By: Josh Sloat

For inventors, the promise of the patent system is the right to exclude others from making, using, importing, and selling their patented innovations for a limited period. But how do patent holders actually enforce those rights, particularly when the infringing product is being manufactured outside of the United States? In an otherwise challenging time for rights assertion, the ITC – or International Trade Commission – can be one of the most impactful long-range weapons an inventor has in their arsenal for stopping patent pirates.

The ITC has the authority to grant exclusion orders, which are enforced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to block the importation of infringing products at U.S. ports of entry.
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But how can you access the ITC, what are its requirements, how can you afford it, and what should you be thinking about now to help future proof your patent portfolio for the most effective use later at the ITC? We’re answering all of these questions in an episode that is part of our ongoing series on patent quality – aimed at not just getting a granted patent but in having one that will hopefully be valuable and stand the test of time.
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Because experience is the best teacher, we’ve enlisted the help of Evan Langdon to guest host this month’s episode. Evan is a partner at Fabricant LLP and the Chair of its ITC practice. Evan has been focused on ITC litigation for the past 15 years, both offensively and defensively, having represented clients in more than forty Section 337 investigations at the ITC. Evan is recognized among the nation’s top ITC practitioners by Chambers USA and Chambers Global.
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Along the way, Evan and the panel discuss:

​Evan ​is joined today by our always exceptional group of IP experts, including:

Patently Strategic is available on all major podcasting directories, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We're also available on 12 other directories including Stitcher, iHeart Radio, and TuneIn, so you should be able to find us wherever you listen to podcasts.
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By: Josh Sloat

​For our 2024 RISE Awards, we partnered with our good friends at AquaAction in recognizing the winners of this year's Great Lakes AquaHacking Challenge. It's impossible to overstate the importance of protecting our most important natural resource, and Aqua's HackingChallenge presents a huge opportunity to help accelerate technologies that will both improve and protect our precious water ecosystems, as well as boost the local innovation economies they touch. Given the program's focus on bolstering post-secondary students and young professionals looking for a hands-on way to apply their talents and fight the freshwater crisis, we felt like the RISE Award was a natural fit in continuing its purpose of giving Aurora a way to do our part in helping to support innovative startups in their incredible, diligent efforts toward vital missions. 

Read on to learn more about AquaAction, the Great Lakes Challenge, and the three winners of the 2024 RISE Award: Baleena, Wave Lumina, and Amphoral Solutions!
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AquaAction is a charity that was created to disrupt the status quo with innovative ideas and engage youth in the fight against the water-related climate crisis. AquaAction has developed three programs focused on water innovation and technology, including the AquaHacking Challenge.

The AquaHacking Challenge is a tech innovation program focused on developing solutions to pressing freshwater issues within the Great Lakes watershed region. ​The program is open to American and Canadian post-secondary students and young professionals looking for a hands-on way to apply their talent and fight the freshwater crisis. This year's competition was the 13th installment and the first binational. The competition began with 170 participants across 40 teams. After months of intense preparation, the 10 finalists presented their groundbreaking solutions to compete for $35,000 in cash prizes in addition to this year's RISE Awards. The Challenge was hosted by Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) in Traverse City, Michigan and marks a very important step toward Traverse City becoming a blue-tech innovation hub.
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The winners of this year's RISE Award and the AquaHacking Challenge are pioneering necessary solutions for microplastics, PFAS, and lead contamination. ​It's hard to imagine a more impactful area of technology development to focus on promoting and investing in when you consider the following:​

​But the ​challenge is only the beginning of the journey for these entrepreneurs and that's why the RISE award can be so important to their long term success stories. We focus the output of the award on provisional applications and patent searching, whenever possible, to help these young innovators avoid two of the most common mistakes we see around public disclosure and competitive IP landscape awareness – making sure we're helping to establish the strongest possible intellectual asset foundation upon which to build their companies. 

​As with prior years, we awarded a free provisional application or $5,000 towards a non-provisional U.S. patent application to the first place team and two other $2,500 service-based awards to the runners-up, customized based on need, for patent-related services such as application drafting, patent searching, and competitive landscape analysis. We can't say it enough, but the recipients are a truly gifted collection of entrepreneurs who will surely do great things. ​We couldn’t be more thrilled about the potential to be a part of their journey! ​
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Baleena won first place at the AquaHacking Challenge, taking home the grand seed funding prize of $20,000 from AquaAction and a $5,000 patent service-based RISE Award from Aurora. Cofounders Julia Yan and Sarah Beth Gleeson have designed microfiber-trapping filters for household washing machines, tackling microplastic pollution at its source!  They are aiming to reduce microplastic pollution from synthetic clothing by empowering consumers to contribute to environmental protection with each load of laundry.
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Our thought bubble. You want to talk about impact? How about being able to improve the water leaving every single washing machine in the world? Microplastics are destroying the environment and poisoning our food supply, and Baleena's incredibly innovative filter is a universal, practical, and low-cost approach to crowd-sourcing a big chunk of the solution. Beyond crafting a great product, Baleena also has two of the most impressive young entrepreneurs we've seen in a RISE class. Having a great product is not enough. You also have to have founders with the DNA to see it through to execution and market success. That is no doubt the case with Baleena. Winning the AquaHacking Challenge and the RISE Award are just two more notches on an increasingly impressive list of accomplishments for Julia and Sarah Beth that already includes this great invention, landing some major pilot partners, raising over $500,000 to-date in mostly non-dilutive funding, and earning their way onto the 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list!

>> ​Learn more about Baleena
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Wave Lumina won second place at the AquaHacking Challenge, taking home $10,000 in seed money from AquaAction and a $2,500 patent service-based RISE Award from Aurora. Wave Lumina founder Vernon LaLone has developed a portable device for swiftly detecting ultra-low levels of PFAS and other contaminants in environmental samples, revolutionizing on-site environmental assessments. Before environmental engineering firms and government response teams can clean up forever chemicals like PFAS, they need to locate them, but lab testing is currently expensive and very time consuming. Wave Lumina's device, which they're calling the Containment Field Screening Device, is a groundbreaking new product that will enable onsite total PFAS testing and screening (including PFOS and PFOA) technology with same-day results! This can save months – or even years – of time for anyone working on contamination site remediation and PFAS destruction processes.

Our thought bubble. While chemical companies and regulators SLOWLY and FINALLY begin to own up to the problem, and we work toward a broader awareness (and hopefully reduced reliance on PFAS) – identification and remediation are next up for solving this massive health crisis. Wave Lumina's device will be instrumental in tackling a problem of incredible scope with an efficient, cost-effective, and truly scalable solution. Beyond impact, we also look to recognize great humans with the RISE Award, and Vernon is simply one of the nicest, smartest, hardest-working people you'll meet. We love to see it when good people do great things! 

>> ​Learn more about Wave Lumina
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Amphoral Solutions won third place at the AquaHacking Challenge, taking home $5,000 in seed money from AquaAction and a $2,500 patent service-based RISE Award from Aurora. Amphoral Solutions (previously Proto StLo) is developing an algal filtration technology that reduces lead concentration in drinking water through powered algal extract and pH regulation. Amphoral Solutions was founded by the youngest team in the challenge – Merrick Marshall and Alejandro Poirier Corcuera, both students Champlain College St. Lawrence in Quebec!

Our thought bubble. Innovation knows no age boundaries! Merrick and Alejandro are two inspiring young inventors, well on their way to making a big impact – and that's really a sweet spot for the RISE Award. There's an unfortunate tension when it comes to patenting – and it's that you most need it when you can least afford it. This can be especially true for college students who are trying to balance innovation investment against the essentials of exorbitant tuition costs, books, room, and board. Lead in drinking water is a problem domain that unfortunately hits very close to home in Michigan, so we're very happy to be helping Merrick and Alejandro protect their critical invention in any way we can. ​

>> ​Learn more about Amphoral Solutions
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To learn more about past recipients and hear stories about their innovation journeys, check out our Patently Strategic Podcast episode where we interviewed winners from the 2021 RISE class.
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By: Josh Sloat

We hope you'll Join us September 23rd at Michigan's premier Medical Device Summit where regional experts will be exploring cutting-edge technologies, regulations, and industry insights. This is an incredible opportunity to network with top medtech professionals, researchers, investors, and government officials – and to discover Michigan's thriving medtech ecosystem and its impact on innovation and economic growth! The Michigan Medical Device Summit is presented by our good friends at MichBio and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
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Intellectual property (IP) strategy plays a pivotal role in the commercialization of innovative medical technologies and products. It encompasses a range of legal, business, and tactical decisions aimed at maximizing the value of intangible assets. Our very own, Dr. Ashley Sloat, has been invited to be a panelist for this important conversation where you'll have the opportunity to hear from legal and IP strategy experts on the latest legal updates and best practices to safeguard your breakthrough advancements, develop a strong market position, and ensure commercialization success.

By: Josh Sloat

We couldn't be more thrilled to announce that Daniel Wright is returning to the Aurora family! After a thrilling and soul-building journey as a naturalist and interpretive guide in the Sierra Nevada of California, Dan is returning to his love of helping inventors secure their innovations with high-quality patent protection. Dan is a brilliant practitioner, a highly respected teammate, and thoroughly loved by all of the clients he's helped over the years. He's one of the brightest minds we've met and so very intentional about his craft. We're incredibly fortunate to have Dan back and know our clients will benefit immensely. 
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Pharmaceutical and Biotech Expertise. Dan holds a Masters of Science in Patent Law from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, where he specialized in organic synthesis and analytical chemistry. He earned undergraduate degrees in chemistry and philosophy from the University of Notre Dame as part of the Glynn Family Honors program. His original foundation in small molecule drug products and their formulations has since expanded into diagnostic equipment, microscopy, implanted and wearable devices, and even into technologies outside of the medical fields – including batteries, ballistics, and distributed computing systems.

Dan has also been a regular host and participant of the Patently Strategic Podcast. Check out one of his episodes below:

By: Josh Sloat

Huge congrats to our very own, Dr. Ashley Sloat for being named to this year's Traverse City Business News 40 Under 40! TCBN refers to members of this year's class as "the region's best and brightest under 40". We couldn't agree more! Not only is she providing excellent patent protection for Aurora's clients across the globe, but she's also killing it on the home-front with time and energy investments into Northern Michigan's growing tech ecosystem with volunteer work and leadership roles with impactful organizations and institutions like 20Fathoms, NMC's Office of Possibilities, and AquaAction. 
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This 18th annual list, sponsored by Hagerty, recognizes individuals in Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie and Kalkaska counties under the age of 40 whose professional and community efforts this past year had the most impact on their community, the region and the economy. The 2024 class is comprised of 26 women and 14 men; more than half are new to the list. A panel of six judges reviewed the submissions and chose the 40 influencers out of 100-plus nominations from the community.

To learn more about Ashley's regional economic impact, local inspiration, biggest fan, and next big thing, be sure to check out the article!

By: Josh Sloat

There’s not a more important concept that’s more widely misunderstood by those newer to patenting than continuations. So we’re dedicating Part 3 of our series on quality patents to everything you need to know about this essential step for future proofing and increasing the value of your portfolio.

Void of pursuing continuations, the language of your patent is frozen in time at issuance. The specifics of the enforceable boundaries of your protection are forever fixed to the claims you chose to pursue with your initial application – but not necessarily with the full breadth of your invention as conceived. For many reasons, practitioners and inventors will often choose to limit how much of an invention is claimed in an initial application. But then the future happens. Case law changes. New competitors arise. New prior art surfaces. And challenges may come in the form of litigation or IPRs as we discussed in our last episode. With a closed family, all you can do is hope you had the right foresight to predict this future with your static document.
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Continuations, on the other hand, allow patent owners to keep patent families open – in other words, not textually frozen in time at issuance. When done right and timely, the patent family becomes a series of living documents, allowing a patent owner to claim and capture the full scope and breadth of the conceived innovation, but with the benefit of hindsight, known R&D outcomes, and changing market conditions.

​Keeping a patent family open comes with significant long term strategic benefits that can make your patents considerably more robust and consequently, considerably more valuable given the ongoing strengthening options they provide in terms of defensibility and assertability. As the panel will discuss in depth today, continuations keep options open for proactively and defensively helping to hedge against case law changes, working as prior art backstops with the PTAB, and in opening opportunities for drafting new claims to square more directly on infringers in a dynamic, competitive landscape. As an added bonus, especially for startups, continuations can also make patents more budget friendly up-front if done correctly.  

We frame things a lot on this podcast in terms of doing kind by future self, but continuations are the closest equivalent of past self grabbing a life line to toss out to future self in a time of need!
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Ty Davis, Patent Strategy Associate at Aurora, and co-host Dr. Ashley Sloat, President and Director of Patent Strategy at Aurora, lead today's discussion with our all-star patent panel delving deeply into continuation practice. Along the way, Ty, Ashley, and the panel discuss:

Ashley and Ty are joined today by our always exceptional group of IP experts, including:

In this month's Mossoff Minute, Adam discusses the introduction of the RESTORE Act. This is an exciting new piece of legislation aimed at restoring patent owners’ abilities to obtain injunctions to stop infringers from continuing to steal innovations after being found guilty of doing so. We’re also publishing excerpts as short-form videos on Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok.
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Patently Strategic is available on all major podcasting directories, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We're also available on 12 other directories including Stitcher, iHeart Radio, and TuneIn, so you should be able to find us wherever you listen to podcasts.
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