Inventor's Council of Cincinnati

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  • Chuck Figer, Interim President:

Chuck Figer is an attorney with Wood, Herron & Evans, a Cincinnati Law firm focused on Intellectual Property. Chuck joined the firm in 2005 after twenty-one years of engineering experience with an engineering software company.  During his previous career, he performed numerical simulations in the fields of electromagnetics, structural vibrations, and numerical optimization, among others.  Chuck worked closely with engineers in the aerospace, automotive and consumer products industries.  Chuck was admitted to the Ohio bar in 2006.  He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering in 1994 and his Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from the University of Dayton School of Law in 2006.

Tom Hortel, Vice-President:

Tom is Vice-President and co-founder of VentureForward, a knowledge solutions firm based in Blue Ash that specializes in Applied Innovation, Knowledge Management and Workflow Systems. It helps companies create new products, services and intellectual capital, download key internal knowledge and map it into knowledge bases to gain a competitive edge in the market. Tom is a skilled inventor, innovation trainer and technology consultant with 23 years experience at Procter & Gamble. Tom is well known for his revolutionary "Dream it... Draw it... Build it!" approach to innovation that leverages his broad skills as scientist, artist and craftsman. This unorthodox approach of fusing design, development and technology has earned him 13 US patents, more than 90 patent publications globally and helped launch many successful new products into the market, including the Tide Buzz Ultrasonic Pen. 

  • David Lafkas, Sectretary:
  • David Lafkas is a registered patent attorney from Cincinnati.  After graduating from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, one of the top undergraduate engineering universities in the United States, he received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Law.  He began his formal patent career with one of the premier boutique patent law firms in Washington, DC, where he had the opportunity to work directly with Fortune 500 companies as well as several well known foreign businesses.  In 2003, he returned to the Queen City to open a practice to make intellectual property protection accessible and to focus on the needs of entrepreneurs, independent inventors, and small to medium sized businesses.

  • Jackie Díaz, Co-Founder & Treasurer:

Jackie is an inventor/entrepreneur with a BA in Business Administration from Thomas More College. She’s the Founder and Executive Vice-President of InOvation Enterprises, Inc., a 1998 Ohio corporation, specializing in consumer product development and marketing. She has successfully commercialized several of her own kitchenware inventions and has frequently appeared as an on-air guest on QVC and Shop At Home. Jackie has been honored as a Biographee in the 2003 Who's Who of American Women and was named Lemelson-MIT Inventor of the Week in April 2003. She works the lecture circuit and has spoken for many organizations with the University of Wisconsin, the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County, and the Great Oaks Vocational Schools among them. She holds two US Patents, one Registered Trademark and has one patent pending.

Ken Bloemer, PhD, Board Member:

Ken is President of the Invention Group at Eureka! Ranch  Technologies, Ltd, in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He is responsible for Eureka! Inventing Services and is currently working with clients to Get Ready, Get Set and Get Going with Measurably Smarter Choices for Growth utilizing Eureka!’s suite of proven invention services. Prior to joining Eureka! Ranch, Ken was Executive Vice President of Business Development at TechSolve in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has a broad diversity of experience spanning the United States Air Force, the University of Cincinnati, the Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Sciences, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc (a Johnson & Johnson Company), a private venture bringing his own inventions to market and is currently with TechSolve. Ken received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Louisville and his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, all focusing on Industrial Engineering. He is the recipient of several scholarships for academic achievement and several industry awards for outstanding business results.

  • John Woodard, Board Member:

John Woodard is a registered patent agent admitted to practice and representing clients before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  His interests are in intellectual property protection, management, technology and engineering. He has in-depth experience in intellectual property protection, business creation, and various science and engineering disciplines including manufacturing, semiconductors, micro-electronics, power electronics, nano-technology, specialty chemicals, polymers and coatings, software, photonics, ceramics, computer/internet applications, functional modeling, market modeling, and technology transfer and acquisition. John has provided management and technical leadership in a range of businesses from entrepreneurial start-ups to major international corporations. He enjoys finding solutions to business problems and opportunities and exploiting the promise of intellectual property. Though counting some very large (Fortune 500) companies as clients, he focuses on individual inventors and small business organizations.  His goal is to help inventors be successful.  John possesses a Ph.D. in physics.

 
Inventor's Council of Cincinnati
P.O. Box 42103 * Cincinnati * OH * 45242