Demonstrating Technical Leadership with Patents

A Panel discussion with:

Maria Thompson

Indira Saladi

Anne Marie Johlie

Society of Women Engineers and Argonne National Laboratory

Professional Development Conference

October 4, 2014

Maria B. ThompsonSenior Director, ITW Global Innovation FrameworkMantra: “Identify & Tackle Gnarly Problems”

www.linkedin.com/in/mariabthompson

EDUCATION• BS, Computer Science & Statistics; MS, Mathematics & Computer Science

CERTIFICATIONS• Facilitation, Organizational Assessment & Improvement, Accelerated Innovation, Six Sigma Yellow Belt

WORK EXPERIENCE• 10 yrs. AT&T Bell Labs; 23 yrs. Motorola; 9 mos. ITW

• Software Engineer -> Manager -> Process Engineer -> Quality Engineer -> Operations Management -> Creativity Coach -> Inventor Mentor -> Innovation & Change Management

PASSIONS• Methods & tools, technology, creative problem solving & inventing, STEM Education

• 8 filed patents

• Equestrian sports, Adventure travel & Scuba Diving

• Wife and Mother of 2 budding scientists & Proud to be a GEEK!

• Experience

– 5 years at Motorola (Increasing responsibility from entry level to team lead engineer)

– 3 years at a Chicago area law firm (Associate attorney)

– 8 years at Motorola and Motorola Solutions (Increasing responsibility from Director to Manager with people responsibility to Senior Director)

– 2 years at Zebra Technologies (Vice President, Chief IP Counsel)

• Education

– JD, University of Chicago

– MS EE & CompE, Illinois Institute of Technology

– BSEE, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Passions

– Helping technologists identify, protect, and leverage their work

– Running (slow), philanthropy, and relaxing with family

– Wife and mother of 3 (a PhD candidate son, a college student daughter, and a 10 year old daughter)

Indira SaladiVice President Chief Intellectual Property (IP) Counsel

• Experience– 25 years at Motorola Solutions; 3 years at Northrop

• Education– MS EE & CS – University of Illinois at Chicago, BSEE – University of Dayton

– Project Management Certified, PMI; Masters Certificate in Project Mgmt, GW University

– Six Sigma Green Belt, expected certification Dec 2015

• Life Member of SWE. Member since 1986. Work Life Balance Award winner.

• Passions

– Leading and mentoring teams to achieve individual and corporate goals.

– Launching new products, streamlining process, integrating complex products.

– 2 patents

– Biked a Century! Also love running, gardening and going to kids games

– Wife and mother of 3

Anne Marie JohlieDirector of OperationsCentral Services OrganizationMotorola Solutions, Inc

Directed Innovation + Inventor Mentoring

GOAL: Invent in High-Value areas of sustainable differentiation for your customers

1. Discover underserved customer needs, outcomes, insights

2. Define the characteristics of the Ideal Final Solution (see TRIZ)

3. Reframe the original high-value problem (Assumption and Problem Storming)

4. Transform problem statements into open-ended, thought-provoking questions (Question Banking)

5. Engage both divergent & convergent thinkers

6. Generate novel concepts & patent disclosures

7. Project Manage ideas to closure

Maria Thompson

Skills & Qualifications

Directed Innovation• Effective group facilitation & meeting management

• Problem identification & analysis - Analogous & adaptive thinker

• Broad technical knowledge of your company’s verticals and adjacencies

• Process-oriented & Disciplined Time Manager

• Well-read: trend watcher & technology scout

• Excellent communication & presentation skills

• Motivational & enthusiastic

• Tutoring/ instructional background a plus

Inventor Mentor• Creative, tenacious problem solvers

• Collaborative coaches

• Competent investigators

• Flexible, resilient & adaptable

• Technical experience in the relevant field

• Address relevant art barriers to novelty

• Address enablement / reduction to practice issues

• Advocate/shepherd promising Inventions

Maria Thompson

Innovation as Intellectual Property

Engineers work in an organization on innovative products and solutions. Such innovation is a valuable and strategic

organizational asset that is legally termed “intellectual property (IP).” It exists in a variety of forms, including patents,

trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other proprietary rights, and exists in a complex, global environment.

Understanding IP helps you assist your organization achieve its business purposes.

Indira Saladi

The Value of Patents to Your Organization

Patents provide the organization the ability to

• Sell differentiated products at a premium

• Deter others

• Insurance against competitors

• Pursue violators

• Prevent competitors from selling certain products

• Prevent competitors from copying

• Generate revenue

• License for a fee

• Use in cross-licensing

• Use in standards

• Establish technology leadership

Indira Saladi

Top 10 Reasons to Work on Patents and Innovation

1. You like solving problems

2. Be known as a technical authority

3. Respect from your peers

4. Respect from your managers and senior leaders

5. Add diversity of ideas to technical solutions

6. Career advancement

7. $ MONEY $

8. Resume building (put on your LinkedIn profile too)

9. Network with like-minded inventors/peer technologists at other companies

10. You can be the next speaker on Patents at a SWE event

Anne Marie Johlie