SDIPLG Attorney Presents at Biomimicry Boot Camp

September 18, 2018

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 Institute’s Accelerator Boot Camp that took place September 12 – 15, 2018,  at the University of Montana in Missoula. 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 inventors 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 2018 – 19  is Combatting Climate Change. The yearly winning team is awarded $100,000, endowed by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation.

Dr. Coddington provided BGDC teams with a 60-minute introductory presentation on intellectual property law, including a discussion on patent eligibility, requirements for patents and trademarks, and best practices for businesses to protect innovation. Dr. Coddington also hosted an individual Q & A session with each BGDC team to address individual and specific intellectual property questions and concerns, which included the rights of universities to inventions developed by students or professors, and preserving intellectual property rights in a cost-effective manner.

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.