Profiles in Innovation
Entrepreneurs on the Cutting Edge of Technology
Digital Now Inc.
www.digitalnow.com
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Key Facts:
- Digital Now has two patents on industry-leading digital imaging technology
- Gary Mueller testified before Congress about the benefits to small businesses from the international harmonization of patents
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| "A small business like mine will spend the same amount as a large company in the development of a new technology. But...the investment is much riskier."”
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Gary Mueller
Herndon, Virginia
How Do You Protect Your "Emotional Property™"?
The information we store on computers, phones, portable music devices, cameras, and PDAs is increasingly vital—and often more valuable than the device itself. Yet as our important keepsakes—our "emotional property™"—are digitized, they are susceptible to new threats of destruction and being lost. At the same time, we're now recording infinitely more segments of our lives—thousand of pictures, hundreds of hours of video. And we're relying more and more on our personal records in purely digital form. How we protect and organize our "emotional property™" for the future is as important as how we captured it in the first place. That's why at Digital Now, we're creating a way to better organize, access, and protect what's important to you.
Our Technology Helps Protect and Manage Your Important Digital Keepsakes
Do you have copies of every photograph, music file, and important document stored on your computer? What would you do if that computer was stolen? What we're going to provide is an easy, secure, and remote way to store and protect that emotional property, with access from a variety of sources.
As soon as you take a picture with your camera phone, you can wirelessly send a copy to your storage area for safekeeping. And my company patented technology that automatically detects the orientation of a digital image and rotates it to the correct position. No matter where the picture originates—your phone, a camera, a scanned print image, or even an old photo stored on your computer—the file is corrected and ready to be shared with family and friends.
Patents Protect More Than Just My Intellectual Property
Just like you want to keep and protect your emotional property, we see the importance of protecting our intellectual property. We’re a small company that invested a lot of time and resources on the development of the auto-orientation technology, and applied for the patent because we knew it would help provide a return on investment. Patents represent a market opportunity created by research and development investment. In terms of dollars, a small business like mine will spend the same amount as a large company in the development of a new technology. But as a percentage of annual income or budget, the investment is a much riskier one for a small company. Therefore, small businesses like Digital Now have a sense of urgency for patents to be granted quickly. In today’s fast-paced world, a patent delayed is a potential market denied.
IP Protection Promotes Innovation and Investor Confidence
Digital Now was originally more of a hardware company focusing on the sale of hardware scanning and image correction machines. We utilized the patented technology on scanning and digitizing photos while the image rotation patent was pending. Our patents gave us the flexibility to evolve into a software company as the market changed for hardware. Instead of pursuing a dying market by pushing hardware scanning devices, we're capturing gains from the investment in a related market.
As we move fully into this generation of Digital Now, having a unique and protected technology gives us access to capital that we otherwise would not have. When I meet with venture capital firms or angel investors, the first question I'm asked is whether or not the core technology is patented. Investors know that protection can help innovators earn a return on the large initial investment it takes to create new solutions. When I've taken the proper steps to protect my innovation, investors have more confidence in me and my company.
About Profiles in Innovation and ACT
The Profiles in Innovation project is designed to highlight entrepreneurs who are driving technological innovation around the world and the critical role that patents and IP play in their success. While large multinationals often get the credit, small businesses are at the center of the innovation economy. For these small innovators, patents are critical to their ability to protect their innovations while building partnerships and raising capital.
The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) is an international trade association for the information technology industry that is dedicated to protecting small business innovation. ACT has more than 3,000 member companies around the world, most of which are small and mid-size technology firms.
