Enrichment Seminar #2: Taking Research From Lab to Real WorldSpeakers: Dr. Dorothy Air, Associate Senior Vice President of Entrepreneurial Affairs

andMr. Geoffrey Pinski, J.D., Director of the Office of Entrepreneurial Affairs and Technology

CommercializationDate: July 10, 2012

Time: 3:30PM - 5:00PMVenue: 840 Old Chemistry Building

Prepared By:Michael Alio, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA

Emma Dorgan, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OHCEAS REU Participants of Project #1: Multi-UAV Cooperative Control

Dr. Dorothy Air explaining what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur (left); and Mr. Geoffrey

Pinski, J.D. explaining how to properly use intellectual property (right)

This seminar was jointly given by Dr. Dorothy Air and Mr. Geoffrey Pinski, J.D., who, respectively

spoke on “Entrepreneurship: Commercializing Technologies” and “Introduction to IP.”

Dr. Dorothy Air is the Associate Senior Vice President of Entrepreneurial Affairs at the University

of Cincinnati. Her responsibilities include overseeing the Intellectual Property Office, assisting faculty in

start-up company activity related to new technology development, developing a network of

commercialization/business resources for the university, and developing programs to promote

entrepreneurship in the university and community. Her accomplishments include being the principal

investigator of a Pre-seed Fund granted by the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD) Third Frontier

Program; being the principal investigator of an NSF Grant, Cincinnati Creates Companies, which included

an educational and mentoring program for entrepreneurs and a business plan competition; and being

the senior investigator of a grant from the ODOD Third Frontier Program to establish the Center for

Computational Medicine. She also developed and ran the UC Launch Pad, was a member of the 3-

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person leadership team that developed CincyTech’s Entrepreneurial Signature Program Proposal, was

recognized by Women’s Business Cincinnati as one of the Top 10 Women in Technology in the Cincinnati

Region in 2006, and was the recipient of the 2007 Leading Women of Greater Cincinnati for

Entrepreneurship.

Mr. Geoffrey Pinski, J.D., started off earning a BS in Physics from UC. He later joined the

Intellectual Property Office in January 2005 as an Extern while enrolled in the University of Cincinnati’s

College of Law. Upon graduating law school in May 2006, he joined the IPO as a Licensing Associate and

was responsible for managing Material Transfer Agreements and Non-Disclosure Agreements. He is

currently the Director of the Office of Entrepreneurial Affairs and Technology Commercialization at the

University Of Cincinnati. As Director, he oversees UC’s Intellectual Property portfolio that ranges from

the management and marketing of disclosures to developing and negotiating appropriate licensing

terms for license agreements.

Dr. Air started the enrichment seminar with a presentation about taking an idea from the lab

and presenting it to the world of business as an entrepreneur. She said that there are a lot of myths

surrounding the role of entrepreneurship, some are true and some are not. One of the myths is that

entrepreneurs are born and not made, but that’s not true. In fact, it’s the opposite; entrepreneurs are

made and not born. To be an entrepreneur, a person must possess certain characteristics and skills in

order to get their idea across to others. An entrepreneur must have the following: an original idea; be

interested in starting a business; have a passion to succeed in business; be willing to sacrifice and to

accept advice from others; have good leadership and team building skills; have experience with wage

earning jobs; have knowledge about their idea or product; have a focus on what the technology can do

for the good of humanity; have communication skills; and have the ability to take a calculated risk for

the good of the company. An entrepreneur must also be resilient, flexible, persistent, optimistic, self-

confident, detail-oriented, and innovative.

Having the mind-set and personality of an entrepreneur is fine and well, but an entrepreneur

must also do the following in order to get their idea and business off the ground. An entrepreneur must

do their homework and see what the commercial viability of their idea is, as well as seek advice on how

to commercialize their idea. Once the entrepreneur has done their homework and has sought out

advice, it is now time to create a business plan. The business plan must be fully developed and well

thought out. Most importantly, the plan must be written down, which gives the start-up credibility and

a point of reference. The plan must ask and answer the right questions about the business overview,

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the market opportunity, the product or services that will be provided by the company, the sales and

awareness strategies, the intellectual property, the management team and advisors, and the investment

opportunity. Business plans must also be flexible. Without flexibility, a company can easily get stuck at

a point where it needs to change but can’t or won’t.

Once the business plan is made up, it’s time to get funding. Money is not the primary part of

the business, but it is an important tool for starting up a business. An entrepreneur must have money in

order to start a company and sell their idea, but the money must be used by the right hands. Funding

can be obtained from multiple sources: the entrepreneur themselves with their personal savings and

credit cards, borrowed money from family and friends, mortgages, grants, foundations, investors, funds,

loans, and venture capital. The overall message that Dr. Dorothy Air wanted to give to the students was

that even though being an entrepreneur can lead them to a successful and fulfilling life it requires a lot

of hard work, taking calculated risks, the courage to make sacrifices, a little bit of funding, and, most

importantly, a good idea.

Part two of the seminar was provided by Mr. Pinski, whose presentation was more focused on

the topic of intellectual property. Intellectual property is a way to protect an idea in the business world.

It comes in four different types: trade secrets, trade-marks, copyrights, and patents.

Trade secrets are held within the company only, and give the holder the right to privacy of their

secrets and to keep people from taking and using the secrets unfairly. A trade secret is obtained by

keeping the secrets of the company a secret to the outside world. Examples include recipes for food

and beverages, and formulas for perfumes and household products.

Trademarks give the holder protection over the identity of their product, and they also protect

consumers from false advertising. Trademark protection can be obtained by using the company mark

on the idea or register the idea for a trademark. Once the idea has trademark protection it will have

either the registered mark (®) or the trademark symbol (™). Examples include logos, brands, symbols,

and even mascots for teams and schools.

Copyrights give the author of any idea that can be communicated through a medium of

expression the right to protect their idea from being stolen or sold without their consent. A copyright

can be obtained by either putting the idea in a tangible media or registering for a copyright which will

give the idea the copyright symbol (©). Examples are books, movies, music, and video games.

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Patents on the other hand are very interesting and often products of research. Patents are used

to protect the holder’s idea from being made, used, sold, offered, or imported by others. However, a

patent cannot be enforced unless the violation is being advertised or offered for sale by others and not

the holder. For example, the holder cannot sue a child for using their idea of swinging on a swing side to

side in their backyard, or a bald man for walking around in public with a comb-over. The holder,

however, can sue a salon that offers to do comb-overs or a company that is selling the side-to-side

swinging motion on a tree as an exercise routine. Also, if a person becomes employed by a company, it

is possible that the employee may have to forfeit their rights to claim a patent to the company that they

work for. Patent protection can be obtained by registering the idea to the patent office which is a very

long and lengthy process that can take at least two years. In the end, Mr. Pinski explained that the

world of intellectual property law may be difficult to understand; but the University of Cincinnati can

provide the means to navigate its students through it and to help them protect and reap the benefits

from the ideas that they come up with.

In conclusion, both Dr. Air and Mr. Pinski exposed the REU students to the realm of profiting

from their ideas. Dr. Air focused on the entrepreneurial side of putting ourselves into business with our

ideas, while Mr. Pinski focused on what it means to protect ideas under intellectual property laws and

how not to infringe upon others’ protection. Because of these fine guest speakers, the REU students

now have a better understanding of what rights and limitations their ideas have and can look forward to

using this newly obtained information in the future.

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