How the U.S. Can Inspire the Next Generation of Innovators

""When women have successful examples of women entrepreneurs and innovators in their lives, they believe in their ability to excel in that arena," says Deborah Sweeney, CEO, MyCorporation, a document filing service company that she bought out of Intuit. "If they have inspirational professors or colleagues, they are more likely to take the initiative in innovation and IP development. For example, my focus is to innovate and develop a system for business owners to incorporate and manage their businesses. To diversify the entrepreneurial world and to create more innovation, people need to be inspired by examples of themselves and success of others to whom they relate.""

""With the cloud channel revolution, the bar to innovation has been lowered in terms of committed capital and time to market. The newest generation of tech companies uses hackathons and the latest methods of collaborating with entrepreneurial, self-taught coders to reach business decision makers (BDMs). And they have stepped up their diversity efforts to empower and leverage the potential of underrepresented innovators, including women.""

""Innovation is not the same thing as commercialization. Ideas exist in abundance, but having a structured process to bring them to fruition is key. Too often, the path from R&D to delivery of new products is vague and difficult, hindering the process of moving ideas forward. Fortunately, patents provide the world's largest database of information about innovation-including trends and industry direction. But tapping into the people behind the ideas is where the real power lies.""

Current national measures tend to support existing entrepreneurs and firms rather than emerging innovators. The cloud channel revolution and low-capital tools shorten time to market and enable new entrants using hackathons, collaborative methods, and self-taught coders. Diversity efforts and visible role models increase participation among underrepresented groups, particularly women, by boosting belief and initiative. Innovation requires a structured commercialization process to move ideas from R&D to market. Patents offer a vast information resource on trends, but connecting and empowering the people behind ideas accelerates development and delivery of new products and services.

Read at IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law