I did something yesterday that I don't recall doing before. With exception to a single message, I avoided my email from 8am-6pm while still working. No gmail, no Blackberry, no nothing. I had to finish up a magazine article by this morning and needed the extra focus and added attention to get it done. I have a personal goal of replying to every action email within 2 business hours, so this was hard for me to do. But having put out existing fires and working under a tight deadline, it worked. And you know what, I actually enjoyed it. Ordinarily, I treat my email like life support, so it was nice to break away and breathe on my own terms as opposed to constantly checking my mail at all hours of the day, including nights. I should do this again. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to check my email...

Once or twice a year, I get a call from someone who wants to get a patent. They saw some cool product while they were traveling and would like to a get a patent on the product in the U.S.

You can’t. In order to get a patent, you have to be an inventor. If you did not invent it, you cannot get a patent on it. You could avoid telling the Patent and Trademark Office that you did not really invent it. Of course, that would be fraud. Your patent would be worthless and you may get sued over it. If you see something cool overseas - buy it. Import it if you want. Just don’t try to get a patent on another person’s invention.

On one consistent thread of most start-up businesses is the lack of money. Many companies put off speaking with an intellectual property attorney in an attempt to conserve resources. However, this approach is usually pennywise and foolish.

Any start-up company ought to perform at least five basic steps up front. These need not cost much money and can help the business avoid substantial harm down the road.

1. Do a trademark search.
   Your company name or the name of your leading product may sound pretty cool. Unfortunately, it probably sounded pretty cool to the other company that adopted it before you did. Thus it is a good idea to conduct a trademark search before you launch your product or begin building brand loyalty. You can spend about $500.00 for a trademark search through an attorney, the attorney will typically look not only at your exact name but variations used by potential competitors that may raise trademark issues. While no trademark search is a guarantee that there will not be conflicts in the future, it significantly reduces the risk. At a bare minimum, do your own trademark search at www.uspto.gov. A little bit of your time now will save many headaches later.
   
2. Consider patent issues.
   Many tech oriented companies are familiar with the need to obtain patent protection. However, if there is something truly unique about your product that you believe provides a competitive edge, it is wise to have at least an initial consultation with a patent attorney. This will probably run you $200.00 to $300.00 for an hour of the attorney’s time. It may save you hundreds of times that in the long run and improve the chance you will properly protect your inventions.
   
   At a bare minimum, every business person should know that you have one year from the date that a product is first sold, offered for sale, or in public use in which to file a patent application. Wait one day longer and you have dedicated any invention you may have made to the public. Additionally, if foreign markets are of concern, please note that a U.S. patent application must be filed prior to any public disclosure of the invention. You will then have one year in which to take steps to preserve any patent rights in foreign countries.
   
3. Get your employment agreements in order.
   A start-up company may face a significant competitive threat from its own employees. If the employees decide that they can do better by going into competition, you may have little recourse if non-compete and other employment related documents are not in place from the beginning. Therefore it is strongly advisable to have any employees sign employment agreements which restrict any use of confidential company information and, for those employees who may pose a competitive threat, which prevent them from competing directly with the company for a reasonable period of time.
   
4. Ensure ownership of your intellectual property.
   Many small companies use independent contractors to save on costs, and to provide greater flexibility. An independent contractor, however, will generally have greater rights to ownership of any work which he or she creates. If you hire an independent contractor to write code, come up with company design, or otherwise do anything which may involve company inventions, trademarks, or copyrightable materials, it is critical to have contracts which will vest all ownership of the intellectual property in the company. No matter how friendly the independent contractor seems today, he or she may subsequently claim that they own part or all of your important company intellectual property. An ounce of prevention in this regard is worth many pounds of cure.
   
5. Protect confidential information/trade secrets.
   Virtually any company generates confidential information. While it may not be as important as the actual formula of Coca-Cola, it is probably important to the competitiveness of your company. It is not uncommon for renegade employees or others with access to confidential information to use that information to the competitive disadvantage of the company. By the time that happens, however, the horse is usually already out of the barn.
   
   Reasonable steps should be taken from the outset to protect the company confidential information. Client lists and term sheets which are not publicly available and cannot be easily deduced should be provided only to those who need to know within the company. Documents containing confidential information, to the extent practicable, should be stamped confidential and should not be left in open view.
   
   Likewise, any scientific or technical information which provides a competitive advantage should be protected.
   
   The Utah courts have traditionally been very favorable toward the protection of confidential information and enjoining parties who attempt to misuse it. However, one of the first questions will always be did the company take reasonable steps to protect the confidentiality of the information. If not, there will be little recourse.

The preceding steps need not cost a lot of money. In fact, with the possible exception of a technology based company, it should amount to a fairly small percentage of early expenditures. Neglecting them will cost many times the perceived savings down the road.

“I haven’t spoken to my wife in years. I didn’t want to interrupt her.” -Rodney Dangerfield 

There is no more important communications skill in business (especially sales) than listening. What does that mean? It means just what I said - open your ears and listen. I sometimes find myself formulating a response to a question or comment before a person is ever done talking. Its a poor habit that I am learning to overcome. I have a tendency to try to avoid conflict at work but I have found new ways to express my concerns without allowing the other person to become offended. A big part of that has been listening and restating concerns. I honestly believe that if I would have communicated better with my shareholder at 10Speed Media, the outcome of the business would be much different than it is today. Listening (or lack of it) was a big part of the disconnect there.

Stephen Covey says that when another person speaks, we are usually ‘listening’ at one of four levels (my thoughts in parenthesis):

• ignoring (kids)
• pretending (wife)
• selective listening (work) 
• attentive listening (authority figure)

Very few of us ever practice the highest form of listening - empathic listening. 

Wikipedia says that empathy is “the recognition and understanding of the states of mind, including beliefs, desires and particularly emotions of others. This concept is often characterized as the ability to ‘put oneself into another’s shoes’.”

Make an effort to learn how to listen. Put yourself in another’s shoes. This means giving a person your full (empathic) attention when they are speaking to you. Take notes. Restate to make sure you understand. Make eye contact. Non-verbally acknowledge that you are listening. By doing these things you will find so much more success in your relationships and in your communication with those around you in general.

Remember what Covey said: “Seek first to understand - then be understood”

I just got news from Rocky Mountain Voices that Robert Scoble will be coming to ScopeCast 2007. Here are the details:

Date:
Friday, March 2, 2007

Location:
Café Trio [map] - Cottonwood, 6405 South 3000 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84121

Agenda:
10:00 – 11:30 :: Podcast interviews with select executives, entrepreneurs, or technologists (Tell us why you want one-on-one interview time with Scoble at SlopeCast. Selection details below.)
11:30 – 12:00 :: Mingling
12:00 – 1:30 :: Lunch and Robert Scoble presentation: “Living in a Google World”

REGISTRATION AND COST
Registration is required for this event. Due to room capacity, the event will be limited to the first 100 participants.

Cost: $25, lunch included. eCommerce payment details forthcoming. Please register, and we’ll contact you regarding payment.

 

PITCH YOUR BUSINESS / TECHNOLOGY
Rocky Mountain Voices is seeking to highlight technologies or businesses in a one-on-one podcast with Robert Scoble during the SlopeCast ’07. SlopeCast offers a unique opportunity to meet with and be interviewed by Robert Scoble. Individuals or companies interested in being selected for a podcast slot need to submit their information to slopecast AT rockymountainvoices DOT com. All entries must include company name, executive name for interview, 150 word description on why their company / technology should be selected. The deadline for entries is February 23, 2007.

I just got back from the MountainWest Capital Network Entrepreneur of the Year Award luncheon honoring Kirk Benson, the CEO of Headwaters, Inc. (NYSE: HD).  After a thoughtful introduction from Dan McPhun, Mr. Benson gave a great speech, crediting his employees with the successes of Headwaters.   He then proceeded to provide an overview of all of the aspects of the business and some of its history.  He also noted that because one of their divisions serves the residential construction industry, Headwaters views 2007 as a bit of a "transitoin year," with slower growth in revenue and earnings. Personally, I admire Kirk for creating such a great company from one that was frankly not so great.  He really led a fundamental change in the former Covol Technologies, building a tremendous success from what might easily have been a failure without his leadership.

It’s happened again. This time passengers were trapped on JetBlue flights out of New York for 10 hours with no food and limited bathroom use. A similar incident several months ago prompted passengers to create a petition for an airline passengers bill of rights. It’s way overdue. The airlines are getting away with murder and it’s time to protect passengers from these types of ridiculous situations.

I highly encourage you to sign the passengers bill of rights petition. I have.

Thanks!

Over the last year or so, I have become acquainted with Benjamin Kuo in Southern California.  He publishes a number of venture-oriented web-sites and e-mail newsletters that I think are first rate, including his flagship publication, SocalTech.  In fact, Thorpe Capital Group sponsors his Rocky Mountain region publication, TechRockies.

Today, Ben launched a blog that I imagine will be well worth the read (and unlike his other websites and newsletters can be accessed for free).

Let's read it and see.

Our friends at PayPerPost have been hard at work on their riveting documentary “Rockstartup“. Their now up to 10 episodes. I check in on these guys occasionally to see what was going on. I started wondering - how many people actually watch these videos?

I noticed that they host the video on the Rockstartup site off YouTube. So I go to YouTube and type in “Rockstartup” and “PayPerPost” and uncover the following. 

As of February 13th, in terms of downloads, Rockstartup looked like this on YouTube: 

• Episode 1 - 16,394
• Episode 2 - 13,301
• Episode 3 - 13,853
• Episode 4 - 90
• Episode 5 - 175
• Episode 6 - 372
• Episode 7 - 659
• Episode 8 - 563
• Episode 9 - 544
• Episode 10 - 283

Started out OK, then held on for a couple of episodes then boom - Nothing. No one is watching Rockstartup. I wonder how much this has cost them (or should I say their VC’s?)? The only reason they pump out this junk is to feed the blimp sized ego of their CEO. I’m willing to bet that most of their ”posties” and most of their employees have stopped watching this ridiculous display of a waste of perfectly good money.

I still love PayPerPost. They’re a great example of what not to do. Keep up the good work, Edward.