Libraries Bridging the Gap Between Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Patents, Trademarks & Copyright

Business names and brands, product logos, original artwork, secret recipes, and inventions are all forms of intellectual property that one can lose the rights to if measures aren’t taken to protect them! Come learn about patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyright, what they mean, and why they are important to entrepreneurs.

James Bennin is an Associate General Counsel at the University of Central Florida and is based in the Office of Research & Commercialization.  His primary areas of responsibility include transactional matters primarily related to intellectual property.  Prior to joining UCF, James was an Intellectual Property counsel at a large multinational Fortune 100 corporation that manufactures various products including construction equipment, mining equipment and engines.  Prior to his work at the corporation, he practiced in the areas of patents and other intellectual property matters at the IP boutique firm of Harrity & Harrity LLP and at the international global law firm of Alston & Bird LLP.

Mr. Bennin is a registered patent attorney.  He received his Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark law school at Brigham Young University and his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with minors in French and Business from Brigham Young University.

Missy Murphey has been a Research and Information Services librarian at the University of Central Florida libraries since 2010. She is currently the Patent and Trademark Resource Center librarian at the Orlando PTRC, as well as providing research assistance (in-person and via AAL), library instruction, outreach services, and collection management for the Anthropology, Sociology, and Women's and Gender Studies departments. Missy came to UCF from the University of Mississippi, where she held various duties in reference and instruction, government documents, and the AICPA library service.  She received her Masters of Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama.

Missy’s research interests include library accessibility issues, geographic information systems (GIS), Intellectual property, and subject librarian outreach to academic departments. 

Raju Nagaiah, Ph.D. is a Licensing Associate in UCF’s Office of Technology Transfer (OTT). He is responsible for coordinating with faculty and researchers in evaluating, protecting and licensing physical sciences technologies. Before joining the Office of Technology Transfer, Nagaiah worked as market research analyst in UCF Venture Lab conducting due diligence, technical competitiveness, commercialization and market research for a range of technologies and products that are produced by UCF and early stage technology companies in Central Florida region.

Nagaiah holds double masters degrees – one in Mechanical Engineering and the in other Industrial Engineering; and he received his doctoral degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida.

Sarah Norris is Scholarly Communication Librarian at the University of Central Florida Libraries. In this role, she leads the UCF Libraries’ scholarly communication and open access efforts, with an emphasis on scholarly publishing and copyright training and education. Her research interests include digital humanities and copyright implications in the digital environment, as well as open access efforts including the expanded use of OERs in the classroom. She has presented at local, state, national, and international conferences, in addition to being published in multiple venues.

Cassandra is currently serving as only the second two-term Chair of the Entertainment, Art & Sports Law Section of The Florida Bar. She also serves as the President-elect of the National Association of Women Business Owners Orlando. She is a partner at the law firm of Franklin & Willard in Orlando, where she focuses her practice on intellectual property and entertainment law. She works with entrepreneurs, creatives and businesses in the entertainment, art, sports and tech communities to negotiate contracts, safeguard intellectual property rights and limit potential risk/liability.

Before joining her firm, she worked in various aspects of the entertainment law industry, including Planet Hollywood's corporate legal department and working for a boutique firm specializing in media and technology law. Through these positions, she gained practical experience with licensing, merchandising, business liability and diverse technology and intellectual property issues. These experiences also afforded her experience with issues that international companies and solo artists face in the industry.

In addition to her legal practice, she is a Course Director, teaching Advanced Entertainment Law, at Full Sail University in the Entertainment Business Masters Program. Her broad experience in teaching includes not only Full Sail but also various other colleges and universities in Florida. Her prior courses include Business Law, Intellectual Property Law, Final Project/Business Plan Development and Internet Law at various schools. Cassandra also speaks on legal topics at Bar conferences, entrepreneurship meetings and entertainment/media conferences.

Cassandra graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Business Administration, focusing on Finance, Hospitality and Accounting, from the University of Central Florida. She then earned her J.D., with honors, from the University of Florida's College of Law, with a focus in Intellectual Property.