Good Neighbor Podcast Live

Protect Your Ideas Before You Share Them

• Garfield Bowen & Attorney Daniel Scola

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What if one casual conversation cost you your patent? We sit down with Attorney Daniel Scola, managing partner at Hoffmann and Barron LLP, to unpack how innovators can protect ideas, avoid irreversible mistakes, and build an IP strategy that actually supports growth. From patents and trademarks to copyrights and trade secrets, Daniel breaks down the plain-English basics while sharing hard-won lessons from healthcare, pharmaceuticals, industrial tech, and software.

You’ll hear the eye-opening story of a stolen polymer formulation that sparked his career, and why public disclosure without an NDA can shut the door on protection in most countries and start the clock in the United States. Daniel explains when to use a provisional patent, how to align claims with what customers value, and why investors care about IP only when paired with a credible business plan, target market, and go-to-market motion. We also dig into the subtle art of client trust: giving useful advice before the pitch, leveraging referrals over ads, and focusing on senior-level attention that saves time and money.

If you’re a founder, product leader, or creator weighing whether to file, you’ll come away with clear next steps: document your invention, secure confidentiality, map markets before claims, and choose between patents and trade secrets based on how your advantage is built and protected. Along the way, Daniel’s love of music and mentoring adds warmth to a topic that too often feels opaque or intimidating. Protect smart, file at the right time, and turn your intellectual property into a real competitive edge.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, share this with a friend building something new, and leave a quick review to help more neighbors discover stories that move ideas forward.

For more information visit HBIPLaw.com.

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Garfield Bowen.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a law firm for intellectual property? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing the managing partner, Daniel Scolo, with Hoffman and Barron LLP. Daniel, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01:

Doing great, Garfield. I appreciate your having me on.

SPEAKER_02:

Listen, we're excited to learn all about you and your practice. Tell us about your firm.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, sure. So Hoffman Barron is uh is a specialty law firm. We deal only in intellectual property matters. So that entails things like patents, copyrights, trade secrets, uh trademarks. It's basically the protection of ideas. So when people have ideas and they want to protect them in some form, uh usually it's some tangible form, um, that's our business. And you know, there's intellectual property in almost everything that people sell and in many processes that you know and and uh things people do. So it's all around you, surrounds you.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we have everybody here as an entrepreneur watching Shark Tank. They gotta protect the ideas, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. So so tell me, how do you get into this particular business?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's really interesting. I can tell you my story. Uh when I was young, my dad was uh was a scientist, and I saw him develop many things that were patentable. And one of the things he developed was this uh artificial marble, basically. It was a plastic, you know, polyester type things, and you see them a lot now. They make them out of artificial sinks, you know, they're you know, and these uh drop-in type bathtubs, and though those are all made out of polymer, you know, polymer materials instead of ceramic materials. And he went to a uh and he had me working on these in my in his basement, you know, during the summer, his programs, developing the formulas and stuff. And he went to a large company, and they were extremely interested in the manufacturing group, and he brought all his notebooks with him. And when he left, they had gone through his briefcase and took the key formulation notebook that he had explained to them while he was there, and he didn't realize it because he had something like 15 notebooks that he went, and you know, he didn't have the knowledge or the wherewithal or even the money to actually go after them. But that company ended up manufacturing his formulation, and they made these these drop-in bathtubs and artificial sinks that look just like marble, um, but they're a lot less expensive, and and they made a big business out of it. And I said, you know, to him, boy, that's not fair. You know, you really ought to do something about it. But it got me interested in how do I help people protect their ideas and how do I uh go about learning that sort of business. And because I was a science major as well in college, uh, I was a chemistry major, um, I decided to go to law school. And if you're gonna be an intellectual property attorney and you deal with patents, you have to have a science degree because you have to take a separate bar, not just a state bar like New Jersey or Massachusetts, but there's a federal bar that they make you take in order to deal with the United States Patent Office, which is an agency, so it's a separate bar example. So there's a higher level, but I wanted to do that's how I got into it. Um, but I deal with so many interesting people, like you know, not just the people that have, well, I have a better, you know, kitchen tool or I I have a better way of, you know, my lawnmower could could work better. And those are great ideas alone, but I deal with uh a lot of you know cutting edge science people like in pharmaceutical companies with new drugs, medical device companies with new medical devices. Uh I I'm a do a lot in the healthcare, but also in the industrial area. Um, you know, there's so many IT, you know, all these things have uh all these ideas have patent or trademark or copyright protection that you can get. Um and it gives you a monopoly for the period of time that it lasts, which is a competitive edge.

SPEAKER_02:

This is a fascinating topic. Um, but what are one or two misconceptions uh in terms of people trying to consider whether they need to have something protected or not?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's a great question, uh, because there are a lot of misconceptions. But I I will tell you the one mistake that people think um or make, I should say, is they come up with an idea and they think, oh gosh, I I better run this idea by other people because I think it's a good idea. Maybe other people don't think it's a good idea. So they do that, first of all, and so they disclose their idea without having a confidentiality agreement in place. Well, that's going to destroy their rights in most countries, and it starts the clock in the United States running. So you might not be able to get it in the United States or anywhere else, because once it's in the public domain, you can't get a monopoly on something in the public domain. So that's one misconception that people have. Well, I'll share my idea and see if everybody likes it. Not a good start, and many companies fail because of that, uh, because they can't get the patent protection, which gives them the competitive edge. The other mistake that I see happen a lot is they they do um think that once they develop the idea and we get it patented, that it's gonna be simple. You know, it's people are just gonna buy it, it's gonna fly off the shelf. If they don't have a good business plan in place and a marketing plan that actually can reach out to the right audience, it's gonna be difficult for them to really make any ground. And the patent will get investment because people want to invest, because it gives them some certainty that there's a protection around it, right? You can keep people out of this area, but you have to be able to market it. So you got to think in advance. Well, what's my business plan? And so I always ask people look, I can do the legal work for you, but you're the expert in that business, or you should be. Develop a plan while we're doing this, you know? Because people, investors want to see, oh, what's the plan? What's your business plan? What's what's gonna happen with this if I invest in this? Uh so that's those are the two big mistakes I see people making or misconceptions.

SPEAKER_02:

Kind of segue into my next question. We all know that marketing is the heart of every business. Um, how do you find these people that need patents uh with Roper?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, it's interesting. I do I do uh do public relation work, but a lot of my business comes from doing a really good job from for uh on something for a company. I do a lot of startups, a lot of mid-sized companies, I do a lot of Fortune 500, and I do individuals as well. But um it really comes from referrals for the most part and public relations. Like people will see your name, but they won't really understand, you know, what does it really mean and connect it? But someone will say, you really should use this person because he gives you a very fair, cost-effective price. He gives you personalized attention, which I mean that's a word everyone will say they give you, but in larger firms, it it's not possible because it's their platform and their business model doesn't allow for that in order for them to make money. So they push it down to the lower level of people who don't really understand, they don't have the experience enough to really give you efficient work. Where I have a different model. Um, my model is that I don't want to push it too far down, I want to have a backup that has almost the same experience as I do, not as much, but almost the same. But can I can can bill them out of the lower level? So I can get cost efficiency, but they still get the high level attention. So it's it's I don't spend a lot of money on marketing per se, like ads and things like that. I rely on a word of mouth, uh, I go and meet people, I do podcasts. I, you know, Garfield, I think it's really important to have uh, and the younger generation does this less, right? I mean, I'm I've been around a little bit longer than some of these people that are going into it, obviously. But unless you have an ecosystem of trusted people that you that they trust you and you trust them, there's really no motivation for them to help you because they don't know you. Oh, you you know, they want a relationship. So if you can develop a relationship, and and it doesn't come right away. You know, you don't meet someone and say, hey, I'm a I'm a great patent attorney. That that doesn't get you anywhere. What you do is you learn something about the person, about the business. I think it's important that you don't pitch, but rather find out what people's needs are. That's my approach. I find out what their needs are, and then I give them suggestions. You know, perhaps you can try this or perhaps you can try that. If they have an attorney, I'll say, has your attorney tried this? If he hasn't, maybe you can tell him to try this. And I give them something for free because I want them to know I know what I'm doing, so but I don't have to pitch them directly. I want them to know that I'm willing to give them something before I'm asking for something. And I want to create a real relationship of trust. So, you know, that's basically how I do my marketing.

SPEAKER_02:

I I spent a summer summer with a gentleman who actually he um his job was improving patents. He worked from home, and I was just picking his brain all the time, just really fascinated with it. And the whole topic is so fascinating. You're here today on my show, but have you ever thought about doing your your your own podcast?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, Garfield, I have. Um, and I would do it differently than any other podcast I've seen out there on on IP. One of the things they do not teach you in law school, and I was just talking to someone yesterday at a at a at a uh uh continuing legal education actually course that we're all required to take. So I was there for most of the day, and I I was sitting down uh next to some uh law students who were going there because they just had such an interest and wanted to, you know, have a career in this area. And um they said, you know, one thing they don't teach in law school is they don't teach the business aspect of anything. It's usually just, you know, here's here's different areas of law that you should know. But but when you go out and you're trying to get clients, you have to know something about business and something about people. Because without being able to communicate well with people, I don't care how good you are at what you do, if people don't want to work with you, it's not gonna work. It's it's really about that. So I would teach, you know, pressing the flesh more, I would teach, try to get as much you know, personal contact with people. You know, if you can't go there, then chat on the phone, hear their voice, do a do some sort of a live stream, something like this. But the more contact you have, the more trust you build, the more you know you know about each other, and that helps, you know, it sort of ingratiates both of you into a business relationship that's not taught in law school. And that my my podcast would go into some of that detail if I were to do one.

SPEAKER_02:

So, Daniel, when you're not so busy running your practice, what do you like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay. That's a good question. So, well, I like to do a lot of active stuff, you know. I I I've always you know like to work out and I I kind of like to play little golf. I'm I'm I'm pretty terrible, but I I still enjoy it. Uh, and I like to ski. But my real love has always been music. And I have uh a daughter that's uh a pretty pretty well-known uh musician. She writes for a lot of the uh people that you would know, like uh Justin Beaver and Ava Levan and um and a lot of uh other well-known artists, and she was Grammy nominated. So she's done fellow, but music has always been my love for my dad said to me, Hey, I can't pay for music school because I don't think it's gonna work out in the end. It's so hard to make money, yeah. And uh and he said, I'll I'll help you if you go into something that makes sense. That this is old school thinking. Now, so I became, he's a chemist. I became a chemist. Okay, so there you have it. But I didn't do that to my to to either of my daughters, and they're both very good at music. But um music is I do a lot of writing. I do sometimes I'll perform with my my daughters at it's at places. You know, I'm a I'm a pianist and a and a percussionist by by trade, but uh that's that's what I do, you know. I like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, we're we're about out of time, but um one last thing I want you to leave with our listeners today is if there was this one thing they should remember about Hoffman and Barron LLP, what would that one thing be?

SPEAKER_01:

I think that you you would be very happy with the kind of uh you know advice on how to protect your ideas, even if we don't engage, you will get something out of it. We'll give you some direction to what to know whether you should continue to try to work on that idea or not. And if you do engage with us, it it'll be not just fun, you you'll get you'll get something out of it in terms of I think return if you can sell your your products and your processes. Yeah.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

My listeners now have one thing on their mind right now, is how? How can I get more information about Hoffman and Barron L O P.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, well, the best thing probably would just to, you know, I'm on LinkedIn, so it's Daniel Scola, but Hoffman and Barron is Hoffman uh Barron is the name of the firm, and it's HBIPLAW.com or Hoffman and Barron.com. You can get to the website and um, you know, it's it's there. You'll find lots of information and there's numbers to call. And um, you know, would love to help anybody out, anybody out there that really uh said has an interest.

SPEAKER_02:

For those of us that want to hit the numbers on the phone, is there a number you like to share?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's uh you can you can call um uh my my cell because I use my cell a lot, 862-812-9841. Uh, or you can call the firm number 973-331-1700, and that's the the firm number.

SPEAKER_02:

Listen, Daniel, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. I wish you and your business the very best moving forward.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, thanks, Garfield. I appreciate it. It's been a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnplive.com. That's gnplive.com or call eight seven seven nine three four three three zero two.