2021 Newsletter: October-December

December 31, 2021

Message from IPOEF President, Manny Schecter
As my presidency at the IPO Education Foundation comes to an end, I urge the IP community to continue to support this great organization. The organization’s mission (promoting an understanding and respect of intellectual property and its value to society, including innovation and creation by, within, and for underrepresented communities) is as relevant as ever.
Innovation continues to be an important component of a thriving economy which contributes to both the creation of jobs and our quality of life. This community knows that the Founding Fathers created IP to promote innovation. We believe in the benefits of IP. Unfortunately, our public disagreements about how to correct problems within the IP system (to optimize its benefit) have confused much of the general public and generated a negative impression of IP.
Initiatives of the IPO Education Foundation seek to educate about IP to reduce confusion, correct the negative impression, and attract underrepresented communities to careers in STEM and participation in the IP system. The organization’s initiatives include:
  • The Stroke of Genius podcast which annually reaches tens of thousands of listeners in dozens of countries
  • Behind the Idea webinars highlighting innovation by underrepresented communities
  • The IP Patch curriculum which distributes thousands of patches annually to grade school students for learning about STEM careers and IP
  • Innovation and IP events introducing graduate students to careers outside of academia
  • Student mentoring specific to innovation, STEM and IP in low income and underrepresented communities
  • The annual Inventor of the Year award (and other IP awards) celebration event
The IPO Education Foundation also reaches a broader audience via social media campaigns. These activities continued through the pandemic without missing a step.
Most importantly, the IPO Education Foundation is a non-profit, non-advocacy organization that needs your support to sustain and even grow its activities. We all have our favorite charities, and the IPO Education Foundation should be among them. What better way for this community to give back to society? For more information and how to donate, see www.ipoef.org.
I will continue to support the IPO Education Foundation under the leadership of incoming president Robert DeBerardine. I hope you will all join me in expressing congratulations to Robert!

Final 2021 Webinars in the Behind the IDEA Series 

The latest episodes of the Behind the IDEA webinar series highlighted Hispanic and Native American innovators. On October 5, Chair of the Hispanic IP Professionals Resource Group Natalie Gonzales (BakerBotts) moderated a panel with STEM professionals Victor Garcia (nVidia), Natalia Russi-Vigoya (IBM, Corp.), and Augusto Vega (IBM Corp.). They discussed how their Hispanic heritage shaped their careers and their work ethic and answered questions from the audience about ways to connect with professionals given the virtual environment. One student winner from the University of Buenos Aires shared why he wanted to qualify for the coaching session:
“Currently I’m two years away of achieving my MS Degree in Computer Science. I’ve started this career because I want to build things that could actually make an impact on the world and I think that some advice from a professional in the field can be some serious help in how to start achieving that.” Tomas Fedi
On November 9, Gary Burnette (Kendryl and AISES Board Chair) led a discussion with Native American innovators Tara Astigarraga (IBM Corp.) and Andrea Delgado-Olson (Natives in Tech) about the importance of promoting careers in STEM and innovation to the Native American community. They spoke about their journeys into STEM careers, Ms. Astigarraga shared that she received a degree in Spanish Linguistics and Communications, and through her first job out of college with IBM, she realized her passion for engineering and pursued a Masters in Computer Science.
The webinar series Behind the IDEA launched in January 2021 and featured eight webinars this year promoting innovation and creation by, within, and for underrepresented communities. If you missed any sessions, the recordings are available on IPOEF.org or the Foundation YouTube page.
Awards Celebration 
IPO Education Foundation hosted the annual Awards Celebration honoring the Inventors of the Year, IP Champion, and Executive of the Year. The virtual event, held over December 7-9, featured virtual networking, entertainment, and educational sessions. This year the event featured two tracks of content: one designed for IP professionals and another for students and innovators. Sessions for IP professionals included a discussion around IP rights during the pandemic, cryptocurrency and NFTs, and a panel of judges who spoke about the value of diversity to innovation and the legal profession. Sessions for innovators and students featured speakers who shared their personal challenges starting a business as well as corporate innovators and how they are using IP to impact the future.
The goal of expanding the program to include sessions for students is to provide aspiring innovators with information and access to resources that will enable them to innovate and acquire IP to protect those ideas. If you missed any of the sessions they are available on-demand on IPOEF.org.
Thank you to all the sponsors and donors who supported the Awards Celebration. Your contributions make possible programming that celebrates the value of IP to a broad audience. We hope to celebrate with you in person in 2022. For a full list of sponsors, please visit IPOEF.org.

Sponsor Spotlight

Cantor Colburn, a leading full-service intellectual property law firm, is proud of its rich and multi-layered partnership with IPO and IPO Education Foundation. As active participants in the many opportunities IPO provides to engage with and enhance the IP legal landscape, we specifically want to recognize and salute IPO for its leadership in advancing and furthering our industry’s conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). A conversation that is critically important and beneficial to us all.
As legal as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) professionals who are deeply committed to diversifying the intellectual property (IP) community, we believe that the IP community greatly benefits from the inclusion and participation of women and historically underrepresented racial and ethnic minority, LGBTQ+, and disabled attorneys and agents. We partner with several large clients in collaborative, innovative ways to effectuate positive change in our DEI journeys with the goal of attracting, welcoming, encouraging and supporting women and historically underrepresented professionals in the law, STEM, innovation and entrepreneurship. We invite our clients and contacts to partner with us on solutions.
One of the many ways that IPO has not only led the DEI conversation but also been a catalyst for change is in the creation of the IPO Diversity in Innovation Diversity Toolkit and the Law Firm Toolkit Complement, which are resources for companies and law firms to help organizations achieve gender parity and overall diversity in innovation. Cantor Colburn attorneys were involved with the IPO Women in IP Subcommittee that developed the toolkit. The Toolkit is a critical resource to support diversity in innovation and bring potentially life changing inventions to the world. The USPTO noted that if women, minorities, and low-income children were to invent patented technology at the same rate as white men from high-income households, the rate of innovation in America would quadruple.1
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Stroke of Genius® Podcast
Catch up on past episodes of the Stroke of Genius podcast over the holidays! All four seasons are available on your favorite podcast platform. The top episodes from season four are listed below. Learn about how Simon Tam fought to register his band name as a trademark and how he made a memorial impact on trademark law. In the episode titled “Activism, Art, and IP” street artists in New York City talk about the hurdles they faced in an attempt to promote their artwork on boarded up buildings. Finally, “Food for Our Future” talks to scientists about how they are working to tackle food deserts and inventing faster growing plants to feed the planet. Make sure to share the podcast with your friends and family!
Ways to Support IPO Education Foundation in 2022
IPO Education Foundation is working on new ways for you to get involved. Keep an eye out for information regarding volunteer opportunities, activities for you or your organization to help celebrate World IP Day in April, and more! If you’re interested in sponsorships to support programming like the Stroke of Genius® podcast or Behind the IDEA webinar series, please contact Program Manager, Kristen Lurye, klurye@ipo.org, for more information.
A Special Thank You to Our Bronze Level Donors
Become a donor of the Foundation and support the efforts to promote innovation and creation by, within, and for underrepresented communities by visiting IPOEF.org/donate