Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 110: Unlocking Innovation: John Wood's Journey with Wood Patent Law and Community Spirit
What makes John Wood with Wood Patent Law a good neighbor?
Unlock the secrets of innovation and the world of intellectual property with John Wood, owner of Wood Patent Law. From the bustling halls of Harvard and Stanford to the serenity of Johnson City, John's journey is a masterclass in pursuing passion and perseverance. He shares not just his expertise in patents and trademarks, but also his love for engineering and inventors. Discover how his firm has grown organically, driven by the unyielding ethos of doing good work and being a decent human—a mantra that's as refreshing as it is effective in the complex landscape of intellectual property law.
Beyond the boardroom, John is an outdoor enthusiast, embracing hiking, mountain biking, and pickleball as his go-to escapes. Through tales of resilience from his Silicon Valley days to his commitment to uplifting local businesses, John paints a vivid picture of dedication and community spirit. Join us as we celebrate his contributions and invite you to spotlight your favorite local businesses for future episodes. Get ready for an episode that promises not just to inform but to inspire.
To learn more about Wood Patent Law go to:
https://www.woodpatentlaw.com/
Wood Patent Law
(423) 930.9058
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monning.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone, and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. We've got a very special guest with us here today that has a unique business, and so it's my pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, mr John Wood, who is the owner operator of Wood Patton Law. John, welcome to the show. Thanks, skip.
Speaker 3:Great to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, we are thrilled to have you with us and really excited to learn all about what you do. So if you don't mind, why don't you start us off by telling us about your business?
Speaker 3:Sure Wood Patent Law is an intellectual property law firm specializing in patents and trademarks, patent and trademark law. We also do a fair bit of agreement, nondisclosure, nda type stuff, software reseller agreements, things like this. But the majority of our practice involves patents and trademarks, whether drafting of applications, prosecuting these applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office litigation, whether it be in the Southern District or Central District of California, here in the Eastern District of Tennessee, delaware, delaware, and then generally our clients are across the country, from Hawaii to California, manhattan to Florida, then certainly here locally in the Tri-Cities. I saw that you recently spoke with Green Llama, great client of ours, wonderful, wonderful local company. I'd be hard pressed to think of a better team, of course, than Matt and Kay.
Speaker 3:And then, and then of course, medical doctors. Here there's a great medical doctor who was recently named well, a couple years ago I guess now, maybe two years ago now named the Tennessee Inventor of the Year by the Small Business Association. A medical doctor who was recently named well, a couple of years ago I guess now maybe two years ago now named the Tennessee Inventor of the Year by the Small Business Association, which I think was Johnson City or the region's first for sure, hd Clean, a great client of mine. So anything with patents or trademarks for the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and that includes the federal courts that support any type of enforcement or litigation, as well as the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's pretty unique, I would think. I mean, are there very many law firms across the country that focus on patent law?
Speaker 3:Yeah, not as many as there used to be. Intellectual property law is kind of a funny bunny among all the types of legal fields. It just is. There's a special bar for patents that you have to pass with the science background and it's before the applications are put before a certain governing body, the United States Patent and Trademark Office. So it is certainly a little different. There was a time period where I think there were a lot more smaller IP firms. But I will say something actually that may make Wood Patent Law a little bit and my firm unique is that it's something I'm quite proud of Just being able to recently, within the past year, we had been involved in intellectual property with, I mean, harvard and Stanford, two of the premier research institutes in the country on different coasts, and I would be. I don't think that there's a big firm anywhere in the country, much less there. If there is, there's few, much less an individual lawyer that's done that. So that's something I'm quite proud of. Um, but yeah, all ip, all ip, heavy patents and trademarks wow.
Speaker 2:Well, that's definitely something to be proud of. Uh, harvard and stanford yeah. So, john, how did uh, how did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:yeah. So, john, how did uh, how did you get into this business? Yeah, well, I got a long version in the short version I think I'll give you. I'll give you, uh, the short version, but uh, basically, yeah.
Speaker 3:So, um, you know, with my, I went to george tech studying engineering and then into law school, open to all you know, practicing any type of law and just always skewing to intellectual property, and a lot of that were the inventors and the engineering is something I love and I always, and I always have, and from there going, you know, in my own firm, kind of spun out of you know, an IP boutique in Austin and then going in house with an upstream photovoltaic solar company in Silicon Valley and then something like that will you know, with a startup anywhere, and you know, in Silicon Valley it's up and down and it's a roller coaster, and particularly in photovoltaics, they call it the coaster, like a roller coaster.
Speaker 3:This was even years ago. It's up and down, so and then that ended up, uh, you know, not going the whole company, um, unfortunately, um, and uh, then my, my firm, kind of spun out of that, just people that I'd worked with over the years uh, um, asking you know, what would I do? Some ip work, and at the time I wasn't. And then could I refer someone and I take that very seriously and I couldn't. So I ended up kind of just doing it. My firm grew and it still does grow out of just people I've I've worked with uh over the years when in fact my well, the informal uh firm motto is do good work and don't be an a-hole.
Speaker 3:So I think we cover that on yeah, both counts, I think, which, I'm sad to say, maybe sets us apart a little bit.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it does Wow, so it just kind of happened organically. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Wood Patent Law did certainly Very good, very good. So what are some myths or misconceptions in the patent law business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so a couple of misconceptions. I saw this question on your review sheet and thought a good bit about it. So there's a lot. But one thing that I do want to share is that, thinking of the concept of value, a lot of when it comes to intellectual property. Now, a lot of companies value almost all companies, right value their brand. So the trademark and the trademark application goes hand in hand with your brand. So if you value, if your company values its brand or goodwill, and you want to protect that, then the trademark application makes a ton of sense. The other side of that, too, is if you're a company that has technology innovation and you're innovating and you're differentiating your product and this is something that you value, then the patent application makes a ton of sense. You can't stop someone from copying your product once you go into market if you haven't filed the patent application. It's just the way this system works. And the other part of that that I want to dovetail is that a lot of trademark patents and trademark applications really, so you have your value and they're great houses for IP assets and values. It's a nice little house to have trademark application, a lot of good rules there. So this is great. It's a nice little house to have. You know, trademark application of our goodwill is there, so this is great. It can be transferred and things like this to different entities. But the other part, too, is that you, so it has this value maximizer and the other thing is that it provides as a deterrent. You want to avoid headaches. This is the key. You want to avoid headaches. This is the key. You want to avoid problems and avoid headaches. You don't want to be in patent or trademark litigation and the act of filing these trademark applications and patent applications will deter potential third parties from infringing on your rights, and then you never. You're never going to have these headaches.
Speaker 3:To begin with and I do want to make another example here this is so when it comes to trademarks specifically, and a lot more companies could benefit from trademark protection than patents. Right, and you know you don't have to be in technology to need a trademark and you need a bit for the federal trademark registration, you need a bit of interstate commerce. But the bar is low and you may think, well, I'm just, you know, a local company and I don't need the four corners of the country protection. But something to consider here is that maybe you are a small accounting company here in the Tri-Cities Landscape Company, whatever it is and you do some work, or you have clients in Virginia, because we are, right, close to two states, right, there's your interstate commerce component and you're not planning on expanding, or or anything like that, even to atlanta or charlotte. It's not something that's in your plans.
Speaker 3:And, uh, someone in washington state, let's say, has a mark that's very similar to your name company name is similar.
Speaker 3:Well, that, maybe there won't. You're not anticipating a lot of confusion, but do a couple things to keep in mind is that this may, uh, pop up on your google search and bump you down on a Google search, which isn't great, and you may get calls, and they may get calls trying to connect, and that can be maybe a pain or a burden. And then the other part, too, is on their socials, and maybe potential customers are clicking on their socials and maybe you like what they're posting, maybe you don't, but you definitely don't control it. Um, so the trademark application can act as a deterrent, because a lot of companies almost every company should go on and do a trademark search and a brand search before they lock in on their name and make sure that, uh, no one else has their name and and then if it's early enough, when they're kind of deciding these things, and they'll move along and you'll never have. You'll never have that headache, you'll never have that problem and the trademark application has done its job and you may never know about it.
Speaker 3:Which is very important yeah yeah, yeah, this is the good one. Yeah, you don't want to know about it.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, this is the good one. Yeah, you don't want to know about it, right right. So, john, outside of work, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:We are. We love to be outdoors. So you know, I get outdoors with the kiddos. I got two kiddos, six and nine, and we love to be outdoors hiking and riding my mountain bike. Yeah, we have such great trails around here. I mean just within 10 minutes, and then 20, 30, 40 an hour. You're everywhere. And then you know something else I just got into pickleball. I'm like a month and a half in and I love it. I love this game.
Speaker 2:It's so fun. It's very addictive Me too. I'm about six months in. Yeah, I love it. I love this game. It's so fun.
Speaker 3:It's very addictive Me too. I'm about six months in. Yeah, this is the best. This is just such a fun game.
Speaker 2:The best game. It's a lot of fun and it's great exercise without the same, you know, impact on your joints. Yes, yes.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I like yeah, yeah, I'm early days and I love it. I love singles, I love doubles, and just what a fun, what a fun thing. So we're doing a lot of that, and then we'll be yeah, we'll be skiing coming up here. We got a little snow just a couple days and then we have some great ski resorts right here. We'll be bouncing up in the mountains. It's something we like to do too.
Speaker 2:Very cool, very cool. Well, let's switch gears. John, can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome and how it made you stronger in the end?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I kind of touched a little bit on I had gone out to Silicon Valley for this upstream photovoltaic in-house intellectual property job. This was great, okay. I mean this is like check boxes for me everywhere and a quarter of a billion funded and I mean these engineers are doing just incredible stuff and it's photovoltaics and and I'm just something I care about, something just so thrilled and um, I was all in and then and we I'd gone out to silicon valley and I uh, you know, met my wife out there and it was great.
Speaker 3:We started our family out there and it was something like that. We knew it was either going to go or it wasn't like go huge or not. That's the way these, these, these companies go, and and it didn't and we were prepared for that at the end and and you know, kind of being the last man standing but you know, and even being prepared for it and you I was all in and stuff, but it took a lot. That took a lot. You know, I was part of it all in and the team, you know, and just uh, quote the job, you know, but I was in, I was all in and and just kind of uh, that whole process, um, through me and uh, so a little bit.
Speaker 3:And so I had to, you know, kind of step back and figure out you know what the next steps were and you know when ultimately the company wound down, and figure out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And here you are, yeah, yeah, and here I am. And then there's a move out to johnson city somewhere in there and, uh, you know, now we are, uh, I'm talking to you, we're riding mountain bikes, we have great, uh, local clients. I'm gonna be, uh, scan, uh, I would happily point here pretty soon. So I'm excited about that and, yeah, so super thrilled awesome.
Speaker 2:Stronger, definitely stronger on this end.
Speaker 3:Stronger, yes that's a good way to put it. I'll tell you I was surprised about the impact. You know, I don't know if you ever went through something like that, but you know it can be a little bit. You know I don't know if you ever went through something like that, but you know it can be a little bit. You know disruptive is not the right word for it, but you know, I totally get it, yeah, I have and it's, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It can be devastating.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, awesome, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, john, I know you're a busy guy and so I don't want to take up too much more of your time, but if you wouldn't mind, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about Wood Patent Law, what would that be?
Speaker 3:Well that you know we're here locally. I'm here in the region and if I love working with everyone across this country, but if I had my druthers, it would be, you know, a local client versus somewhere else. It would be local every time and getting you know some of their intellectual property dialed in is something that I'm passionate about in the region and really kind of leveling the playing field, I think, for some of our local and regional companies when it comes to a national competition.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Well, you know what you do is incredibly important and we're glad you're here in the Tri-Cities a local guy now in Johnson City. But, john, I really want to tell you how much I appreciate you being on the show again. I appreciate what you do and we wish you and Wood Patton Law and your family all the best. Moving forward, skip Thank you. Thank you so much and hopefully we can uh, we can have you on the show again. Great, I'd like that. All right, sounds good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873. ¶¶.