Innovation Excellence 

Peter Drucker, the grandfather of modern management theory, said that "the two most important functions of a business are innovation and marketing" as they are the only two functions that contribute to profit while all others are costs." By "marketing" he refers to the operation of an going concern business with the outcome being cash or profits. By innovation he refers to the work of producing sustainable competitive advantage from seven different sources: the unexpected, incongruities, process needs, industry and market changes, demographic changes, changes in perception, and new knowledge. Innovation is intended to deliver unique value propositions that can be captured, controlled, and result in sustainably superior competitive advantage.

The work of innovation starts with finding product-market fit for a new idea and it can result in different types of innovation outcomes. Innovation outcomes can be nice to have new feature sets on one hand, and world leading new technologies seeking first adopters on the other. We help executives to focus on those ideas that can make the biggest long term positive impacts on customers and profits.

We help teams to develop the value of their innovative ideas by focusing management teams on building moats that matter. We do so for any stage of of the commercialization journey.

• Product-market fit
• Technology-market fit
• Minimum Viable Prototypes (MVP's)
• Commercialization and first adopters
• Capturing intellectual assets 
• Exploiting intellectual assets
• Commercialization and crossing the chasm
• Commercialization and Main Street
• Commercialization and late followers

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Intellectual Asset Management 

Meet Michael: He holds a law degree from the UCLA School of Law, a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Physics from the UCLA School of Medicine, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from UCLA. While pursuing his graduate and professional studies, he served as an instructor at UCLA for undergraduate courses in the physics department. His graduate work focused on medical radiation devices such as medical accelerators and medical imaging, and studies in radiation biology. Following completion of his legal education, he was an associate in an intellectual property specialty law firm, and at a general practice international law firm. Michael is registered to practice in patent cases in all 50 states and territories of the United States and is a member of the State Bar of California. He also regularly supports Canadian innovators and is registered with (CAPTA) the Canadian College of Patent Agents and Trademark Agents.

Michael leads a team of independent contractors working in concert to build valuable IP portfolios. His associate network includes prosecution and enforcement support in Europe, China, and North America. Technically they are experienced in most fields of technology comprising the mechanical and electrical arts, medical devices, software, business methods, and e-commerce.

Typical Pricing:

• US provisional application filing  = $2,000 USD *
• US formal patent filing               = $8,000 to $12,000 USD *

(* plus govt. fees)

Services include:

• Patent drafting, prosecution, and enforcement
• Trademark drafting, prosecution, and enforcement 
• Copyright and design prosecution, and enforcement 

Meet Sean:  Sean Irvine is a Professional Engineer and Certified Licensing Professional with 30 years of innovation management experience. Sean was a Canadian patent examiner in his early career where he examined and issued over a thousand Canadian patents. At the Sauder School of Business, he taught MBA students Intellectual Property & Business Strategy, and in the Master of Engineering Management Program, he taught Intellectual Property & Technology Commercialization. He was a member of the International Licensing Executive Society (LES) and cochaired the Canadian Education Committee for over a decade.

Today he works across industry sectors advising executives about moats that matter. He does this by engaging executive teams to consider competitive strategy through intellectual asset audits that connect company resources, process and targets, where the target is sustainable competitive advantage.

Services include:

• Idea capture 
• Innovation management
• Licensing (business development)
• Negotiation
• Exit preparation