9-3-2014 Club Transition; Gary Fields "Adventures with Patents and Trademarks"
28 CCV Rotarians and 6 guests including 3 visiting Rotarians
CCV Rotarian Mike Waid shared an inspirational moment about keeping in mind that hard work does make a positive difference.
Immediate Past Club President Courtney Howey announced the resignation of Amy Holland and the stepping up of Emily Strunk as our Club President, endorsed by eight past Club Presidents.
Welcome to Cherry Creek Valley Rotary of Parker, Rotarians Bret Boyer and Michele Boyer!
CCV Rotarian Gary Fields, a retired intellectual property attorney whose career spanned from Washington, DC and New York to Colorado, spoke about "Adventures with Patents and Trademarks" touching on a wide array of fascinating stories from the history of patents and trademarks in the USA.
Gary commented on the current case of the Washington Redskins' trademark dispute, told the fascinating story of actress Hedy Lamar and her joint U.S. patent on "Frequency Switching Spread Spectrum Technology" (under her legal name Hedy Kiesler Markey) with musician George Antheil, showed us copies of the actual patents on everything from the sewing machine and cotton gin to Morse Code and President Lincoln's vessel bouyer.
Gary wrapped up with the first patent in American history, for the making of potash and pearl ash, and showed us a copy of that original patent document which was signed by President George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who was Secretary of State at the time (August 1790).
Gary quoted an editorial written by U.S. Senator Michael Bennett at the opening of the U.S. Patent Satellite Office in Denver this summer (June 2014): "We enjoy the world's strongest intellectual property system, thanks to the foresight and vision of our founding fathers, who more than 200 years ago enshrined in our constitution a principle that created an ideal balance between the ownership and sharing of new ideas and discoveries."