Intellectual Property Education Is Empowerment

Nathaniel Wellen
Grade 9, California

“It takes a team to get things done,” says Nathaniel, a ninth-grade student from California. This tenet has guided Nathaniel throughout his journey as an inventor, entrepreneur, and intellectual property (IP) owner – a winding journey that Nathaniel has explored for over half his life. Someone who prides himself in getting along with everyone he meets, Nathaniel has seen team members come and go, but one supporter has always stuck – his dad. Nathaniel credits his affable nature with helping him succeed in the worlds of innovation and entrepreneurship and hopes that in sharing his journey, more young people will seize similar opportunities.

When Nathaniel was eight years old, he conceptualized his invention, the Dual Handle Umbrella. Living in Atlanta at the time, Nathaniel was on his daily walk to school with his dad. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Atlanta, but it pours. It rains cats and dogs there,” Nathaniel recalls with a chuckle. Nathaniel’s dad struggled to coordinate holding the umbrella over both of them while also holding his son’s hand for safety. Meanwhile, Nathaniel struggled to keep pace with his dad to stay under the umbrella. Nathaniel knew that there had to be a solution to their problem and thought that a second handle on the umbrella might be the right fix. Nathaniel drew pictures of his idea and sought out help from his dad to bring his idea to life. He speaks fondly of his experience building his invention prototype with his dad; the pair created memories on their back deck, drilling, hot-gluing, and welding selfie sticks to umbrellas in an effort to create the perfect two-handled umbrella.

Nathaniel and his dad were able to put the Dual Handle Umbrella to use right away. While on another rainy walk to school – now drier and more cooperative thanks to the Dual Handle Umbrella – Nathaniel’s dad talked to him about patents and other intellectual property protections. An entrepreneur, Nathaniel’s dad knew about the value of IP and wanted to impart IP education to his young inventor. “My dad was teaching me about patents at the time. I told him, ‘I think there’s really something here.’ And he said, ‘We should file for a patent then,’” Nathaniel recalls. After learning about intellectual property protection from his dad, the decision to pursue a patent was quite simple. “I thought it was important to protect my idea because I believed it was legitimately strong, but it was also something that people might want to steal,” he explains. “I liked being able to have something that I could call my own and that I could build my future around. I didn’t want to let that go. A patent is the best way to protect that.”

Nathaniel and his dad started the process of protecting their intellectual property by submitting a provisional patent application and then worked with patent attorneys to apply for a non-provisional utility patent. Their patent application was sent back several times. Nathaniel, his dad, and their patent attorneys needed to edit the patent application to clarify the description of the invention and what made it new, non-obvious, and useful. Through seeing how the patent attorneys and his dad would quickly go back to editing the patent application after it was sent back, Nathaniel learned how to accept rejection and how to embody “grit”. Nathaniel explains, “Having grit means perseverance, expecting the unexpected, preparing for the worst, hoping for the best, and being ready to just keep going because that’s what it takes to be successful.” Nathaniel credits his dad as a significant role model in life and specifically in the journey to becoming an entrepreneur. Through watching his dad constantly persevere, Nathaniel learned that “being an entrepreneur is all about moving forward.” Now, Nathaniel embraces failure as an important part of life. “Every time you fail, it’s a learning experience to grow from,” says Nathaniel, “I know people always say that, but I think the idea is overlooked.” Each patent application rejection provided Nathaniel with an opportunity to push forward and learn how to refine the description of his invention. “When people face failure, it’s important to face it straight on and crush it!” he exclaims, “Don’t let failure stop you at all!” Nathaniel’s grit paid off in December of 2018 when he and his dad received their patent for the “Dual Handle Umbrella for Use by an Adult and Child.”

Even after receiving his patent, Nathaniel wasn’t done striving for more. In 2021, Nathaniel came across the California Invention Convention, an affiliate of Invention Convention Worldwide. The program provided Nathaniel with a new platform to showcase his invention. Nathaniel advanced to Invention Convention U.S. Nationals 2022 and Invention Convention Globals 2022, where he was able to meet more like-minded students. “It’s the most amazing competition ever!” Nathaniel exclaims, “There, I saw the most incredible inventions from kids across the country. It was truly inspiring.”

Now nearly a decade into his journey as a young inventor and entrepreneur, Nathaniel strongly encourages more young people to know more about intellectual property and entrepreneurship. “I think we would change the world if everyone knew about intellectual property,” says Nathaniel, “If kids knew more about patents, we could have a more creative society. We’d have a lot more innovation and acceptance of broad ideas and perspectives. Intellectual Property helps build a more creative world.” Nathaniel believes that educators could teach IP and entrepreneurship through business classes offered at younger ages. While some students may get the opportunity to enroll in business courses as electives in high school, many only get exposed to these lessons in college and later adulthood. Nathaniel believes that younger audiences are the ideal targets for teaching business principles like intellectual property because they have creative ideas to offer to the world. By offering business classes or lessons to younger students, not only will more creative solutions come to fruition, but students will also be exposed to a variety of skill sets and career paths, from intellectual property to invention education, to entrepreneurship, to IP law. 

Nathaniel understands that not all students have access to in-school resources and that it may take time for formal education in intellectual property and entrepreneurship to be integrated into most classrooms. The young entrepreneur, himself, couldn’t enroll in business classes until he started high school this year – seven years after he first became an inventor and six years after he received his first patent. Nathaniel encourages students to build up other skills and characteristics in the meantime. “It takes a team to get things done. It’s not a one-person journey. You need to develop good social skills to build a team, be friendly with people, and learn from others because you’ll never know everything,” Nathaniel recommends. “With every stranger, there’s always something you can learn from them.” Through his experience with intellectual property and entrepreneurship, Nathaniel has come to feel more confident in who he is as a person. He hopes that other young people can also capture the same confidence by owning their ideas. “Part of being a kid is having curiosity and a love for learning. Childhood is all about learning from mistakes and gaining the knowledge you need to thrive when you grow up.” Intellectual property and entrepreneurship are wonderful avenues for children to feed their curiosity and desire to learn. “To learn all of these [business-related] skills at such a young age, it’s an extraordinary gift.”

Since the start of his invention journey, Nathaniel has been building up his team, including his patent attorneys, the USPTO, fellow Invention Convention Worldwide student inventors, his teachers, his partners at ShedRain, Robert Herjavec who Nathaniel secured a deal with on ABC’s Shark Tank, and, most importantly, his dad. By honing his social skills and maintaining an impervious can-do attitude, Nathaniel has been able to connect with many people along the way, learning valuable lessons from each one, and in turn, helping shape the world around him.