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: 612 You’ve been working extremely hard to license your product idea, but you’re not having any success. You’re not quite sure what you’re do... Read more.
Post Views: 1,985 It’s important to continue being a student and never stop learning. Here are a few books that have helped me achieve my goals. This is a won... Read more.
Post Views: 598 In any business venture, there are going to be many ups and downs. How do you stay motivated? How do you stay on track? Here’s what has helped... Read more.
Post Views: 636 Simple: You don’t give up, and you keep submitting ideas. When I was in the toy industry, I submitted a lot of toy ideas. I got rejected by so... Read more.
Post Views: 1,245 I remember it like it was yesterday. At noon, I left for lunch. James, my office manager, stayed in the office to answer the phone. When I cam... Read more.
Post Views: 605 When I started writing articles many years ago for AllBusiness.com, I decided it would be interesting to write one about how to get on national ... Read more.
Post Views: 618 Do you have a new product on the market? That’s news worth celebrating! When it’s time to tell the media about your invention, I recommend s... Read more.
Post Views: 761 Last week, I told you about how my guitar pick company, Hot Picks, expanded beyond our own ideas and became Alchemy, Disney, and Taylor Swift li... Read more.
Post Views: 1,147 Selling guitar picks to fans of heavy metal was going well. Eventually, though, I started running out of ideas for Hot Picks. It was time to e... Read more.