Featured image courtesy of Purdue University.
In over three decades of service, Hartman Global Intellectual Property (IP) Law has had the opportunity to work with hundreds of innovators, researchers, and other pioneers to protect their creations and ideas. Many of those bright individuals and unique innovations were introduced to them thanks to their work with one of their longest-standing clients – Purdue University West Lafayette.
As one of a small number of firms working with the university, Hartman Global handles patents, trademarks, and copyrights both in the U.S. and abroad.
“We’re blessed to be a part of what they’re doing over at Purdue,” said Domenica Hartman, IP attorney and co-founder of Hartman Global. “They’re one of the leaders in the country in terms of applications, issued patents, and IP protection – right up there with CalTech, MIT, Stanford and the like.”
It is a partnership that started over 20 years ago, built from a chance encounter when Hartman made her biannual trip out to talk to students about different ways they could apply an engineering degree. The classroom where the university hosted the talk happened to sit next door to their patent office.
“I think there were two people there at the time,” Hartman said. “We started talking, I mentioned I was a Purdue alumna, and they said they’d like to send some work. I said, ‘Great!’ and that was it. At that time, Purdue was filing about 10 patent applications a year; now they’re filing about 1,000.”
Purdue’s research covers a broad array of topics, and their students and faculty pursue countless fields of study. That means the diversity of creations that Hartman Global works to protect is dramatic.
“There was an infant toy we worked on recently that a senior design student invented, which was very impressive,” Hartman said. “On the other end, we’ve got biomarkers that are being used to treat cancer. It’s a lot of fun; there’s so much range.”
Thanks to their long-standing relationship, Purdue often turns to Hartman Global for their most complicated and most urgent IP needs.
“They call on us routinely when they’ve got some kind of bizarre situation or something that needs a quick turnaround,” Hartman said. “When they say jump, we say how high. With the work we do, that jumping has been a lot of fun.”
Hartman gave Purdue particular praise for going the extra mile and ensuring that the individual inventors have rights to their creations, including monetary benefits that come if their invention is commercialized. Not all universities operate under that philosophy, but Mitch Daniels pushed for it during his tenure as university president.
“The actual inventors of Purdue creations – the researchers and students – get to reap the benefits of the patent’s commercialization,” she said. “It’s a little known fact that those Purdue students, tuition-paying students, actually get to own the technology they create.”
Those students and faculty reward Purdue with a stream of new technologies, curriculums, and advancements of all kinds.
“What amazes us is that the innovation is just constant,” Hartman said. “We’ve done this kind of work for over 30 years, and we never cease to be amazed by what’s coming out. Right now, one of Purdue’s pushes is in cancer research. They hired a gentleman from another organization to head their cancer research institute, and he has boldly and loudly proclaimed that Purdue is going to be where they cure cancer – and dare I say, I know he’s going to do it.”
Hartman noted that across all of their endeavors, Purdue has become one of the world’s top institutions for generating new patents and IP protection.
“They really led the way in regards to intellectual property for their inventors, their students – they’re just incredible,” she said. “They’re really the benchmark for academic institutions around the world, and we’re lucky to be a part of it.”
To learn more about Hartman Global Intellectual Property Law, visit hartmanglobal-ip.com.
