Additional Resources

• Design Thinking Defined

Additional Resources

• IDEO: Shopping Cart Design Process (Video)

• MIRO Brainstorming Template

Additional Resources

• So, What Exactly is Design Research?

• IBM Design Research

• 12 Design Research Methods to get Inspired by Users

Additional Resources

• Brainstorming 

Additional Resources

• Everything You Need to Know About Prototyping 

• What is Rapid Prototyping 

Additional Resources

• Ten Ways to Prototype Your Ideas

• A Practical Guide to Presenting Design Prototypes

• How to Give a Prototype Presentation 

Additional Resources

• Business Model Canvas

• Strategyzer Support - Using our Tools, Canvases, & Methods

Additional Resources

• Value Proposition Canvas

• Value Proposition Statement/ Unfair Advantage

Additional Resources

• Strategyzer: More About Customer Segments

• How to Create Personas for your Business

• STP Segmentation Targeting and Positioning Template

Additional Resources

• Product Market Fit

• BMC - Order to Complete

• BMC - Desirability, Feasibility, Sustainability

Key Points

• What can be patented? You can’t patent an idea (like an idea for a better mousetrap), only an application of that idea in a practical invention. Novelty, utility, and non-obviousness — the holy trinity of patents. Your idea has to be manifested in a tangible product or process. 

• Read the full Article on What Can Be Patented

• Standard Criteria for a Patent

• The Intangible Advantage: Understanding Intellectual Property in the New Economy

Key Points

• America's Uniquely-Democratic Patent System: Why America developed the world’s first patent system for the common man, and what we got out of it as a result (hint: the strongest economy on the face of the earth). 

• Read the full article on the Breif History of Patents

• Unique Features of U.S. Patent System

Key Points

• Over the last 50+ years, economists have repeatedly demonstrated that patents continue to foster innovation by incentivizing inventors to invent. In fact, they stimulated the formation of the biggest new industries of the last 60+ years — semiconductors, personal computers, the software business, biotech, mobile telephony, and Internet e-commerce. Patented inventions midwived all of them.

• Read the full article on Do Patents Really Promote Innovation?

Key Points

• You don’t need to register your original creative work to copyright it. It is legally copyrighted the moment it is expressed in a tangible form. Registration is needed only if you wish to initiate a copyright infringement suit in federal court.

• Title 17 of the United States Code Section 102 lists eight broad categories of original works that are eligible for copyright.

• Read the full article on What's in a Copyright?

Key Points

• Say you want to use someone else’s copyrighted photograph in your blog or Instagram post. Is that “Fair Use” or copyright infringement? The answer is, it depends on the nature of the use, and the purpose of the use. 

• Read the full article on Is it Fair Use or Infringement?

Key Points

• Let’s say someone copies or publishes your article or photograph, or something substantially similar to it, without your permission. Is that copyright infringement? According to Title 17 of the United States Code, also known as the Copyright Act, the answer is yes.

• Once you register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office, you can sue that person in federal court. If you can prove infringement — either by getting the infringer to admit his guilt, or by showing that he had access to your copyrighted work and that his material is the same or substantially similar to yours —  then you can recover monetary damages and lost profits.

• Read the full article on What if Someone Infringes on your Copyright?

Key Points

• The first thing you need to know is that you can’t trademark a mere business idea.  

• A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or device — or combination of those — that identifies the source of a product or service.

• Like copyrights, trademarks don’t have to be registered with the federal government. They still give their owners the exclusive right to use the mark in their geographic area of business, the right to bring civil action against infringers, and protection against false advertising. 

• Read the full article on Can I Trademark That?

Key Points

• Say you have a small business and you want to trademark it. If you’re short on funds, you don’t have to register it with the federal government. You’ll still have the exclusive right to use your trademark in the geographic area in which you do business.

• Sure, it will cost you $275 in filing fees plus the cost of an attorney — which can be as low as $200 and as high as $7,000. But you’ll get expanded protections, including the exclusive right to use the mark nationwide for as long as you’re in business. 

• Read the full article on Establishing Trademark Protection

Key Points

• Let’s say someone copies your business logo to trade on your good name and reputationIs that trademark infringement? If you can show that the use of your logo is likely to cause confusion in the minds of consumers and weaken its value, then the answer is yes.

• You do not need to register your trademark with the government to protect it. You only need to register it if you want to sue the infringer in federal court or gain additional protections.

• The courts evaluate a mark as a whole rather than its individual parts to determine similarity. The key test is resemblance, not sameness. 

• Read the full article on  What if Someone Infringes your Trademark?