By Jim Verdonik
I'm an attorney
with Ward and Smith PA. I also write a
column about business and law for American Business Journals, have authored
multiple books and teach an eLearning course for entrepreneurs. You can
reach me at JFV@WardandSmith.com or JimV@ElearnSuccess.com. Or you
can check out my eLearning course at www.elearnSuccess.com
or www.YouTube.com/eLearnSuccess or purchase my books http://www.amazon.com/Jim-Verdonik/e/B0040GUBRW
I've been a technology lawyer for a long time.
But I still get a thrill when a client tells me about a
new technology they are working on.
It's like having a window into the future.
What's a dream today, becomes cutting edge technology
tomorrow and becomes a part of our everyday lives the following week. Then the next month its obsolete and something new replaces it.
OK, it really doesn't happen that fast.
Those "overnight successes" you read about in
business publications often take years or even a decade to turn a dream into a
commercial product. The media may like
stories about overnight successes, but there's a lot of pain and suffering in
the process. Some dreams never become
reality. But that's what makes it really
interesting to be part of the process.
Most tech companies are like a murder mystery. We don't know the outcome of the story until
it's over. Sometimes the hero dies on
the last page. It makes the successes
that much more exciting. That's why I
never really got into James Bond movies despite all the special effects. You know that whatever happens, James Bond
doesn't die. They need him in the
sequel.
Let's start exploring why technology clients are so great
to work with by looking at this video
that explains the connection between tech clients and Swiss Cheese:
One of the benefits of working with young businesses is
that I've had many opportunities to learn and expand my
experience. When problems need to be solved, are
there any boundaries between law and business?
What good is legal advice, if it doesn't make business sense? This video explains how my
clients taught me how to help them and how I share that experience with others:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTLgDU1nu-w&list=PLEyL-gjb9p8yqMcjg4lsrt8r69XYcSU7Q&index=6
I've been lucky to be able to work in a wide range of
science and technology based businesses.
Industries I have experience in include:
- Information technology, including
telecommunications and semiconductors, software, internet, social media and
computer games.
·
Health related, including biotech and drug
development and medical devices.
·
Crossover industries that combine information
technology and health services, including clinical trials and electronic
medical records.
·
Energy related industries including natural gas
technology, biomass and solar
Let's explore some of my deals in these industries.
Biotechnology. I'll answer that question in this video clip
about a biotechnology drug license deal I did.
Hollywood later made a movie (called Extraordinary Measures) about
developing and bringing that drug (Myozyme) to market. I don't remember seeing either Harrison Ford
or Brendan Frasier in the labs or negotiating rooms, but they both starred in
the movie. I wouldn't call it a great
movie, but I recommend that people who work in health related businesses show it
to their children. It helps children
understand the work mom and dad do developing drugs and medical devices and the
effects their work has on people's health.
I like health industry projects. The end result of a ten-year research and
development project helps lots of people.
Video Games. On the lighter side, my work in the Video Game
Industry was just a whole lot of fun. I worked for a client who did joint
ventures with authors Tom
Clancy and Michael Crichton to create computer games based on their
novels. In these deals we had to
allocate income streams based on book rights, movie rights, TV rights, computer
game rights and endorsements and spin-off product rights. In this video I explain how to deal with Hollywood and the publishing industry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiSIpcDSW3g&list=PLEyL-gjb9p8yqMcjg4lsrt8r69XYcSU7Q&index=12
International
Deals. The market for technology
and science based industries is worldwide. Even relatively small companies negotiate
international partnering deals. So you
get a lot of experience in cross border transactions. In this video I explain how that worked for a
client who licenses technology to the natural gas industry. I also tell a story about three of my clients who bump into
one another in a hotel lobby in China.
That tells you how small a place the world is getting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8JI_URhKoY&list=PLEyL-gjb9p8yqMcjg4lsrt8r69XYcSU7Q&index=13Ultimately, working with young technology and science and based companies taught me that I can be successful only if my clients succeed. This video explains how we work together to achieve that:
That's the end of our journey together exploring what it's like to be a technology lawyer.
It's difficult to predict the future, but one thing is
certain: The next new technology is just around the corner.
If you would like to
learn more about technology or other issues important to your success, you can
reach me at JFV@WardandSmith.com or JimV@ElearnSuccess.com. Or you
can check out my eLearning course at www.elearnSuccess.com
or www.YouTube.com/eLearnSuccess or purchase my books at http://www.amazon.com/Jim-Verdonik/e/B0040GUBRW
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