Stephen Key is an award-winning inventor, renowned intellectual property strategist, lifelong entrepreneur, author, speaker, and columnist.
Stephen has over 20 patents in his name and the dozens of concepts he has brought to market have retailed in Walmart, 7-Eleven, and Disney stores and parks worldwide and been endorsed by Michael Jordan, Alex Trebek, and Taylor Swift. He has defended his patents in federal court against the largest toy company in the world, Lego’s.
In 1999, he cofounded inventRight to teach others his unique process for harnessing the power of open innovation and the licensing business model.
His bestselling book about how to license an idea, One Simple Idea by McGraw-Hill, has been translated into six languages.
He has written more than 1,000 articles about intellectual property strategy, product licensing, and entrepreneurship for publications online including Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur.
Universities and governmental organizations around the world regularly invite him to teach them inventRight’s unique processes for commercializing new product ideas.
Stephen has won over 20 industry awards, including two Edison Awards and the Most Influential and Inspiring Leader Of All Time by the WorldIP Forum in 2022.
In 2018, he was recognized as a AAAS-Lemelson Invention Ambassador. In 2020, he became a founding member of the United States Intellectual Property Alliance.
In 2022, Stephen contributed to “Cases in IP Strategy: Industry Lessons Learned” from the non-profit Michelson Institute for IP.
Currently, he’s part of the team responsible for launching a new sustainable packaging innovation that replaces the need to use plastic to carry beverages called Fishbone.
Post Views: 411 A few years ago, I received a call from the publishing company McGraw-Hill out of the blue. Did I want to write a book, the voice on the line wo... Read more.
Post Views: 339 I’ve been an entrepreneur for more than 30 years. It’s been a wild ride. I became an entrepreneur because the idea of working for someone el... Read more.
Post Views: 304 Working at a startup taught me more about business than any other endeavor has. In the mid ‘80s, long before startup culture was red hot, I jo... Read more.
Post Views: 306 To come up with an idea, you will need to exercise your creativity. But that is not the only time you will need to be creative in order to bring... Read more.
Post Views: 383 Obstacles are a fact of life. They crop up in our personal and professional lives. If you are focused on moving your business forward, it may fe... Read more.
Post Views: 308 My business is almost always on my mind. It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about bef... Read more.
Post Views: 376 Some experiences have a way of staying with you. For example, I can clearly remember an afternoon I spent with my father on a park bench in Capi... Read more.
Post Views: 311 Managing your team is a serious responsibility. Are your employees enthusiastic about coming to work? Do they trust and support your vision? To ... Read more.
Post Views: 429 I can remember the first time I met my wife Janice like it was yesterday. It was the late eighties, and we were working at Worlds of Wonder, a s... Read more.
Post Views: 345 For people who yearn to profit from their creativity but don’t want to start a business, licensing is a fantastic avenue. When a company licen... Read more.