Adam Torres and Damien Howard discuss Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum.
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Show Notes:
Listen to Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Damien Howard, Partner and Registered Patent Attorney at Knobbe Martens. Explore Octane’s Medical Innovation Forum.
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About Damien Howard
Damien is a registered patent attorney focusing on the protection of computer software, computer hardware, and semiconductor based technologies. Experienced in protecting a number of related technologies including medical devices, artificial intelligence and machine learning based technologies, autonomous vehicles, and video games, among other technologies.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today I am in Irvine, California, and I’m at the Medical Innovation Forum powered by Octane.
And my guest today is Damien Howard. First off, Damien, welcome to the show. Thank you, Adam. Thanks for having me. All right. So how’s the conference treating you so far? It’s been great. I’ve gotten to meet with a lot of people who I already know and, and meet with some new people. Yeah. And kind of learn about, you know, the ecosystem and, and the startups.
And it’s been a great experience so far. Now, have you been to an Octane conference previously or is this your first? I have. I’ve been to the Technology Innovation Forum. Few times. This is my first time though, in the medical device forum. So, so this is my second time at an Octane event and I’m hooked.
Like the first time I came, I’m like, okay, let me check it out. I know they’re huge. I know it’s a big company. I know they do a lot of great things and they work with a lot of entrepreneurs, but I’d never been to one. So I finally came to one and I’m like, okay, when’s the next one? I’m coming back. I know what keeps me coming back because I get, always get great interviews, great guests like yourself.
What keeps you coming back? Honestly, it’s, you know, exactly what I said at the beginning. It’s, it’s getting to, you know, meet with people. I already know, meet with new people kind of see what’s happening in the industry and introduce our services. You know, we’re a full service IP firm. And in fact, today we actually put on the patent pursuit event where the startups were able to come talk to us about any of the IP questions they had.
So, you know, we’re, we’re here to see what’s happening in the industry. And we’re also here to provide a service. Talk a little bit more about that event for those at home that wouldn’t have been able to attend. So they know Sure. Yeah. So it was a small round table during lunch where myself and several of my partners, we each had a table with some of the startup companies sitting around and, you know, we gave a little introduction about what’s important.
With respect to IP for startups and then we let them ask whatever questions they may have. And of course, it was all free of charge. So, you know, some of them come out, like, what, what is this? You’re spoiling them over here at the Octane event. So why do they come to Octane? That’s why. Exactly. That’s awesome.
So for you talk a little bit more about what you’re doing as a patent attorney as well. I want, so our audience can hear. Yeah. So, I mean, we’re helping these companies protect their innovation. We’re helping them position themselves to be attractive to the VCs. You know, the VCs want to make sure that, you know, If they’re putting money into something that it’s protected and that they’re not going to have competitors ruining their, ruining their investment.
So, you know, we’re here to help these companies through the process, talk to them about what’s important, what they should consider. You know, it’s often the case that companies don’t think about IP protection until it’s too late or until someone asks them about it. We’re trying to remind them that this is something you need to do early on.
Yeah, yeah. So Any specific industries that you’re working on versus others now? I know obviously we’re here today for, for medical tech but do you work with other industries as well? Yeah. So, I mean, that’s the great thing about our firm. We’re one of the largest IP firms. So we have people with all the technical backgrounds.
So yes, personally, I’m, I’m here to, you know, meet and help the medical device companies and I have an electrical engineering background. So I work a lot with. Telecom, hardware, software, you know, all sorts of things. But there’s plenty of other companies out there that need help where I just don’t understand the technology of the language because it’s not my background.
And our firm has someone for whatever it is, you know, whether it’s pharmaceuticals, chemistry. mechanical engineering, we have someone that can help. And so if I can’t help, I can introduce you to someone who can. Amazing. Final question, Damien. If somebody wants to follow up, learn more about your services or connect with you and your team, how do they do it?
Sure. Yeah. I mean, they can go to our webpage, www. kenobi. com or they can email me, Damien. Howard, D A M I E N dot H O W A R D at Kenobi, that’s K N O B B E dot com. Fantastic. And for everybody watching at home, just so you know, we’ll put the links to, to that in the, in the, in the show notes. So you can just click on the link and head right on over.
And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe button and Damien, thanks for making some time for us today, man. Thank you. Appreciate it.