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Facebook The ultimate dorm room startup. Facebook began in a Harvard university dorm room in 2004 by entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg, then age 21, and a few other forward thinking students. or , the social network site is actually one of the most influential innovations of modern times. Facebook is valued at over $100 billion. Harley Davidson Old school innovator William Harley was 21 years old when, in 1901, he drew up plans to create a small engine that could power a bicycle. He and his friend Arthur Davidson spent two years working on a prototype in a friend’s garage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1904 they started the Harley Davidson motorcycle company, which is still going strong over 100 years later. Mattel Toys Mattel began as a picture frame company in a Southern California garage in 1945. Harold Matson and Elliot Handler didn’t know what to do with all the left over wood scraps, so they made and sold dollhouses. To their surprise, those quickly outsold the frames. Entrepreneurs at heart, they turned their emphasis to the product with the most promise and began manufacturing wooden toys. Other Startups Other companies that started in a garage or dorm room are Hewlett Packard (garage), Wordpress (dorm), Yahoo (dorm), Yankee Candle Company (garage), Napster (dorm), Microsoft (dorm), Wordpress (dorm). The point is, innovation can happen anywhere . Lots of crazy-successful businesses have started on tiny budgets in old garages, crowded dorm rooms, kitchens, even out of cars. If you have the trait to innovate, where you do it is not important. You don’t need to be a wealthy, established business owner or high flyin‘ entrepreneur to turn your good idea into a success. Protecting Intellectual Property In Lesson 7, Commerce Capitalism, students learned that property rights and the protection of property rights are essential for a healthy, thriving commerce. The product of human intelligence and creativity, such as products or systems created by inventors, musicians, authors, and artists is called intellectual property (IP) . It is treated like any other form of property . There are rights of ownership and laws for its protection from theft. Intellectual property rights are expressed as patent , copyright , and trademark . Patent Inventors protect their IP by applying to The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) (www.uspto.gov) for a patent , which is a grant from a government giving the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell it for a set period of time , usually 20 years. Patents are not automatically granted. At the USPTO, a patent examiner reviews the design to determine if it is different from anything ever invented, and deserves a patent to protect it. Abstract ideas or useless SLIDE 10K PRODUCT PREVIEW

Lesson 10 | A Garage is for More Than Parking a Car 176

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