How I got Pheronym's first patent and the trademark
Securing intellectual property is among the many challenges women innovators face in agricultural innovation. To learn how these amazing women entrepreneurs tackle and overcome the challenges, listen to the “Together in Innovation: Agricultural Advances Webinar” by USPTO or read below for some highlights.
Briefly, tell us a bit more about yourself and your company. (Include #Domestic patents, trademarks, etc..)
I am Fatma Kaplan, CEO and Founder of Pheronym. We use a new kind of pheromone from microscopic roundworms called nematodes to control agricultural pests in the soil.
I come from a farming family and have an undergraduate degree in agriculture engineering, a Master's in Horticultural Sciences, and a Ph.D. in plant molecular and cellular biology. After I received my Ph.D., I accepted a postdoc in analytical Chemistry where I purified and identified the first sex pheromone of a model nematode, C. elegans.
After identifying the C. elegans sex pheromone, the USDA recruited me to apply this knowledge to agriculturally important nematode pests. Plant parasitic nematodes!
These are the bad guys that attack the plant roots.
At the USDA, I quickly learned that adapting new knowledge from a model system to agricultural pests was not easy. Despite the challenges, I was determined to bring this technology to the farmers because I believed in the technology. I knew that it was going to make a difference in farmers' lives. At the USDA, I became an inventor in 4 patent applications (3 were US and one international). The patent cost was not something that I had to worry about.
Then I left the USDA and started Pheronym. When you are a startup founder and decide to patent your idea, the question you ask yourself is, “How can I afford to patent my idea?” Oh, so many fees: IP lawyer fees for preparing a patent, USPTO patent application fees, PCT fees, maintenance fees, office action fees, and more……
Even though I did contemplate preparing my patent applications, I was wise enough to work with an IP lawyer. While my co-founder and I were learning about patent applications on the USPTO website, we discovered that micro-entities had lower fees. In the beginning, Pheronym did not have money, so I used a personal line of credit to pay for the patent application fees. Thanks to the lower micro entity fees, Pheronym owns its first US patent, granted in 2020. Now Pheronym has five patent families that include US patents, PCTs, and international patent applications.
There is more to intellectual property than patents. My co-founder and I read a lot about intellectual property, patent applications, trademarks, and copyrights at the public library and on the USPTO website and listened to MBA audiobooks during commuting. We learned trademarks were just as important. From the USPTO webinars, we understood the difference between strong and weak trademarks, how to search for registered trademarks on the USPTO website, and the difference between registered ® vs™. We developed criteria for a strong trademark and developed names for our startup, and one of the finalists was Pheronym. We started with™ first, and by the time we talked to our IP lawyer, we had everything to register our trademark for Pheronym.
Of course, seasoned entrepreneurs have very different stories. For example, Dr. Pam Marrone had hundreds of patents and a $1 Million patent budget. She had a clever IP strategy. To learn more about her experience, you will have to listen to the webinar.
As women, what are some of the unique challenges in the Agricultural space and how did you overcome them?
Fundraising is a challenge for a lot of the founders and particularly in the agriculture space. However, being an immigrant woman with an ethnic name makes this challenge even bigger. I focus on my strengths and always look for a program that is aligned with my strengths. For example, I focus on the grants because the award criteria are better defined and less subjective. Therefore, reviewers are not distracted by their biases and can just focus on the project.
Furthermore, I look at the organizations that have women and minorities on their staff. If women and minorities are serving in leadership positions, this reflects how an organization thinks about women’s roles. That tells me how I will be received and how I should be prepared.
Were there specific Women Entrepreneur support organizations or programs that helped along the way?
I did not seek women entrepreneur support organizations. However, I benefited from organizations that support diverse founders. For example, the Activate fellowship, IndieBio accelerator, UC Davis venture catalyst program, and Thrive Ag accelerator all support diverse founders. The Activate fellowship is for very early-stage technology that is not quite investor fundable, but the funds will get you within reach of investor funding. Thrive Ag Accelerator is for later-stage ag-startup companies and has a great network of farmers for field trials.
Suma and Pam had great resources for women entrepreneurs that are worth discussing. Suma had a great experience with the Elemental Excellerator. She also mentioned that she was approached by Gener8tor and Techstars, which are resources. Pam said Springboard has excellent training for women entrepreneurs. She also mentioned that Plug and Play, AgLaunch, and AWIS are great resources for women founders.
What are the challenges for funding? How did you get funding?
Investor funding is very difficult in general for women founders. We all agreed. As hard as it is now, fundraising sounded a lot harder during Pam’s time. I can’t do justice to her experience, so you have to listen to the webinar.
I identify programs, institutions, and funding sources where the focus is on the technology, not the proposer. I had a lot more luck with accelerators for funding. Additionally, I apply to multiple different types of funding sources. Since we have a plan to get into the market, as soon as we get funding, we move forward.
What is one or two pieces of advice you would give on how to go about getting patents and trademarks?
Listen to the USPTO webinars. Read about intellectual property publications at public libraries. Definitely find a good IP lawyer. They are expensive, so shop around. Different law firms have different fees. Also, identify and take advantage of every discount you can get such as micro entity or small entity fees.
If you had one piece of advice for future Women Entrepreneurs and Innovators, what would it be?
Creating a successful startup is difficult, and making an Ag startup successful is even more difficult. Startups require a lot of time and money. Utilize all the resources that your business ecosystems offers, like incubators, accelerators, marketing, law firms, advisory/mentorship programs, and more. Most importantly, surround yourself with supportive and positive people who believe in you, and your mission and are willing to help you succeed.
I could not describe entrepreneurship better than Suma. “It is not a sprint; it is a marathon. Think of this as a 5–10 year journey”.
Pam’s advice was a perfect finish. "Pick your partners, investors, employees, and board members wisely to build your company with culture.”
Finally, I learned a new USPTO resource: the IP identifier toolkit.
Author: Dr. Fatma Kaplan is the CEO/CSO of Pheronym and Activate Berkeley Fellow & Berkeley Lab Affiliate Cyclotron Road Cohort 2021. She is also an entrepreneur and an accomplished scientist with experience in both biology and chemistry. She has a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology and postdoctoral training in Natural Product Chemistry with a focus on isolating biologically active compounds. Dr. Kaplan discovered the first sex pheromone of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and published it in Nature. Then she discovered that pheromones regulate other behaviors in both parasitic and beneficial nematodes. Dr. Kaplan conducted the first agricultural biocontrol experiment in Space at the International Space Station in 2020. She has very high-impact publications, and her dissertation (beta-amylase’s role during cold and heat shock) was cited in textbooks within five years of publication. Dr. Kaplan worked as a scientist at NASA, the National Magnetic Field Laboratory, and the US Department of Agriculture — Agricultural Research Service. Dr. Fatma Kaplan and Mr. Karl C. Schiller co-founded Pheronym to bring nematode pheromone technology to the market and to provide effective, non-toxic, sustainable pest control for farmers and gardeners.
