PALO ALTO — Mary Fuller, Regional Director of the Silicon Valley Office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, noted that companies with registered intellectual property are six times more valuable than those without it.

During her time as an intellectual property attorney, she’s seen intellectual property go from an average of 20 percent of a company’s value to 80 percent.

She joined the Roy Clay Series at the Wade Institute of Technology, co-hosted by the Silicon Valley Black Chamber and Journal of Black Innovation.

USPTO offers a trademark boot camp for those filing without an attorney and a provisional patent application for those who want to protect an idea before they’re ready for a full-blown patent application.

She also credited two Black inventors with making the evening’s program possible: Marian Rogers Crook, a pioneer in voice over internet protocol (VOIP) and James West, patent holder for microphones.   Crook is now vice president of engineering for Google and one of two Black women in the National Inventors Hall of Fame with 200 patents.  USPTO has trading cards of Black inventors as a educational aid for schools.