Local Commercial Real Estate Broker, Blogger Lane Dies of Stab Wounds

Dennis J. Lane, 58, a long-time presence in Howard County as a resident, commercial real estate professional and blogger/journalist — including a more than two-decade stint as a contributor to The Business Monthly — was stabbed to death early Friday morning at his home in the Taylor Village section of Ellicott City.

Lane, who joined Lee & Associates as a senior vice president last month, was found suffering from multiple stab wounds at about 4:20 a.m. A family member in the residence called 911, but Lane was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 19-year-old male suspect, Jason Anthony Bulmer, and his girlfriend — Lane’s 14-year-old daughter, Morgan Lane Arnold — have been charged as adults with first- and second-degree murder, as well as conspiracy to commit murder; they appeared in court on Monday. Howard County Police said the duo had been discussing carrying out the act via electronic messages for the previous two months.

Lane came to Columbia in 1967, when his family moved to the then-new Village of Wilde Lake. Aside from his new position and his contributions to The Business Monthly, Lane also co-hosted a podcast on the HoCoMoJo.com video blog, “and then there’s that …” and hosted another blog, “A Tale of Two Cities,” at www.wordbones.com.

Until earlier this year, he was a senior vice president with Ryan Commercial LLC. Earlier in his career, Lane was a partner in a commercial brokerage, Noel-Lane Corporate Real Estate Advisors, and worked as a group marketing manager with The Rouse Company. He was a graduate of John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio.

Groundbreaking Ceremony Held for NSA Computing Center

The National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have broken ground on the High Performance Computing Center-2, a 600,000-square-foot, NSA-run facility that will be located on post at Fort Meade.

The project is an outgrowth of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), which the White House launched in 2008 to provide a unified approach to securing America’s digital infrastructure. Scheduled for completion in 2016, the center will help to carry out the CNCI’s mission by protecting national security networks and providing U.S. authorities with intelligence and warnings about cyber threats.

“Maryland is the global epicenter of cybersecurity, leading the way in finding cybertech solutions that make our country safer, and creating cyber-warrior jobs that make our economy stronger,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, chair of the Appropriations Committee and senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “Because of Maryland’s incredible federal assets, like the NSA, our dynamic private sector and iconic academic institutions, America’s cyberdefense starts in Maryland. With this new state-of-the-art computing center, Maryland and the NSA will continue to protect America from cyber terrorists, spies and thugs.”

The project has been awarded to Hensel Phelps Kiewit Joint Venture. Approximately 6,000 workers across a broad range of disciplines and labor categories will be involved in the construction and development phase. The center will include 70,000 square feet of computer space.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the construction agent responsible for handling the acquisition and contracting process, design management and review, and project management.

Maryland Casinos Generate $59 Million in Revenue During April

The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency has announced April 2013 revenue numbers for the state’s three casinos: Maryland Live! Casino at Arundel Mills, Hollywood Casino Perryville in Cecil County and Casino at Ocean Downs in Worcester County. The month’s combined statewide revenue totaled $58,976,403.96.

Maryland Live! Casino generated $46,569,002.77, from slot machines and table games. Gross gaming revenue per unit per day was $301.68 for slot machines and $2,994.96 for banking table games. Maryland Live! operates 4,217 machines and 122 banking table games, with the latter debuting on April 11.

In addition, Hollywood Casino Perryville generated $8,438,708.44 from both slot machines and table games in April, while The Casino at Ocean Downs generated $3,968,692.75.

In a year-to-year comparison — excluding Maryland Live, which opened in June 2012 — April 2013 casino revenue decreased from April 2012 by $3,692,653.58 (or 25.4%). The addition of Maryland Live!, however, brought a year-to-year net benefit to the state of $44,439,608.19.

Maryland Drops to 41st in CEO Ranking of Best States for Business

Maryland dropped to 41st from 40th in a national ranking by CEOs of Best and Worst States for Business, according to a report published by Chief Executive magazine. Although the CEOs scored the state high on its workforce quality and living environment, Maryland lost ground on its tax climate and regulatory policies.

Also of significant note was a domestic migration loss of roughly 3,000 people and growth slightly below the national average (.9% versus a national average of 1.5%). “Simply put, a good state is one that understands the private sector pays for the public sector and makes it easy for the private sector to conduct business and grow,” said David Willis, CEO of CRW Parts, a Baltimore wholesale distribution firm, in the national group’s release of the report.

CEOs gave Maryland a Negative Development Trend Indicator, citing the recent bevy of tax increases and the introduction in the 2013 Maryland General Assembly of proposals to increase the minimum wage and institute mandatory sick leave policies on the private sector. Both proposals failed, but proponents have furiously vowed to bring them back in 2014, an election year.

“Job creators are watching and listening to what the Maryland General Assembly has to say, and they don’t like it very much,” said Kimberly Burns, president of Maryland Business for Responsive Government (MBRG). “Again, it has proven true that just the mere introduction of these anti-job proposals by our state elected officials, even if they don’t pass, sends a message that is heard everywhere but Annapolis, it seems,” she said.

Massachusetts, Illinois, New York and California again all ranked among the worst states in the survey, while Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana retained the top five spots.

Moody’s Upgrades Annapolis From Stable to Positive Outlook

The first of the three rating agencies has released its bond rating for The City of Annapolis, with Moody’s Investors Service assigning a rating of Aa3 with a positive outlook.

“This positive outlook from Moody’s sends a welcome message to Annapolis taxpayers that the city has been successful at stabilizing our finances even in the face of formidable fiscal challenges,” Mayor Josh Cohen said. “I commend the city council for resisting the easy way out and instead supporting the difficult, but responsible, decisions necessary to put the city on solid ground. I also commend our professional management team for bringing proactive management practices and unprecedented transparency to our finances.”

Moody’s has affirmed the Aa3 rating and upgraded the outlook from stable to positive for $86 million of outstanding general obligation debt and $15 million General Obligation Public Improvements Bonds. The city is anticipating purchasing bonds later this month, and the current rating may mean a lower interest rate on a variety of bonds that will pay for capital projects within the city.

Previously, Standard and Poor’s has upgraded the City’s rating from AA to AA+. General Obligation Bond sales of up to $15.2 million will be used for capital improvement projects in the city, with the potential of refunding outstanding bonds. At the same time the ratings were upgraded, Standard & Poor’s assigned the city a stable outlook.

Largest Class in HCC’s History Set to Graduate May 21

Howard Community College (HCC) will graduate the largest class in its 42-year history on Tuesday, May 21, at 2 p.m., at Merriweather Post Pavilion.

For the 2012–13 academic year, there are a total of 1,184 candidates for May commencement, with more than 400 candidates expected to participate in the annual ceremony; a total of 1,272 degrees/certificates will have been earned this year. HCC graduated a total of 991 students for the 2011–12 academic year; 1,081 degrees/certificates were earned.

A recent report, entitled “Economic Contribution of Maryland’s Community Colleges: Analysis of Investment Effectiveness and Economic Growth,” stated that the Howard County economy receives roughly $55.8 million in income each year due to HCC and its students, and that the county’s taxpayers will see an 11.3% return on the county’s investment in HCC. The report also stated that nearly 74% of HCC students stay in the region and contribute to the local economy.

Dan Schrider, president and CEO of Sandy Spring Bank, will address the college’s 42nd graduating class. The 2013 Nursing Recognition and Pinning Ceremony honoring HCC graduating nurses will be held prior to the commencement ceremony, at 10 a.m., also at Merriweather.

Work on New Hobbit’s Glen Clubhouse Set to Start This Fall

The Columbia Association (CA) expects that work on a new clubhouse at its Hobbit’s Glen Golf Club in Columbia’s Village of Harper’s Choice will begin this fall and will wrap 12 months later. The estimated start for demolition and construction is October 2013, with the project expected to finish in October 2014. A new turn house also will be built.

The CoHo Grill will remain open to all — not just to golfers — until construction begins. The restaurant will return once the new clubhouse opens. During construction at the golf club’s clubhouse, the pro shop operation and snack bar will be located in a trailer at the end of the parking lot near the tennis courts. Once the turn house is completed, the snack bar will then move to that building.

For more information, please visit ColumbiaAssociation.org/HobbitsGlen.

Annapolis Mayor Proposes New Zoning for City Dock

Annapolis Mayor Josh Cohen has introduced legislation to establish the first phase of a new Waterfront City Dock zoning district to implement a key recommendation of the City Dock Master Plan.

The first phase addresses the Compromise Street side of City Dock from Newman Street to the beginning of Memorial Circle. Cohen plans to address the Randall Street and Dock Street sides of City Dock after the city council has further reviewed and formally adopted a City Dock Master Plan.

Phase one also will address design elements on city-owned properties regarding the bulkhead work scheduled to begin this fall, flood protection by establishing procedures, public space enhancement and increasing commercial opportunities while maintaining maritime uses, among other talking points.

HCCC Will Welcome New Leaders, Honor Volunteers at Annual Meeting

The Howard County Chamber of Commerce (HCCC) will hold its Annual Meeting on May 15, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at Turf Valley in Ellicott City. This event is an opportunity for the organization to officially vote for its new directors and to “pass the gavel” to its new board chairman, Greg Lowe of Lowe fs, a financial services company.

The luncheon will feature a review of the past year’s achievements, and HCCC leadership will present awards to outstanding volunteers that have furthered the organization’s mission to advance the growth and success of the business community.

Deborah Phelps, director of the Education Foundation of the Baltimore County Public Schools, will be the guest speaker at the luncheon. Phelps, a recent author, will address various topics related to education, child development and life lessons, as well as talk about her experience supporting young people from the classroom to poolside at the Olympics, and also about the importance of businesses and educators working together to build the future workforce.

Ticket prices for chamber members are $50 in advance or $60 at the door. Future members can purchase tickets for $65. There is a special ticket price of $40 for committee volunteers and past chairs. More information is online at www.howardchamber.com.

Turf Valley Set for Preakness Celebration Hot Air Balloon Festival

Turf Valley will host the annual hot air balloon festival of the Preakness Celebration festivities on May 16–17. In addition to the hot air balloons, there will be two specialty shape hot air balloons to participate in this year’s festival: the Stinkey the Skunk balloon and the Purple People Eater balloon, which are returning by popular demand.

More than 20 hot air balloons will participate in Turf Valley’s nightly Balloon Glow, including the Stinkey the Skunk Balloon and Purple People Eater balloon, who are returning due to popular demand, and Balloon Meister Ron Broderick’s Dreamstar. New to the festival this year are the Fire It Up, Sky Candy, Blue Dragon and Lightweight balloons.

For more information, call 410-465-1500 or e-mail regina_ford@turfvalley.com.

Student Entrepreneurs Pitch Ideas During HCC’s Beat-The-Clock Competition

Students are seizing their own economic destiny as entrepreneurs. Following this trend, 17 Howard Community College (HCC) students will compete in a three-to-five–minute beat-the-clock style “Rocket Marketing” competition and will pitch their unique business concepts to a juried panel today, Tuesday, May 14, at 5:30 p.m. in The Rouse Company Foundation Student Services Hall (Room 400).

First and second prizewinners will receive cash prizes of $500 and $250, which have been donated by the business community in Columbia. Among the many business ideas to be pitched are the following.

● Groceries To Go: Provides curbside pick-up of groceries ordered online

● Late-Night Finds: Smartphone application helps people find local businesses that are open late at night

● Brain Fridge: Interactive mobile application helps prevent food waste and conserve energy when using your refrigerator

● TutorMeNow: Text messaging connects students with local tutors in real time

● VMC Services: Provides educational services, job skill training and support services to help the homeless become self-sufficient

During the evening, visual displays of the students’ businesses will be available for audience viewing.

Approximately one-third of the students in the Rocket Marketing competition typically go on to the next phase of the program at the Center for Entrepreneurial & Business Excellence, where they receive coaching as they work to actually start up the business pitched. The center helps aspiring business owners and students develop themselves and their businesses by utilizing the center’s programs, services and resources.

From MarylandReporter.com …

Brown announces run for governor: Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown made it official Friday and announced he was running for governor. He was introduced by Congresswoman Donna Edwards, accompanied his wife, Karmen. Edwards’ introduction and Brown’s speech were delivered to a crowd estimated at more than 1,000 people. Read more: http://marylandreporter.com/category/news/#ixzz2TBp3z5pN

Maryland legal code gets user-friendly online makeover: The OpenGov Foundation just released MarylandCode.org, a user-friendly, searchable and downloadable publication of the Maryland Code of Law. The project unpacks the dense, inaccessible code on the state web site and encourages citizen participation through transparency. Read more: http://marylandreporter.com/category/news/#ixzz2TBpR1O3E

MarylandReporter.com is a news site for government and politics in Maryland that is published and edited by Len Lazarick. For more information or to sign up for the daily e-news, go to marylandreporter.com.

Distribution for the May issue of The Business Monthly begins today. It is available at more than 900 locations in Howard County, Northern and Western Anne Arundel County and Laurel. For a complete list of addresses, visit www.bizmonthly.com, look to the black bar across the top of the home page and click on “Distribution.”

Negotiations Spur Multi-Year Contracts for Anne Arundel’s Unions

Twelve out of 13 unions have ratified contracts or have reached tentative agreements with Anne Arundel County, according to County Executive Laura Neuman. “We are very pleased with the results of our negotiations with the unions,” she said. “This is the first time since fiscal year 2008 that the county has negotiated multi-year contracts.”

The following unions have ratified agreements:

Anne Arundel County Battalion Chiefs Association: Two-year agreement

Fraternal Order of Anne Arundel County Detention Center Officers & Personnel: Two- year agreement

Anne Arundel Detention Sergeants Association, IUPA, Local 141: Two-year agreement

Park Rangers Teamster’s Local 355: One-year agreement

Correctional Program Specialist Teamster’s Local 355: One-year agreement

Deputy Sheriffs Teamster’s Local 355: One-year agreement

Anne Arundel County Sheriff Sergeants Association, FOP Lodge 106: one-year agreement

Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge 70: Two-year agreement

The following unions have tentative agreements and are in the process of scheduling their ratifications meetings:

Anne Arundel County Police Supervisors Association: Two-year agreement

Anne Arundel County Police Lieutenants Association: IBPO Local 802: Two-year agreement

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 582: Two-year agreement

American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Local 2563: Two-year agreement

The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) 1563 is scheduled for arbitration.

Howard County Chooses New Location for Homeless Apartments

On May 2, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman announced plans for a supportive housing facility for the chronically homeless to be established behind the Salvation Army store on Guilford Road near the intersection of Route 1 and Route 32.

The nearby Route 1 Day Resource Center also will relocate to the eight-acre site, which the county has agreed to acquire at a cost of $3.25 million. The housing component of roughly 30 units will be constructed and managed through a partnership with Volunteers of America Chesapeake, a leading provider of services for the homeless. The Route 1 Day Resource Center will continue to be operated by the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.

“We are taking important steps to implement the county’s Plan to End Homelessness, and this project is one of the most significant,” Ulman said.

Howard County officials previously discussed building the project at the site of the Beechcrest Mobile Home Park in North Laurel, but faced opposition from local residents and homeowners’ organizations who questioned that site’s appropriateness.

“It’s a noble idea and a good idea, but it was our opinion that putting a good idea in a bad place was not worthwhile,” said Bibi Perotte-Foston, president of the North Laurel Civic Association. “We’re happy that the county has chosen another site, and we also support what the county is doing to fight homelessness here.”

New Security Checkpoint Now Open at BWI Marshall

BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport has opened its new security checkpoint and a secure connector between Concourses B and C. The new additions are the first phases of a major terminal enhancement program that will improve the BWI Marshall terminal and add new services for airport travelers.

The new security checkpoint serves Concourses C, B and A. BWI Marshall travelers accustomed to using the old checkpoint at Concourse C will use the new facility. The carriers that operate from Concourse C include American Airlines, Spirit Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

The new checkpoint is the largest at BWI Marshall, offering nine lanes for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to inspect passengers and carry-on items.

A new airside connector also opened. It links Concourse C with Concourses A and B. This new “B/C Connector” provides convenient and direct passenger access between the three concourses. The post-security connector allows easy passenger access between the 14 airline gates on Concourse C with the 26 gates on Concourses A and B.

Construction work on the B/C Connector and other terminal improvements will continue through the summer months. Other projects include enhancements to Concourse C with improved airline gate hold rooms, the creation of new food and retail concessions along the B/C Connector and on Concourse C, and an improved Observation Gallery with new passenger amenities.

C&W Sells Largest Warehouse in Maryland to Joint Venture

Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) has sold 7600 Assateague Drive in the Maryland Wholesale Food Center, in Jessup — a former Giant Food warehouse — to a joint venture between New York Life, on behalf of institutional investors, and Mosaic Realty Partners. The property encompasses 775,000 square feet on 60 acres and is currently for lease by its new owners.

“We are very pleased to be chosen by New York Life and Mosaic Realty Partners to represent this asset,” said Michael Elardo, managing senior director with Cushman & Wakefield. “This facility is the single largest warehouse available today in the state of Maryland and is in excellent condition. This is a signature assignment and we have been very encouraged with the level of interest in the property.”

Howard County Revokes Roger Carter Fitness Passes

The Howard County Department of Recreation & Parks has issued a letter informing county residents who possess previously purchased Fitness Passes for use at the Roger Carter Recreation Center Fitness Room that it will not honor those passes at the soon-to-open Roger Carter Community Center.

Although the new community center will, according to Allan Harden, superintendent, Sports and Adventure Division, contain within the facility a fitness room, all pass purchasers must revert the cost of their unused passes back to be credited toward a future Parks & Rec program or a Fit4U membership package and may not use them in the new fitness area. The option of receiving a cash refund was not mentioned in the letter.

Daily passes will be sold at the new facility for a predicted cost of $5 each. The passes being revoked, which were sold directly by the Howard County Recreation & Parks office, were made available at a prorated price that at it lowest totaled $2.75 per pass, making for a significant increase in cost per workout for patrons of the exercise facility.

The new center is slated to open sometime this summer. The current Roger Carter Recreation Center will be closed shortly thereafter.

Neuman Announces Plans to Evaluate Storage of Arundel’s Records

Anne Arundel County Executive Laura Neuman has announced plans to evaluate the county’s records management contract with Iron Mountain. “I want to evaluate how we are managing our paper records in the county,” said Neuman. “We are on track to spend close to $170,000 this year on paper storage. I believe we have a responsibility to make sure this is the most economical and cost-effective practice for our records management and look at more sustainable options, such as digital storage.”

Iron Mountain is a private records management company that provides off-site storage, records retrieval and secure shredding for the county, which currently has 42,500 cartons of paper files in storage with the company.

Howard School Redistricting Meetings Set for May 15, 22

In August 2014, the Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) will open its 20th middle school in Hanover. Attendance areas and boundary lines must be adjusted. For the community and parents to learn about the new school/get involved in the redistricting process, meetings have been scheduled for May 14 at Howard High School and May 22 at Long Reach High School.

Registration is required to attend the meetings, which will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The agenda will be the same for both meetings and will include an information session, as well as a discussion about topics related to the changing attendance areas. If redistricting is planned, the attendance areas adjustment process for the HCPSS begins in the spring with the appointment of the Attendance Area Committee by the superintendent. For more information, visit www.hcpss.org/schoolplanning.

TriColumbia to Celebrate Year 30 on May 19

TriColumbia, an endurance event production company, will celebrate the 30th year of the Columbia Triathlon on Sunday, May 19. More than 20 world-class professional athletes are set to compete at Centennial Park in Columbia, in one of the nation’s longest running and most respected triathlons.

As TriColumbia’s hallmark event, the Columbia Triathlon is one of the most challenging events in the country, and is also a 5150 qualifying event. Nearly 2,000 endurance athletes from across the country will compete in a 1.5K swim, 41K bike and 10K run for a prize purse of $25,000. This year, the top 15 finishers in each age group will be invited to race at the 5150 Hy-Vee U.S. Championship.

The 2013 Columbia Triathlon will benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Maryland Chapter. During the past decade, more than 500 LLS Team In Training participants have competed in TriColumbia events in Maryland, and have raised more than $850,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. For more information, visit TriColumbia.org or call 410-964-1246.

Arundel Rec and Parks, Friends of Anne Arundel County Trails Working With Wegmans

The Anne Arundel County Department of Recreation and Parks and The Friends of Anne Arundel County Trails will launch the Wegmans Eat Well, Live Well Passport to Family Wellness Program at an outdoor reception on Saturday, May 18, at 10 a.m., at Jonas Green Park in Annapolis.

Rec and Parks staff and representatives of the friends groups have worked together to select 25 historic locations and areas of interest along county running and biking trails. These locations will be indicated with numbered trail markers. Wegmans funded the cost of passport printing, trail markers and incentive prizes.

The “passports” can be picked up at Wegmans Customer Service Desk in the Waugh Chapel Towne Center store or at one of Department of Recreation and Parks regional parks and trails visitor centers. Visit www.aacounty.org/RecParks/ for locations and hours.

Candlelight Concert Society Seeks Board Members

The Candlelight Concert Society of Howard County is looking for board members. Board members promote the performance of musical and other performing arts programs, raise funds and provide other resources to support Candlelight’s objectives.

The board meets monthly. Members provide strategic direction, serve on various committees and assist at performances and events. For more information, visit www.candlelightconcerts.org or call Tracey Schutty at 410-997-2324.

Leadership Camp for Girls Seeks Applicants

The Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County is accepting applications for its residential summer camp, Journey 2013. The camp will include 25 girls entering eighth to ninth grade in the fall of 2013. Maryland Leadership Workshops (MLW) will operate Journey, which will run from Sunday, July 14–Saturday, July 20, at Washington College in Chestertown (in Kent County, on the Upper Eastern Shore).

The cost of the camp is $700. Applications can be obtained at www.mlw.org and also are available in guidance offices at local middle schools. The final deadline for applications is May 15. For further information, contact office@mlw.org.

SpringHill Suites Holds Art Night

Art Night will be held at the SpringHill Suites in Columbia on Wednesday, May 8, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. The initiative is designed to give local artists visibility while exposing guests to the local art scene. SpringHill Suites properties around the country are hosting their own “evening of inspiration” to celebrate local talent.

The initiative is an extension of SpringHill Suites’ core element that focuses on style and design. The hotel is located at 7055 Minstrel Way. For more information, call 410-290-7896 or e-mail mlewis@otodevelopment.com.

Supporters Post at Harry Browne’s for Lazarick, MarylandReporter.com

Friends and colleagues of noted area publisher and journalist Len Lazarick recently came together for a Happy Hour fundraiser at Harry Browne’s, the famed political bistro in downtown Annapolis, to support his online publication, MarylandReporter.com.

MarylandReporter.com’s daily roundup gathers stories from more than 50 web sites, including those of legacy media, broadcast, online and bloggers from the right and left; its original stories aim to give readers information on topics that aren’t easily found elsewhere.

Like public radio, MarylandReporter.com is a nonprofit supported by foundations, sponsors and donors. It does not accept grants from government or contributions from political committees. Since the IRS has designated the entity a 501(c)(3) organization, donations are tax deductible (and donors can remain anonymous).

To support the effort, visit the aforementioned web site, call 410-312-9840 or e-mail Len@MarylandReporter.com.

From MarylandReporter.com …

Guzzone won’t run for county executive; Schuh definitely will: Democratic Del. Guy Guzzone has decided not to run for Howard County executive as many expected, but instead will campaign again for the legislature, possibly for the state Senate. Republican Del. Steve Schuh fulfilled everyone’s expectations Thursday night by announcing a race for Anne Arundel County executive, even though he will likely face new county executive Laura Neuman in a Republican primary as well as County Councilman John Grasso. Read more: http://marylandreporter.com/category/news/#ixzz2SX2SdN2s

Retiring Howard delegates endorse successor as part of big turnover: Democratic Dels. Liz Bobo, Steve DeBoy and Jimmy Malone have disagreed on many of the big issues in their decades at the State House: taxes, gambling, gun control, same-sex marriage, the death penalty. The three veteran delegates are giving up their seats representing the oddly shaped District 12 that stretches from West Columbia to Arbutus, but Monday they came together to endorse a candidate to replace them: Terri Hill, a Columbia plastic surgeon who grew up in its most liberal precincts. Read more: http://marylandreporter.com/category/news/#ixzz2SX2qWGDd

MarylandReporter.com is a news site for government and politics in Maryland that is published and edited by Len Lazarick. For more information or to sign up for the daily e-news, go to marylandreporter.com.

The Spice of Life

I love what I do. Every day, I meet the most interesting, intriguing, fascinating, unique people — many of them entrepreneurs. Their creativity, their energy, their intelligence is staggering. And my job, with a lot of help from my team, is to seek them out, get to know them, learn about their special niche and introduce them to all of you.

Since our first issue of Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly six years ago, we have traveled Maryland east to west, north and south to learn the gamut, from making 12-layer cakes to this month’s featured duo, Carol Politi and Carole Teolis, who have already helped save lives by creating tracking technology that goes where GPS fails. I am truly wide-eyed and star-struck with the diversity and novelty of so many entrepreneurs in Maryland.

Announcing the 2013 Maryland Entrepreneur Awards

To celebrate these amazing people — maybe you or someone you know — Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly, Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship and Star Global Ventures has announced the 2013 Maryland Entrepreneur Awards. Again this year, there are five award categories that include: Business Entrepreneur, Technology Entrepreneur, Life Sciences Entrepreneur, Green Entrepreneur and Social/Nonprofit Entrepreneur.

To apply, go to our web site, bizmonthly.com, and click on Maryland Entrepreneur Awards for the forms. If you have any questions, please e-mail me at news@bizmonthly.com. We will feature the winners in these pages in November.

A Quick Word of Advice for Business Owners

We at The Business Monthly and Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly were without e-mail for three days. Not the end of the world, but certainly inconvenient. The company that hosts our e-mail and e-newsletter burnt down (no one was injured, thank heaven). It took three days to get our e-mail back up and three weeks to get the BizWeekly e-newsletter back up. While none of that was devastating to us, it gave us a moment of pause and had us reviewing all our other backup and fail-safe plans. I recommend you do the same every once in a while — before disaster strikes — when what could be a disaster is only an inconvenience.

Becky Mangus, Publisher

The Flux Capacitor

Logically I know better, since I have family members who hold patents, but when I hear the word “inventor,” I tend to envision someone along the lines of Doc in the “Back to the Future” movies — white-coated and white-haired, with excitement about his invention putting a slightly manic look in his eyes.

Thus, I’m especially pleased to take an additional step toward dispelling that pervasive stereotype by featuring the two amazing women in our cover article: Carole Teolis and Carol Politi. Both are electrical engineers. Both hold patents. The two head a technology company on the verge of significant growth, with millions of dollars in capital investments and grants to fund its work.

And neither has flyaway white hair or a manic expression.

These women, along with the other inventors featured in this issue, truly are shaping our future. Their work, and the work of others like them, will determine what that future will look like.

Growing up, my family had one black-and-white television. I was in high school before calculators became commonly available — and what a boon we thought they were. Computers, the World Wide Web and the Internet, mobile phones, not to mention CAT scan and Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines, even the various components of the Hubble Telescope — all these were no more than a (somewhat manic?) gleam in someone’s eye, and then a pending patent, not so long ago.

I envy these inventors who are leading the charge into the unknown. I’m not one of them; I don’t have the background or the imagination. But I’m pleased we can do our small part in introducing them to the world.

I’ll Even Use the Word ‘Synergy’

Not all entrepreneurs are inventors. Certainly not all inventors are entrepreneurs. Its when we introduce the two — the inward-facing inventor who can develop an idea and make it work and the outward-facing entrepreneur who can bring that idea to market — that the magic happens.

As government, academic institutions and economic entities have come to this realization, they are creating avenues to get the two together. Much research and development — “invention” — is done in universities and research laboratories, so a multitude of technology transfer programs boasting acronyms such as ACTiVATE, MIPS, TEDCO and the unpronounceable MTTF have sprung up to provide a conduit to bring these developments to market through the development of technology companies.

Enter the entrepreneur partner, with the fire in his or her belly and the quick wit to usher the product into the marketplace and make customers desire it. Each partner benefits, and so does the public.

Much as I hate the overused term, I’ve got to call that “synergy.”

Joan Waclawski, Editor

1992: Kenneth Hedrick, an 18-year-old Maryland firefighter, dies in a burning building after rescuing a 7-year-old boy.

1999: Six firefighters die inside a Worcester, Mass., cold storage building.

2001: Three hundred forty-three firefighters and paramedics are lost on 9/11.

On the fourth floor of the Greenway Center, an unremarkable glass office building in Greenbelt, TRX Systems’ Carol Politi; Carole Teolis, Ph.D.; and their team are improving the survival odds for firefighters, soldiers and miners with TRX NEON, a non-GPS 3-D tracking technology.

What is non-GPS tracking? Simply, it’s the ability to locate, monitor and guide in “GPS-denied” environments.

Your Foursquare App or the recently touted WIFISLAM tracker purchased by Apple requires “infrastructure,” i.e., WiFi or detectable GPS. But WiFi can disappear during a power outage, and natural and man-made structures can block or distort WiFi and GPS signals. And firefighters and soldiers, weighed down with heavy equipment, don’t generally walk around with buildings’ schematics at their fingertips.

TRX NEON doesn’t rely on any of these, and it’s changing the tracking world. Yet seven years ago, today’s TRX Systems was just a name.

Tenacity Leads to ‘Secret Sauce’

Shortly after 9/11, Techno-Sciences Inc. (TSI), a company headed by Gilmer Blankenship, received a $308,000 grant to develop an emergency responder tracking and monitoring system.

Carole Teolis, then vice president of systems engineering at TSI, led the project team. Their goal: Find a way to locate people, guide them through structures (create a map) and receive and provide information in GPS-denied environments.

Firefighters, consulted through the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute and in New York, made it clear that any viable solution not only had to work, but had to be “SWAP-C”: low size, weight, power and cost. That meant under $1,000 per unit for firefighters. They also had to be heat resistant.

Sounds simple? It wasn’t. “There were,” Blankenship noted, “multiple failures.”

Teolis and her team were tenacious. They figured out a “secret sauce” — a software solution that fixed issues related to an approach they had previously discarded: inertial sensor-based technology. (Inertial sensors measure motion and rotation, and a [micro] computer calculates the position, orientation and velocity of the moving object without the need for external references, such as WiFi or GPS.)

The fix meant they could use low-cost MEMS (micro-electro mechanical systems) chips. Today, this “secret sauce” is at the heart of TRX’s NEON product.

TRX Systems Is Born

The solution’s potential was enormous but outside of TSI’s main focus, so it was decided to spin off a new company. Activating a previously registered name, today’s TRX Systems, co-founded by Blankenship and Teolis, was born. A 2007 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant provided the new firm’s seed money.

The chance to head a new company came at an opportune moment for Teolis. At TSI, she’d been involved in multiple projects, from gas turbines to tsunami-related projects.

“I wanted to do something that would actually be finished. This one we could make work,” she said.

With Teolis as its president and Ben Funk, now TRX’s vice president of engineering, as the first employee, the company moved into the University of Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute’s (MTech) Technology Advancement Program (TAP), a business incubator.

Success and accolades came quickly. In July 2008, TRX was named Maryland Incubator Company of the Year in the Homeland Security category. The same year, it won first place in The Global Security Challenge (GSC).

Not only did they defeat competitors from around the world, but with the honor came a $500,000 contract from the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), a “national interagency research and development program for combating terrorism requirements at home and abroad,” according to its web site.

Noted Teolis, “GSC was a business competition versus an engineering and design project. Saying we had a good business was actually a big thing.”

Shortly thereafter, the company’s CFO left. Teolis was at first reluctant to bring in a businessperson.

Politi Brings New Skills

The company had more than $1.5 million in research grants from agencies like DARPA, but was having difficulty raising venture capital. Research grants can’t pay for the sales and marketing needed to build a business. TRX board members, including Jean-Luc Abaziou, suggested that fire-related tracking was too narrow a market, unlikely to attract significant venture capital.

Abaziou urged them to bring in someone with the experience and knowledge not only to secure funding, but to grow and develop new business opportunities. He suggested Teolis meet Carol Politi, with whom he had previously worked.

“You’ll like her,” Teolis recalled him saying.

She did. Teolis and Politi and the rest of the close-knit team hit it off. Politi joined the company in 2010, the same year TRX sold its first product — to NIST: The National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Politi brought with her strong marketing, product development and entrepreneurial credentials. Her career included building and selling a company (Megisto Systems), and working in international marketing and in mobile technologies and communications in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Why was she interested in TRX? Politi explained, “As a company, a combination of the large market opportunity and the innovative technology addressing it was really compelling … indoor location is going to be a very large market, and TRX was the first to have solved the really hard technology challenge of delivering 3-D location indoors without infrastructure.”

Noted Abaziou, “Carol is a fast learner and can grasp a new technical area and become knowledgeable about it in a record time. … She can extract what is critical to the business.”

New Markets, Products, Funding

With Politi on board as president, (Teolis became chairman and chief technology officer), the company reassessed and expanded its product focus.

Today the company, with Teolis taking the technology development lead, has multiple patents pending, 15 full-time and four part-time employees, and business relationships in Southeast Asia; and is a partner in a new Wearable Advanced Sensor Platform (WASP) project spearheaded by Globe Manufacturing Co.

Rather than hire more staff, they’re relying on experienced consultants for everything from marketing to finance. Politi, Teolis and a management team meet weekly to review and assess current projects and opportunities.

“It never ceases to amaze me with the ideas they have that we can put out to market,” Politi said.

Politi herself already has made a significant financial difference, raising close to $2 million in new capital funding in the past year alone. This includes $475,000 from New Dominion Angels, and $150,000 from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, through the Maryland Venture Fund, its second TRX investment.

In November 2012, Motorola Solutions Venture Capital announced it had invested in the company.

Award-Winning Pioneers

Teolis and her team, with product development input from Politi, are creating a company that continues to be on the leading edge of this fast-moving field. TRX NEON, the company’s signature product, which it continues to refine, is reaching into public safety, homeland security and commercial markets.

A young man walks out of the office door with a cell phone in hand. Teolis turns on a computer, and on its screen a blue line starts zig-zagging down virtual hallways. The two are testing a new product — embedding the company’s signature TRX NEON tracking process into cell phones, a development that will significantly broaden its commercial and security applications.

TRX Systems is not only developing breakthrough products, but is a pioneer in its own right — both top officers are women with degrees in electrical engineering, an area too frequently dominated by men. Both hold patents. Both are driven, focused people intent not only on developing innovative technologies, but on bringing their company’s products successfully to market.

They are passionate about what they’re doing, and about the team of people with whom they work, from engineers on staff to firefighters in the field. They are committed not only because they want to create a profitable business, but because what they do can save lives.

The business community is taking notice. In May 2012, the company received a Tibbets Award from the SBA Small Business Innovation Research program, which recognizes Technical Innovation, Business Impact, and Broader Societal and Economic Benefit.

Carol Politi was recognized in July 2012 with a Brava! Award from SmartCEO magazine. The awards “celebrate women business leaders who combine their irrepressible entrepreneurial spirit with a passion for giving back to the community.”

In March 2013, Carole Teolis received the Woman in Tech Award from the Chesapeake Regional Tech Council (CRTC). The award recognizes “an individual who best exemplifies the outstanding contributions made by women in advancing technology in industry, business and society.”

The future? Acquisition is certainly a possibility. Right now, for Teolis and Politi, TRX Systems is an all-consuming effort, leaving little time for outside interests aside from their families (both are married with two sons). “This is my life,” noted Teolis.

The work they are doing will help ensure that the Ken Hedricks, Worcester Sixes, 9/11 first responders, plus soldiers, miners and others who venture into dangerous environments are never again lost because they were injured or became disoriented in burning, smoky, debris-filled environments and couldn’t be found until it was too late.

Right now, keeping tracking on track is what it’s all about.

It’s true that, geographically speaking, Maryland is a small state. But as the old saying goes, “Good things come in small packages,” and that is especially true when it comes to the resources, advice and technical expertise that Maryland offers inventors and technology entrepreneurs.

From university laboratories and research centers (such as The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Maryland’s Office of Technology Commercialization or University of Maryland – Baltimore City’s ACTiVATE) to state organizations (Maryland Biotechnology Center or the Department of Business and Economic Development), a wide variety of entities are working to help entrepreneurs develop and market their inventions.

Abundant Resources Available

Glen Kotapish, president of the Inventors Network of the Capital Area (INCA), certainly would agree. As a patent researcher for more than seven years, as well as an inventor in his own right, he listed several Maryland agencies that he or others have used. For example, he has both taken classes and taught at the Community College of Baltimore County’s FAB Lab, which, as its web site explains, is “the place for [Do-It-Yourself] Digital Design and Fabrication.”

Kotapish’s latest invention, a kitchen knife sharpener, reinforces the notion that good things come in small packages. First of all, it attaches to multiple kitchen surfaces (countertops, tables, drawers) and offers multiple sharpening areas for different size knives. Then it stores neatly in a drawer and doubles as a knife organizer.

A patent has been filed for the sharpener, and Kotapish described the two- to three-year journey that such things take to be reviewed.

Interspersed with this narrative, he listed even more resources that are readily available, such as the Maryland Intellectual Property Legal Resource Center at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), and the patent and trademark depository libraries located in Baltimore and College Park.

He was quick to point out that “the proximity of the patent office in Alexandria, Va., is also a great help for inventors in this area.”

A Convergence of Resources

So, Maryland offers a lot for the individual inventor. But how is technology transferred from research labs to the market? Again, there is a wide array of options, but one of the most recent and promising is UM Ventures.

This organization, established in August 2012, is a collaboration between two University of Maryland campuses: College Park and Baltimore. Both feature first-class research laboratories with highly regarded faculty.

But as Dr. Patrick O’Shea, vice president and chief research officer of UMCP, noted, “Academic institutions are historically good at discovery, but they have not usually been very good at moving their discoveries from the lab to the marketplace.” UM Ventures is intended to bridge that gap.

O’Shea explained that UM Ventures “brings together faculty and students from both universities to make connections and solve real-world problems.” The example he gave — an emergency room physician with a problem that could be solved by an engineer — highlights the synergy UM Ventures is intended to create.

Baltimore’s emphasis on life sciences, and its medical school and diagnostic technology, form a perfect fit with UMCP’s focus on engineering and business schools, as well as its expertise in fundamental science and software.

Dr. Phil Robilotto, assistant vice president – Office of Technology Transfer at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, called UM Ventures “the natural next step” in transferring technology into the commercial marketplace. He cited the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII), a partnership between the state and five of its universities, which offers monthly awards of $100,000 for technology that has good potential to be commercially viable.

Since UM Venture’s inception a little less than a year ago, the organization has already won the MII award seven times, with two of the awards centering around technology that is jointly owned by the two campuses.

Inventing Your Own Niche

Despite all the academic and governmental resources available, sometimes inventors take a different path, as did Charles Kleinrichert, president and owner of AC Beverages. This small company, based in Annapolis, takes advantage of its own special niche in the beer industry market.

Kleinrichert was led to Maryland in 1990 because he had a contract with Anheuser Busch and Miller Brewing Company to install and service draft beer equipment. Shortly thereafter, following an idea sparked by a conversation with his brother-in-law, who was working on nitrogen extractor membranes in a joint MIT/NASA project, Kleinrichert developed his Nitrogenator, a device that, in essence, adds a nitrogen/carbon dioxide blend into the beer storage systems of hotels/restaurants and other establishments that serve beer on tap. The Nitrogenator helps enhance the quality of the beer by keeping it fresher much longer.

For Kleinrichert’s small business, Maryland was a good fit because of his involvement with the International Beverage Dispensing Association, which is headquartered in Reisterstown. The Brewer’s Association and Maryland Restaurant Association “have also been instrumental in the growth of my company,” added Kleinrichert.

John Melius is another inventor who followed a slightly different path. Melius, the president of Mor-fin Corp. in Waldorf, created the Predator Power fins, which use biomimetics to create a fin that enhances the swimming experience by adapting the shapes of the ocean’s predators and applying those shapes to the fin on a swimmer’s foot.

Originally an aerospace engineering student at UMCP, Melius eventually switched majors to fine arts to nurture his artistic side. However, when it came to the development of his Power fins, both his scientific and his creative nature came into play. “I was inspired by the way dolphins ‘flew’ through the water and how their form allowed that natural movement,” he explained.

Although there were many resources that Melius drew upon while working on his invention, he gave high praise to Direct Dimensions, an Owings Mills firm that helped with the initial CAD drawings. Their exacting measurements and three-dimensional scanning systems enabled him to fine-tune his designs.

Developing Shared Resources

Another resource that many inventors and entrepreneurs take advantage of is Maryland’s numerous business incubators and research parks. According to the Maryland Biotechnology Center’s web site, these incubators “offer shared resources, access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, and business assistance.”

With more than 453,000 square feet of wet and non-wet laboratory space available, this network stretches across the state, from the Garrett Information Enterprise Center in the west, to the Salisbury Airport Incubator on the Eastern Shore, not to mention the many research parks located near state universities.

One final note: Just in case there were any doubts about Maryland’s welcoming atmosphere for inventors and entrepreneurs, the following statistic from Maryland’s Department of Business and Economic Development web site is informative. It states, “In the 2012 Enterprising States study, which looks at how states are creating an environment in which the private sector can thrive, Maryland ranks first in “Entrepreneurship and Innovation.”

Not bad for a little state with big ideas, and, luckily, the resources, support mechanisms and brain power to match.

On the road to getting a patent — and beyond — Maryland’s inventors have a lot of support along the way. Whether inventors are working in business incubators, in labs such as The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory or in their garages, they are working in a state that offers opportunities for funding, pitching, networking and other forms of support.

From state-funded programs to local nonprofits to university departments, inventors can draw on resources that can help turn their ideas into bona fide businesses.

The business community needs to recognize that inventors and entrepreneurs are not one and the same, said Julie Lenzer Kirk, co-chair of Startup Maryland, a regional initiative launched out of the Startup America Partnership that connects innovation communities and recognizes the importance of startups to state and regional economies.

“I think inventors like to do the research and the development,” she reflected. “They are fascinated by the discovery process.”

An entrepreneur, on the other hand, is interested in the application, the bigger proliferation of that invention into the market. “A program that supports an inventor might help that inventor build a customer base, find new customers and get out there, sell that idea and deliver it.”

Marrying Entrepreneur and Inventor

Some of the most successful businesses pair an inventor with an entrepreneur, allowing each to thrive in his own preferred environment.

This model an be found in the ACTiVATE program, a year-long, applied, entrepreneurship training program focused on teaching women with some technical or business experience to create technology companies based on inventions from the region’s research institutions and federal laboratories.

ACTiVATE, created at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, stands for “Achieving the Commercialization of Technology in Ventures through Applied Training for Entrepreneurs.”

Kris Appel, an ACTiVATE instructor and also president of the company Encore Path Inc., said she has seen a lot of inventors in the past few years. “Many of them seek me out to ask if I will commercialize their product for them. Some of more successful companies I’ve seen locally include both the inventor and the entrepreneur working as a team — a winning combination. It’s rare that one individual has all the skills necessary to go from idea to commercial success.”

ACTiVATE helps entrepreneurs connect inventions with people and then find a market to create a business, agreed Lily Bengfort, also an ACTiVATE instructor. In addition, Bengfort is founder of CenGen, short for Consulting and Engineering Next Generation Networks.

“Entrepreneurs convert these inventions into cash by obtaining the necessary resources, talent and leadership to bring the invention to market and make it a commercial success,” she said.

“Many inventors are entrepreneurs because they pursue full business ventures. Many entrepreneurs are innovators but not inventors, so they commercialize the work of inventors. We work with both at ACTiVATE to grow businesses.”

Extracting the Seed to Success

If an invention is the seed for a business, the state’s funding and technology transfer programs are key in helping extract that seed, and give it what it needs to grow.

Maryland’s Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) operates the Maryland Technology Transfer Fund, the BRAC Technology Transfer Initiative and the Johnson & Johnson Joint Investment program, all of which provide funding for Maryland companies that wish to develop technology-based products or services in collaboration with universities or federal laboratories.

Similarly, a University of Maryland program called Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) accelerates the commercialization of technology in Maryland by jointly funding collaborative research and development projects between companies and University System of Maryland faculty.

Through MIPS, Maryland firms have the opportunity to leverage their research and development funds and gain access to the creative talents and extensive research base of the University System of Maryland. MIPS matching funds are awarded on a competitive basis for projects based on proposals submitted jointly by Maryland companies and researchers from any of the 13 university system institutions.

Birds of a Feather

Many local inventors also draw resources and support from groups of their peers. Organizations such as the Inventors Network of the Capital Area and Women Inventorz Network (WIN) give inventors a chance to bounce ideas off each other, share sources for funding and update each other on the latest changes in patent laws.

Melinda Knight, co-owner of WIN, said that WIN’s members are inventors and entrepreneurs.

“I think they deal with even more challenges than the average entrepreneurs,” she said. “Most of the women are mothers as well, so they’re juggling a lot and wearing countless hats. Each situation and challenge is unique, so our network was built to try to help them with any challenges they might face. We consider ourselves the connectors and protectors of these women. We have seen many situations where these women have either been taken advantage of, had personal struggles … and we have seen many successes.”

• ACTiVATE. Created at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, ACTiVATE stands for “Achieving the Commercialization of Technology in Ventures through Applied Training for Entrepreneurs.” The yearlong, applied, entrepreneurship training program focuses on teaching women with some technical or business experience to create technology companies based on inventions from the region’s research institutions and federal laboratories. www.umbc.edu/activate

• BRAC Technology Transfer Initiative (BTTI). Offered through the Technology Development Corporation (see below), the BTTI seed stage investment program is a component of the Maryland Technology Transfer Fund (see below). www.choosemaryland.org/moveyourbusiness/Pages/TechTransferPrograms.aspx

• Business incubators. Most of Maryland’s business incubators are nonprofit organizations sponsored by economic development or college/university initiatives. Many specialize in helping high-growth tech companies, but at least some specialize in helping local, small businesses. Visit the Maryland Business Incubator Association web site for a listing of incubators by location and services. www.mdbusinessincubation.org

• Entrepreneur Office Hours. A program within the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (see below), Entrepreneur Office Hours features experienced entrepreneurs, as well as legal and business professionals, who give advice on how to build a successful startup company. Inventors and entrepreneurs can receive free and impartial advice, brainstorm business strategies, investigate funding opportunities and learn about additional resources.

www.mtech.umd.edu/va/eoh/index.html

• Inventors Network of the Capital Area. This nonprofit educational organization was founded in 1993. Its members are interested in patents, the innovation process, product design, marketing, licensing, prototyping and other product development issues. Meetings are free and open to the public. www.dcinventors.org

• InvestMaryland. InvestMaryland is a funding source for early-, mid- and late-stage growth companies. Through a premium insurance tax credit auction sale, the state of Maryland raised $84 million to invest in early-stage technologies in the areas of software, communications, cybersecurity and life sciences. Starting in July 2012, InvestMaryland funds have been apportioned through venture capital firms, the Maryland Venture Fund and the Equity Participation Investment Program.www.choosemaryland.org/businessresources/Pages/InvestMaryland.aspx

• Johnson & Johnson Joint Investment program. Offered through the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (see below), this fund was designed as a complementary component of TEDCO’s Maryland Technology Transfer Fund (see below). In order to be eligible for funding, companies must be early stage businesses engaged in health care technology transfer collaboration with a university or federal laboratory in Maryland. http://tedco.md/programs

• Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS). Offered through University of Maryland’s Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (see below), MIPS accelerates the commercialization of technology in Maryland by jointly funding collaborative research and development projects between companies and University System of Maryland faculty. MIPS provides funding, matched by participating companies, for university-based research projects that help companies develop new products.

www.mips.umd.edu

• Maryland Intellectual Property Legal Resource Center. A program within the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (see below), the Maryland Intellectual Property Legal Resource Center offers free legal services to entrepreneurs and emerging technology companies, including patent applications, prior art searches, license agreements, non-disclosure agreements and company formation. The center delivers legal services primarily through law students. www.mtech.umd.edu/miplrc

• Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech). Offered through the University of Maryland, Mtech’s mission is to educate the next generation of technology entrepreneurs, create successful technology ventures and connect Maryland companies with university resources to help them succeed. Mtech offers programs, courses, workshops and competitions to help aspiring entrepreneurs learn how to bring their ideas and products to the world.www.mtech.umd.edu

• Maryland Technology Transfer Fund (MTTF). A program offered through the Technology Development Corporation (see below), the MTTF exists to foster greater collaboration between businesses, Maryland universities and federal laboratories to bring technology into the marketplace. Dozens of companies have received tech transfer funding to date, and each of the companies has gone on to receive downstream funding from angel and venture investors. http://tedco.md/programs

• Startup Maryland. This regional initiative has been launched out of the Startup America Partnership, which connects innovation communities and recognizes the importance of startups to state and regional economies. Driven from within the community and led by entrepreneurs, Startup Maryland is locally-operated and inclusive. Startup Maryland rallies entrepreneurs, supporters and other innovation stakeholders around four main initiatives: access to capital, celebration/awareness, resource mapping and revenue opportunities/corporate connections. http://startupmd.org

• Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO). TEDCO was created by the Maryland state legislature in 1998 to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from Maryland’s research universities and federal labs into the marketplace and to assist in the creation and growth of technology-based businesses statewide. In Maryland and beyond, TEDCO is a resource of mentoring, funding and networking for entrepreneurs and startups that need guidance as they bring innovative concepts to the market. http://tedco.md

• United States Patent and Trademark Office. On this government agency’s web site, inventors can search for patents, view fee schedules, file for patents online, check the status of patents and more. The office also keeps updated records of patent statistics, including a list of independent inventors by state and year. www.uspto.gov

• Women Inventorz Network (WIN). WIN was created to inspire, nurture, educate, award, protect and promote women inventors across the U.S. and Canada. WIN provides a web site that allows women inventors to sell their products directly to consumers, thereby eliminating cost and dependency on retail distribution. www.womeninventorznetwork.com

Have you ever walked into a store only to see that great idea you had but never pursued right there on the shelf in front of you, being sold by someone else and marked with the words “patent pending”?

Don’t let this happen again. Take your next great idea and turn it into an invention — and protect that invention with a patent.

You don’t have to be a big corporation or have heaps of money sitting around to make this happen. You do, however, need to understand the basics of what patents are and what types of inventions are eligible for patent protection.

So what exactly is a patent and who can get one?

A patent is a property right that is granted to an inventor by the United States Patent & Trademark Office. A key thing to note here is that patents are only available to the actual inventor or inventors. Although the inventor may assign his/her rights in the invention to another individual or entity, the patent application must be filed in the name of the actual inventor.

The property rights conferred by a patent are actually referred to in the negative. This means that owning a patent on an invention does not give the inventor the right to make the invention; rather, it gives the inventor the right “to exclude others from making, using, offering to sell or selling their invention throughout the United States or importing their invention into the United States.” The U.S. government grants this right to the inventor in exchange for the inventor’s public disclosure of how to make the invention to the world.

There are three types of patents: design patents, plant patents and utility patents.

Design patents are fairly limited in nature and may be obtained by anyone who invents a new, original and ornamental design for an article of manufacture having practical utility. What exactly does this mean? A design patent applies to the ornamental or decorative features of something that is primarily functional. Examples of items that are typically covered by design patents are furniture, jewelry and soda or water bottles. The design patent only covers the ornamental and non-functional design of an item.

The second and even less common type of patent is the plant patent. The plant patent may be obtained by anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces a distinct and new variety of plant. In other words, the plant patent is reserved for newly invented species of plants that do not reproduce naturally outside of a laboratory.

Utility patents are certainly the most common types of patents. Inventors can obtain a utility patent for a process, machine, article of manufacture, composition of matter or any improvement upon any of these categories.

Each of these is fairly self-explanatory. It is important, however, to add that a process patent not only permits the inventor to prevent others from using the same process, but it also allows the inventor to prevent others from selling items made by the same process.

What types of ideas and inventions are eligible for patent protection?

A common misconception is that an individual can get a patent for an idea. While an idea is naturally the starting point of most inventions, the idea itself is not eligible for patent protection until it is reduced to practice in a tangible form.

As an example, the idea of creating a better mousetrap is not itself patentable, but if an inventor actually constructs a better mousetrap, then the invention would be patentable. For an invention to be patentable it has to meet three requirements — the three keys to patentability: It must be new, useful and nonobvious.

• New: For an invention to be considered new, or novel, as the patent law refers to it, it must be significantly different from all previous inventions, whether the previous inventions were patented or not. In addition, it must not have been fully described in any printed publication anywhere in the world or have been offered for sale in the United States more than one year prior to the filing of a patent application.

• Useful: Patents will be issued only for useful inventions. The standard by which this is judged is whether a person of ordinary skill in the art of the invention would consider it to be useful. While this sounds like a high hurdle to overcome, usefulness typically only represents a minimal requirement and even a single operable use of the invention will get the inventor past this hurdle.

• Nonobvious: In addition to being new, the invention must not be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art. A person of ordinary skill in the art is a person who regularly practices in the technology the invention is related to. This is where an inventive step is required.

For example, if invention A is known in the art and invention B is known in the art and it would be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to put A and B together to get C, then C is not eligible for patent protection.

Understanding whether your invention is patentable is only half of the battle. Actually obtaining the patent is the next step in the process.

Editor’s Note: Watch for the Aug. 6, 2013, issue of Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly, where Steven DeSmet will outline steps for obtaining a patent.

Steven C. DeSmet, Esq., is a member of Leahy & DeSmet LLC (www.leahylegal.com), in Calverton. He can be reached at 301-572-6872, or e-mail steve@leahylegal.com.

The January 2013 issue of Maryland Entrepreneur Quarterly had immigrant entrepreneurs as its theme. Several articles cited the achievements of individuals who took advantage of opportunities in America to build and sustain successful enterprises.

There is an important connection between immigrant entrepreneurs and this month’s theme of inventions and ideas used to create businesses that is represented by pending legislation in the United States Congress referred to as Startup Act 3.0.

One of the outcomes subsequent to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was more restrictions on the ability of foreigners to enter the U.S. Academicians and businesspeople noted that these restrictions created a brain drain in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) that was exacerbated by insufficient STEM pursuits by American students.

Results from attempts to remedy this situation have been mixed, but there is pending legislation before Congress called the Startup Act 3.0 that could jump-start opportunities for immigrant entrepreneurs.

According to the Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation (Kaufmann Foundation), startup businesses create an average of 3 million new jobs each year, often from entrepreneurial endeavors founded by immigrants. Technology-oriented startups such as Google, Yahoo! and eBay were founded by immigrants.

In recognition of the importance of immigrant entrepreneurs, a bipartisan group of senators, with the support of President Barack Obama, introduced the Startup Act 3.0, which is a comprehensive jobs and high-skilled immigration reform bill. The Startup Act 3.0 would provide Entrepreneur Visas for a fixed pool of 75,000 foreign-born individuals who have H-1B visas or F-1 student visas and who create businesses in the United States.

By the end of the first year the business exists, these entrepreneurs would be required to have a minimum of two full-time, non-family employees and a minimum of $100,000 invested in the business.

The Kaufmann Foundation used data from the U.S. Census Bureau Business Dynamic Statistics (BDS) to evaluate the potential of Startup 3.0 under three scenarios.

If Entrepreneur Visas were available in 2014 and all 75,000 slots were filled, BDS estimates that nearly half of the firms would still be in business after four years, and that the openings created by failed firms would be filled by new Entrepreneur Visa applicants. In two of the scenarios, the study by the Kaufmann Foundation estimates that, over a 10-year period, between 500,000 and 889,000 jobs would be created, leading to an increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 0.5% and 1.0%, respectively.

Under the third scenario, half of the businesses would be technology and engineering firms established by holders of H-1B visas, who tend to be employed in science, technology and engineering. Studies have shown that immigrant-founded engineering and technology startups employ an average of more than 21 people per company.

Using this assumption, the Startup Act 3.0 would facilitate the creation of a minimum of 1.6 million jobs and a GDP increase of 1.6% over a 10-year period. The GDP increase translates into $224 billion of economic activity.

Estimates of job creation and GDP increases could be conservative. A National Foundation for American Policy evaluation of the top 50 venture capital-backed businesses in 2011 indicated that 24 of those businesses were co-founded by immigrants. The average age of those companies was 5.8 years, and they added 27 new jobs each year, which exceeded assumptions made in the Kaufmann Foundation study.

“The businesses high-skilled immigrants create are a source of jobs for Americans, but at a time when our economy needs jobs first and foremost, our archaic visa policies has America falling behind,” said Startup 3.0 co-sponsor Sen. Jerry Moran (R. Kan.).

“We are losing jobs and talent by the day to countries like Canada, Chile and the United Kingdom that have realized entrepreneurs have been the secret to America’s economic success and have changed their visa policies to aggressively court these job creators,” said Moran. “Startup Act 3.0 would create jobs for Americans by keeping highly-skilled and entrepreneurial immigrants in the United States where their talent and new ideas can fuel economic growth. We don’t have the luxury of time; if Congress fails to act, we will lose the next generation of great entrepreneurs and the jobs they create.”

“There’s hope that 2013 finally may be the year the United States implements comprehensive immigration reform,” said Dane Stangler, director of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. “However, that legislation would fall short if it fails to create a new visa for the thousands of potential foreign-born entrepreneurs who are already in the country, particularly those who are likely to start technology and engineering firms. Increasing their numbers would accelerate U.S. economic and job growth and help offset the steadily declining numbers of native entrepreneurs.”

In addition to the Entrepreneur Visas, Startup 3.0 offers other benefits to entrepreneurs and American businesses, including the elimination of country-caps for immigrants with employment-based visas. This would allow businesses to recruit global talent with a minimum of bureaucratic interference.

Startup 3.0 includes a capital gains tax exemption for startup companies. According to the Kauffmann Foundation, eliminating this capital gains tax will create $7.5 billion of investment available for startup firms. Startup firms less than 5 years old and making under $5 million would be eligible for research and development tax credits applicable to their payroll tax liability, which could facilitate job creation.

The startup bill promotes technology transfer and commercialization by providing grants to universities to enhance the ability of companies to commercialize their products. Finally, the bill includes a mandate that allows U.S.-educated foreign students who graduate with a master’s degree or a Ph.D. in one of the STEM areas a green card and permission to remain in the United States.

This is the third attempt at passing such a bill. While not knowing the details of the failure of the previous attempts, it is not unreasonable to assume that controversy over immigration reform was the cause of defeat.

Congress has not exactly covered itself with glory in the last several years regarding myriad issues, but it has a clear opportunity to contribute to the growth of the American economy and should act now to pass the Startup Act 3.0. As stated by Sen. Moran, America does not have the luxury of time.

Michael A. Mobley is managing partner of Obsidian Management LLC in Ellicott City. He may be reached at 410-418-4453 or obsidianmgmt@aol.com.