Recap: Hope Shimubuku at 1MC

Last Wednesday, Hope Shimabuku, Director of the USPTO’s Southwest Region Office, spoke at 1 Million Cups. We moved the presentation from our event venue to the Maker Lab, which felt like a better fit for the theme.

Hope Shimabuku talking with attendees before her presentation.

Hope opened by walking through the function of the USPTO and the differences between design patents, copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. She then discussed the USPTO’s regional offices, which were established by the America Invents Act of 2011, and the USPTO’s pro bono program, which helps financially under-resourced inventors apply for patents. The nearest pro bono office to Wichita is at the Oklahoma City University School of Law. You can read more about the program’s requirements here.

Naruto selfie photo. Copyright David Slater.

A long Q&A came after, and Hope was generous with both her time and explanations. Questions ranged from attendee’s specific projects to the efficacy of provisional patents filed before pitching to sophisticated investors.

In a more candid moment, Hope discussed the infamous “monkey selfie” case, where a crested macaque named Naruto picked up a photographer’s camera and snapped several selfies. The case raised the question of who owned the photos, Naruto or the photographer. It eventually made its way to the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that an animal cannot sue for copyright infringement. That ruling has become a guiding principle in copyright law: a U.S. copyright requires human authorship. It’s become even more relevant over the past few years, as AI tools cannot own a U.S. copyright or sue for its infringement.

1 Million Cups takes place at Groover Labs in our event venue every Wednesday. Doors open at 8:30 a.m., and presentations begin at 9. All are welcome. Come join us!