Ron Reardon is not your average patent agent.  After retiring from a distinguished career at BellSouth, Ron decided he wanted to sit for the patent bar examination and become a patent agent.  That in and of itself makes Ron unique, but add in that he is an inventor and has three US patents (6,907,387, 7,328,163 and 7,346,539), and the fact that Ron has professional experience in accounting, marketing and innovation strategy and you start get a clearer picture about what makes Ron stand out in the patent community.  On top of that, Ron is also the President of the United Inventors Association and President of the National Association of Patent Practitioners.  Ron is a friend of mine, a great guy and has the energy of any two people I know.  I am glad he was able to take the time to let me interview him.  Our talk is reproduced below.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us Ron.

Thanks for the opportunity Gene. I am a big fan of IPWatchdog and so are many of my fellow patent practitioners.

You are a pretty busy guy. Patents & More, United Inventors Association, National Association of Patent Practitioners. Let’s start with Patents & More. That is a great name. How did you come up with it?

After I retired from BellSouth and was waiting for the results from taking the Patent Bar I worked on the name for my business. One candidate was “Reardon Innovations”; then I read that any company that had the word “Innovation” or “Creative” as part of the name probably was not very creative or innovative. Then I shifted to having either the word “Patent” or “Patents” as part of the business name. Unfortunately, name after name that I considered was already either trademarked or in use. Finally, “Patents & More” was available. Since I needed to differentiate my company from the other 600+ patent agents/attorneys in Georgia, the “More” part was critical.

As patent practitioners I know we typically develop a specialty of sorts. What type of technologies and inventions would you describe as being in your “wheelhouse”?

My undergraduate degree was in Physics; however I went to work straight out of college with BellSouth in Accounting, then IT, Marketing, Project Management and Innovation and Strategy. I work exclusively with decision makers: either individual inventors or small business owners. I focus on mechanical, electrical, business method and software inventions. Mechanical is probably 90% of my work. I prefer inventions that I can “drop on my toes”, since I can understand them better.

I am sure you have seen some pretty cool inventions. What is the coolest invention you have seen, or maybe one that you thought — I can’t believe no one thought of this before?

Wow, narrowing down to just one as the coolest is a real challenge. I hope that none of my clients get upset because I don’t mention theirs. My pick is a special event keepsake that has a special pen and a unique metal surface that allows each person to personally engrave a message. The pen and metal are such that you write as if you were normally writing with a traditional pen. The metal surface is normally within a frame and has an opening for a picture. All the guests at my last birthday party signed one and were amazed at how it worked.

On your website you say that you can help inventors with respect to funding, business plans and marketing. Does this service offering give you the opportunity to use the years of experience you gained while working in the telecommunications industry?

The foundation of my practice is “Convenience, Responsiveness and Connection”. I generally meet future or existing clients at a time and place convenient to them (coffee shops mostly) and my main number is my mobile number. I do my best to answer incoming calls immediately, or if I am with a client, to return that call promptly. The “Connection” element relates to helping with the funding, business plans and marketing. When I first started my business I thought that I could be all things to all people and that these areas would be a source of income for me, but I quickly decided to stick to my knitting, be an expert in my niche and only charge for patent related work. What I did was to travel to all the top Inventor conventions and expos and identify trusted leaders in non-patent industries that I could refer my clients to. I found that my clients appreciate being connected to others that have the skills and expertise to help them get their inventions into the marketplace.

If you could give inventors only one piece of advice with respect to funding, what would it be?

I tell inventors that no one funds an idea. Investors could care less about the invention – they look at the business behind the invention and prefer to fund a business with an experienced team that already has sales and need expansion capital. The 3 “F’s” of Founder, Family and Friends are the first sources of funding prior to engaging Angel Investors. While the first three sources may not need any documentation to part with their hard-earned money, other investors are going to want to know “how much money do you need, what are you going to use it for, does your team have a successful track record, and when do I get my money back, multiplied”.

I know that in addition to being a patent agent you are an inventor. Can you tell us a little about your patent and the patent applications you have pending?

I currently have three issued patents. My first was for remote monitoring of a facility location. I came up the concept for this when I was with my Dad in the hospital during his last few weeks. Being in a hospital room 24/7 for weeks on end is very exhausting. I thought that there should be a way to “be there” without actually being physically there. I conceived a system that would record what is happening in a room, associate the characteristics of someone entering the room with a label, e.g. green uniform, white uniform, etc., and create “event tags” so that a person wanting to see only that video when the room was accessed could click and go to that segment of the video. My other patents and pending applications have to do with real estate communication devices and systems.

I understand that you are in the process of becoming fluent in Spanish and are planning on offering the services of Patents & More, Inc. to Latin American companies. What prompted you to pursue this path, and how is it going?

To give you some background on this my wife, Hilda, was born in Mexico City, is fluent in Spanish and English, and can speak some French and Portuguese. Hilda and I had a civil marriage ceremony here in Atlanta and were married in the Catholic Church in Mexico City. The ceremony in Mexico City was in Spanish and I had to be prompted when to say “Si”! I had tried to learn Spanish prior to that first visit to Mexico but about all I could say was “mi mama and mi papa estudian inglés en la escuela” (my mother and my father study English at the school). I discovered that there is a huge difference between the slow pace of speech on a language CD and the rapid rate of speaking that occurs in Mexico. I started taking Spanish classes after that, but had to suspend them when I enrolled to get my Executive MBA at Georgia State. Hilda and I watch Spanish language television shows daily so my understanding continues to increase. While I have clients based in England and India, the remainder of my client base is in the U.S. and keeps me very busy. I have put the Latin America expansion on hold until my language skills are ready.

Shifting gears, how did you become involved with the United Inventors Association?

Since I work exclusively with individual inventors and owners of small businesses, I joined a local inventors’ group here in Atlanta. That group was a member of the UIA, plus I had seen UIA’s ad in the Inventors’ Digest magazine. I joined as an individual member first, then as a professional member as soon as I qualified (you have to have three clients for the UIA to contact, as well as other criteria). I knew that the UIA was a trusted source for inventors and I wanted to be associated with that organization. I met the Executive Director of the UIA at one of the Inventor Expos years ago and that led to me getting more involved with the UIA mission.

And how did you get involved with the National Association of Patent Practitioners?

When I started my business I created a checklist for my bio. My objective was to create a bio that positioned me as an expert and an authority in my field. In addition to “Founder, Author, Speaker”, etc., I decided to join organizations related to patents. An internet search on “patent agents” highlighted NAPP. I saw that they were the only organization to focus solely on patent prosecution, that they had a discussion list-serv where you could get help from more experienced patent agents/attorneys (as a brand-new patent agent I needed lots of assistance). They were having their annual meeting in Las Vegas the very next month, so I joined and registered to attend. At the meeting I made it a point to get to know the Founder and committed to start the Georgia chapter of NAPP. I volunteered to speak at the next year’s “Nuts & Bolts of Patent Prosecution” Short Course Saturday session. Subsequent to that I was asked if I would agree to be appointed to the recently vacated Vice President position. I agreed and then ran that same year for the position of President (I had previously been President of a Toastmasters Club and a Canoe Club). The NAPP has a “best practices” for patent agents/attorneys as part of its Certification program. In addition, NAPP members can get discounts on professional liability insurance with a major carrier. If I may, I want to put in a plug for the NAPP Annual Meeting – it is a great time of camaraderie, networking and being updated on the nuances of patent law. This year’s meeting is July 18-21 in San Diego.

Well, that about does it. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me, and I will see you at the NAPP Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Gene thanks again for the opportunity to share my journey with the IPWatchdog community.