Patent Law Practice Center

Getting to a patent as fast as possible

Patent attorney Russ Krajec is the CEO and founder of BlueIron, a patent-financing company. Krajec is an angel investor, a registered patent attorney, a former Chief Operating Officer of a venture-backed startup company, and an inventor on more than 30 US patents and applications. Russ started BlueIron because he was frustrated with what he perceives to be a conflict of interest between clients, particularly startups, and patent attorneys.

Every patent attorney knows the problems. We know what the client really should be doing, but the client either doesn’t want to pay for the proper solutions, or cannot afford the proper representation. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just do what is in the best interest of building the best, strongest patent portfolio possible without having to justify every dime to the client? Enter BlueIron. If you are a startup company and you have patentable technology, rather than calling an angel, you might want to consider calling Krajec, who offers free legal work in exchange for the rights to the patent which he then licenses back to the inventors. The inventors also retain an option to purchase the patent back at any time. The model is much cheaper than angel or VC financing.

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Trilateral Patent Offices Step Closer on Patent Harmonization

Written by Gene Quinn, of IPWatchdog and Practice Center Contributor.

In view of the growing need for innovator companies to obtain patent protection in multiple Patent Office around the world simultaneously, leaders of the most heavily used patent regimes continue to seek ways to streamline the process and engage in work sharing. In an effort to continue to move forward in the absence of true global cooperation, the Trilateral Offices at their 29th Trilateral Conference considered proposals to reduce the burden for patent applicants by increasing cooperation on procedures and improving the exchange of procedural information.

Meeting for their Annual Trilateral Conference near Paris, France, the heads of the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – collectively known as the Trilateral Offices – pushed forward earlier this week with efforts to further harmonize global patent systems. The Trilateral Offices agreed on steps to enhance efficiency in patent-related procedures.

Click here for Gene Quinn’s full article on IPWatchdog.