events and access to our community that offers:

• A diverse group of multidisciplinary professionals

• An exclusive directory of members where you can highlight your expertise and experience

• Monthly events showcasing thought leaders and subject-matter experts across the technology innovation spectrum

• The opportunity to “pitch” your start-up ideas to funders

• Connection to a supportive array of service providers and other enabling professionals.

Beyond these benefits, together we have the opportunity to build an enduring network of colleagues, friends, and future innovation partners that can make a lasting difference in the real world. You can help grow our community; you can be the foundation upon which the next 20 years of TVF history is built.

I am excited to personally invite you to join me, join the future of innovation and entrepreneurship, join the new Venture Forum, and be part of our community. Membership dues to TVF are $150.00 for a full year of entrepreneurial fellowship and event admissions.

However, if you take the plunge today, if you feel like fall 2013 will be the time you launch your personal innovation mission, if you are a doer, a leader, a roll-up-your-sleeves entrepreneur, then I want to meet you, and for a limited time, extend to you a special Fall Membership Rate of $99.00. Go to theventureforum.org to join today.

I look forward to welcoming you to our TVF family.

News NotesTechSandBox Has New PlayspaceThe incubator and innovation cen-ter founded by TVF member Barb Finer earlier this year has moved from its initial location in Southbor-ough to a more permanent home in Hopkinton. Designed to support science and technology entrepre-neurs, TechSandBox offers a central gathering point in MetroWest for co-working, seminars and network-ing events.

Originally sited in Becker College’s satellite facility, the non-profit center moved in mid-September to 8,700 square feet in the Hopkinton Innovation Park.

uTest Named Top CompanySoftware testing firm uTest has been named the 2013 Private Company of the Year by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. Subject of a January 2009 case presentation at the WPI Venture Forum, the company has raised $37.5 million in venture funding, a recent Worcester Business Journal article noted. uTest moved its headquarters from Southborough to Framingham in September, and has additional offices in Cambridge, San Mateo, California and Seattle, Washington. Its 130 employees and a global network of contractors conduct software testing for web, mobile and desktop applications.

TVF members and sponsors — do you have news to share?

Please contact Advantage editor, Allison Chisolm at Chisolm@ChoiceWordsOnline.com.