Business:
Today began just like any other day, except today...I AM MAGELLAN! This mean, I have to be able to get the whole group from one location to the other. Luckily, I had some help from the secret map fairy (the front desk) on how to get to our location.
Valea was not too hard to find, we just took the number 6 tram to the entrance of the Nordstan Mall. This was the first time the girls on the trip had seen the mall and man was it hilarious watching their eyes glow as we walked through the mall. It was like bringing kids into a candy store, except. OMG THOSE BOOTS ARE AMAZING, AND THOSE SCARFS, AND THE WOMAN! Never mind, I am not one to talk, I was just as captivated. Luckily, the window shopping didn't slow us down too much, because we were able to reach Andrew Hammond at Valea on time.
Valea is a consulting firm in the field of intellectual property rights with a specialty in patents. They have about 100 employees at five different locations. In 2013, they had earned about 185 million SEK, which converts into about 18.5 million U.S. dollars. Most of their employees have academic backgrounds such as a Master of Science, Law, and/or Engineering. Their main vision is to eventually be one of Europe's leading consulting firms in the field of intellectual property rights, and to be the natural choice of clients who work proactively to optimize the return on their intangible assets. Valea establishes, defends, and commercializes IP assets such as patents, trademarks, and designs.
To give a little background on Andrew Hammond, he has a Technical Degree and a Law Degree. He stated that he had to take a 3 day qualification exam to be a patent attorney and he passed it with flying colors! He started out as an examiner at a patent office, and become one of the three founding partners in the 2004 management buyout of Valea. He was worked in Patent Law for over 30 years now and he is loving every second of it.
A few key points that Andrew hit upon during his presentation were the fact that patents stimulate innovation and that patents give a monopoly to the inventors. This is essential because if our inventions could not make future profits for a sustainable period of time, then we would not strive to create something new. Research and Development is too time consuming and expensive to just create something and let your competitor immediately copy it. However, there are companies and individuals out there that are trying to bypass the system and Andrew discussed on how to avoid that as well.
His first suggestion...GET A PATENT ATTORNEY! People think of innovations, inventions, and more efficient products everyday. But you have to check if your brilliant idea already exists. One thing patent holders do to protect their intellectual property rights is they patent their product as well as the lower quality of their products to ensure that the competition can't compete with their main product because of a technicality.
An example of a product that was a great innovation was the diaper. The diaper has numerous components to it and each little piece from the type of fabric, to the type of stitching are all patented. There are a total of 27 patents in one diaper alone! That seems ridiculous, but Andrew described the importance of properly protecting your intellectual property rights to ensure the longevity of your revenues.
Andrew said that 80% of most business value is in patent rights. However, one must understand the difference between a discovery and an invention. Cavemen did not invent fire, they discovered fire when lightening struck a field and they touched the burning brush and screamed, " OUUUUCCCHH. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUURRRRRRRRREEEEEEE!!!! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!" Another example would be a 14 year old girl who invented the Binibottle. A water bottle that eliminates the adversity of filling your water bottle to the top because of the weird angle of a water fountain. By adding a second opening on the side, it allows the user to fill the water bottle to maximum capacity.
It was a great and insightful presentation and I am glad that Andrew Hammond took the time to meet with our group. His knowledge, wisdom, and expertise in the patent law helped me better understand the importance of conceptually thinking through all the minor details of a project. In his line of work, missing a small detail about the functionality of a product could lead to a competitor legally copying a product. You have to be intelligent to work in his field, and once again thank you for giving us the opportunity to learn from you. In addition, thank you Andrew for lunch and the great conversation at the end of lunch. It was great learning more about the personal side versus the business side.
We then had to walk back through the mall to catch the tram to SKF. Once we arrived our tour guide, Lars, opened with a video about the past, present, and future of SKF. After the video, we were given a souvenir, a small key-chain ball bearing that was the original patented SKF Ball Bearing.Then, we walked through the museum of the successes of the business.The tour showed the history and innovations of the ball bearing. In addition, it showed how the SKF was involved in the first airplane, tunneling across a large mountain, and landing man on the moon with a camera. Then, we were introduced to the heart of the business.
SKF's products are everywhere. SKF has been a leading global technology provider since 1907. What started with the invention of the self-aligning ball bearing more than 100 years ago has now developed into something much more. SKF currently offers a large number of products and solutions within several different areas, such as mechatronics, seals, lubrication systems, servicing and bearings.
They are constantly developing new technologies and use them to create products that offer competitive advantages to their customers. Their main focus today is to reduce the environmental impact of any asset during their lifecycles in both their own and their customers' operations. For instance, SKF Energy Efficient (E2) bearings save up to 30 per cent energy compared to a standard bearing.
Lars was highly informative and gave the tour at a prestigious level. He left no stone unturned. He even took the time to display the ball bouncing display twice because we were so amused. He was kind, passionate, and personable throughout the whole presentation. I would definitely recommend people to check out this facility; however, it was a little lengthy.
Leisure:
For dinner, we finally got to go to the place I have been waiting for this whole trip. The Swedish Taste at Matlagnings Studio! This is a five star restaurant with international professional chefs. It was our mission to prepare a four course meal. We were split into four teams. A team for the Starter, appetizer, main entree, and dessert. Our team (Haylie, Suzy, Joe, Katie, and I) was on the task of desert. Suzy and I quickly paired up to create the blueberry cake for our dessert.
The first task was trying to find where everything was. Suzy and I both agreed that we felt like we were on mars! We didn't know where our common utensils were and some utensils were foreign to me. Luckily, we had the help of Nikolas and Michael. They made preparing the blueberry cake ingredients a breeze. Have you ever heard of icing sugar? Well guess what, me either... Luckily we were able to ask that it means powdered sugar. After measuring, eating, stirring, eating, baking, eating, and cooling the dessert off, it was time for us to relax and wait for everybody else.
When it was time to finally sit down and see everybody's creations, I was both nervous and excited. This was either going to be the best meal I ever had or I was going to die from food poisoning! As the starter
rolled out to the table I knew it was going to be the first option: BEST MEAL EVER!
The starter was amazing, it was pan fried deer in wild pepper. It was topped with a baked farm egg with smoked pearl onions and soured beetroots. The second course was forest mushroom soup with port wine. It was complimented with juniper smoked marrow, bacon and cheddar cheese. Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is just writing this down. The main course was spicy fried reindeer with soured black cabbage with roasted canola oil served with celeriac foam. Then, last but not least, came the dessert! This was the meal our team made! It was a blueberry cake with cottage cheese coupled with meringue and broken broken dreams (homemade amazing ice cream!).
The main entree team won the first place award, but this meal paired with a great beer far exceeded my expectation. The food was fabulous, and well prepared. I have to give the students of the Carthage College J-term trip a 10 out of 10. It was an amazing experience cooking and so much fun working with everybody.
Daily Reflections:
- Intellectual Property Rights is a complex study
- It is crucial to hire a great patent attorney to protect your intellectual property and add value to the invention
- It is interesting seeing how a ball bearing is transformed from a brick of steel to the final product
- Reindeer tastes amazing
- I can actually cook amazing food
- Our J-Term trip has amazing chefs
- This is probably the best trip I have ever been on
- Foreign professional chefs can be super intrigued by the ingredients of a Taco Bell sauce packet
- Beer is Sweden is super expensive
- Icing sugar is actually powdered sugar
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