SDIPLG Attorney Participates in Biomimicry Global Design Challenge

December 21, 2017

San Diego IP Law Group co-founder and patent attorney Trevor Coddington, Ph.D., presented “Intellectual Property Law for Startups,” to seminar participants at the Biomimicry Accelerator Boot Camp that took place November 8-12 on the University of California at San Diego campus in La Jolla, CA. The Biomimicry Accelerator Boot Camp, which is part an annual Biomimicry Global Design Challenge (BGDC), is an invitational program created to assist competing teams to move from conceptual design to real-world implementation. The BGDC invites people to address critical sustainability and environmental issues with nature-inspired solutions, and is open to students and professionals anywhere in the world. The competition theme for 2017-18 is Climate Change: Adaptation, Mitigation and Reversal. The yearly winning team is awarded $100,000, endowed by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation.

Dr. Coddington provided BGDC teams with a 90-minute introductory presentation on intellectual property, including a discussion on patent eligibility, requirements for patents and trademarks, and best practices for businesses to protect innovation. Dr. Coddington also hosted an IP Business Clinic, meeting with each Biomimicry Accelerator Boot Camp team to address individual and specific intellectual property questions and concerns. “It’s refreshing to see really smart people address serious environmental problems and come up with innovative ideas to make our world a better place,” said Dr. Coddington.

Dr. Coddington recently assisted the 2016-17 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge winner inventors Jacob Russo, Anamarija Frankic Squantum, and C. Mike Lindsey on a pro-bono basis file to protect their rights before United States Patent and Trademark Office. Russo, Squantum, and Lindsey are partners in NexLoop, a start-up company that designs biomimetic products and systems for urban food production.