Although anyone can claim to inventor or create something (e.g., Al Gore created the Internet), the reality is that an idea needs to be carefully considered in context of the law. If you are serious about protecting your invention, you should contact a patent attorney or patent agent. Applying for a patent, and its subsequent patent prosecution process, does cost money. You may see ads for low-cost services to file a patent on your behalf. Such solutions are viable if your goal is to boast to your friends that you patented something. However, if you have real-world business ambitions, it is imperative that the person writing the claims of your patent is a well-qualified lawyer. The adage "you get what you pay for" is very true in the intellectual property community. Realistically, a single patent is going to minimally cost you around $10K for the application fees, legal fees to write the claims, and so on. You want to find a legal professional that is a subject matter expert in your domain (whether it is IT, manufacturing, mechanical engineering, biotech).

For us to be successful, we need to understand your needs and deliver technologies that meet your needs. This is the essence of co-creation or synergy. We both benefit from having an ongoing relationship. With this in mind, we want to emphasize our commitment to you, our customer. You are the reason we are in business. Lewis' original idea came from working with people like you — people with a desire to better understand how the IP landscape influences business strategy and decision making. our commitment to you. For us to be successful, we need to understand your needs and deliver technologies that meet your needs. This is the essence of co-creation or synergy. We both benefit from having an ongoing relationship. With this in mind, we want to emphasize our commitment to you, our customer. You are the reason we are in business. Lewis' original idea came from working with people like you — people with a desire to better understand how the IP landscape influences business strategy and decision making. Here at IP Street, we believe you belong on a pedestal. Rather than develop technologies and impose them upon you, we are interested in providing a different model. Listening to you, understanding what you need based on our subject matter expertise, and then providing tools that meet those needs. So far, we have heard that you want a simplification of complex patent documents. You want more than search results, you want visual results that have concrete, real-world significance. You want efficient patent search tools, better resources to patent duration and determining patent value. You want business intelligence from IP that is meaningful and actionable. Are we right? For many of you, based on what you have been telling us about what our product can do, we believe we are. However, we are still listening. So if you have further suggestions and wishes, please do not hesitate to contact us.

A plant patent covers asexually reproducible plants (that is, through the use of grafts and cuttings), such as flowers. Sexually reproducible plants (that is, those that use pollination), can be monopolized under the Plant Protection Act. Both sexually and asexually reproducible plants can now also be monopolized by utility patent. Plant patents are comparatively recent innovations, the first one being granted in 1930. A plant patent is granted by the Government to an inventor (or the inventor's heirs or assigns) who has invented or discovered and asexually reproduced a distinct and new variety of plant, other than a tuber propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state. The grant, which lasts for 20 years from the date of filing the application, protects the inventor's right to exclude others from asexually reproducing, selling, or using the plant so reproduced. This protection is limited to a plant in its ordinary meaning: (1) A living plant organism which expresses a set of characteristics determined by its single, genetic makeup or genotype, which can be duplicated through asexual reproduction, but which can not otherwise be "made" or "manufactured." (2) Sports, mutants, hybrids, and transformed plants are comprehended; sports or mutants may be spontaneous or induced. Hybrids may be natural, from a planned breeding program, or somatic in source. While natural plant mutants might have naturally occurred, they must have been discovered in a cultivated area. (3) Algae and macro fungi are regarded as plants, but bacteria are not. A utility patent would be filed for claims to plants, seeds, genes, etc. According to the USPTO, there were 959 plant patent applications filed in 2009.

Resources are limited. Which patents should we maintain? Should we maintain international fees? Which patents pay the best royalties? Such questions are essential to perform IP audits consistently. A major limitation to make this happen is the lack of organization. With IP Street, we can help you quickly and easily search your universe of patents to get your 'House in Order.' Our patent search tools will assist you significantly.

Lee is IP Street's CEO. Art Coffey, a business strategist who took RLH public on the NYSE as its CFO, best known for his leadership as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Red Lion Hotels Corporation from 2003 to 2008, is COO & CFO. Tammy Krieger, Director of Product Management, was formerly in a leading role with Microsoft's patent group and brings expertise in data management, patent analysis and process optimization. John Vogel, Vice President of Engineering, leads the software development team, formerly co-founded and developed Saas companies such as Four Creeks. The team is backed by a board of directors that include Stacey Cowles (Cowles Company), Dennis Hopton (York Trade Limited of Hong Kong), George Nethercutt (former U.S. Representative), and Lee and Coffey. IP Street's advisory board includes Roger Cheng (Alibaba), Scott Hayden (Amazon), Shawn Clark (Microsoft), Dan Crouse (Lee & Hayes), John Murphy (T-Mobile), and Joseph Schappert, MD (PAML). The company is privately funded.