John Wood | Wood Patent Law

John Wood is the founder of Wood Patent Law, a Johnson City-based law firm dedicated to helping founders protect their IP, file for trademarks and patents, and defend their brand.

Meet John Wood (0:00 – 2:34)
John Wood, founder of Wood Patent Law, introduces his firm which specializes in protecting, defending, and asserting patents and trademarks (0:05 – 0:16). He then shares the firm’s organic origin story, which began after his role at a Silicon Valley tech company ended. While taking time to work on his own technology, he was repeatedly asked by former colleagues for intellectual property (IP) legal help. After initially declining, he eventually took on the work, and his firm grew organically from those referrals, guided by his informal motto: “do good work and don’t be an asshole and things won’t go backwards” (1:48 – 2:30).

The Four Pillars of Intellectual Property (2:34 – 5:27)
Wood provides a clear and concise breakdown of the four main types of IP:

• Patents: These protect functional improvements and innovations, giving the inventor the right to exclude others from making or using their invention (2:38)

  Trademarks: These protect brands and logos. Uniquely, they are primarily a consumer protection mechanism, designed to prevent confusion in the marketplace and ensure consumers can trust the quality associated with a brand they recognize (2:42, 3:30).

  Copyrights: These protect creative expressions, such as books, movies, music, and photographs (2:46).

  Trade Secrets: This category protects any confidential information that provides a commercial advantage, such as customer lists, pricing info, or proprietary recipes. Wood highlights the Coca-Cola recipe as a prime example of a highly valuable trade secret that cannot be reverse-engineered (2:49, 4:45)

   

   

Critical IP Steps and Common Mistakes for Entrepreneurs (5:27 – 13:24)
Wood outlines the most crucial—and often overlooked—IP strategies for startups. A top priority is ensuring “clean title” to all intellectual property, meaning all rights are properly assigned to the business entity from the start (7:29). This is especially critical for companies with multiple founders to avoid ownership disputes later, which can be a major red flag for investors.

He identifies two major mistakes entrepreneurs make

 

1. Failing to secure assignments: Not having clear, written agreements that transfer IP ownership from individual founders to the company (9:09)

    

    

    

2. Failing to file in time: You “can’t go back in time and file a patent application” (9:22). He strongly recommends using a provisional patent application as a “bookmark in time” for an invention, which secures a filing date and allows the inventor to claim “patent pending” status (6:12). For branding, he advises using an “intent to use” trademark application before heavily investing in a brand, as this starts the examination process early and helps avoid costly conflicts (10:05

    

    

    

 

 

 

Strategy, Resource Allocation, and Branding (13:24 – 20:38)
For cash-strapped startups, Wood offers a key piece of advice on allocating resources: “it’s always better to have a company than a bunch of patents” (14:22). He advises entrepreneurs to protect what is most valuable to their specific business. If your differentiator is your brand, prioritize trademarks. If it’s a technical innovation, prioritize patents.

On branding, he explains the strategic advantage of creating a “fanciful mark”—a completely made-up word like “Google” or “Spotify” (15:41). While this requires more marketing effort, it provides the strongest legal protection and is least likely to conflict with existing marks. He contrasts this with weaker, “descriptive” marks that are difficult or impossible to protect. He cautions founders not to become too emotionally attached to a brand name that could cause legal headaches, citing how Jeff Bezos was eventually convinced to abandon his original choice, “Abracadabra,” in favor of “Amazon” (19:58).

The Patent Process and Final Advice (20:38 – 27:55)
Wood explains that while it’s possible for individuals to file their own patent and trademark applications, it’s a complex process. He compares it to building a house using only YouTube videos: “it’ll take me 10 years and it’ll be crooked” (21:14). The patent process is highly subjective and can involve years of back-and-forth negotiation with a patent examiner to define the scope of the invention (24:28).

He concludes with actionable advice for any small business: every business has a brand, so protect it early. If you have an invention, file a provisional patent so you can securely share it with others. Finally, he circles back to his core philosophy for business and life: “do good work and don’t be an asshole and it won’t go backwards.”