Problems, Solutions and the Case for Patents

This week the tables are turned. As many of you know Eli Mazour is the founder of the Clause 8 podcast, and the podcast is known by its tagline as “the Voice of IP.” Indeed, for years Eli has been just that… the voice of IP… interviewing numerous people in the industry, from Federal Circuit Judges to Chief IP Counsel and political leaders, I even had an opportunity to sit with Eli for a conversation when he first started Clause 8, which we discuss at the start of our conversation.

So, once I started my own podcast it was only natural to sit down with Eli for my own discussion with him, to pick his brain in an unscripted, open-end conversation. And the resulting conversation did not disappoint. We discussed a great many things about patents and innovation, the Federal Circuit and why clients want and need patents, and patent strategy. 

We begin our conversation with discussion of how Eli got into the science and engineering world and ultimately into the patent profession, and we also discuss his new home at Foley & Lardner, which has embraced Eli’s work on Clause 8, which will continue. 

In retrospect our conversation wound up being largely about the key to writing and obtaining high quality patents, which is also the key to innovating in the first place. You need to have a purpose and a goal. You need to be addressing an identifiable problem with a real, concrete, technical solution. And you need to focus on something that will actually matter to the client. And while patent strategy and ensuring protection actually protects what the client is selling matters most for those clients who will have several dozen or even several hundred patents, it really matters for everyone.