Dr. Susan Bailey, Vice Speaker, House of Delegates, American Medical Association, Past President, Texas Medical Association and Practicing Fort Worth Physician spoke recently at our annual Healthcare Conference where she discussed issues of health on business. View her presentation, “Health Care Issues and Legislation Impacting Businesses Today,” below.
Category Archives: Innovation and Industry Clusters
Texas’ plans regarding healthcare reform – a discussion on October 17
By Sarah Carabias-Rush, managing director, economic development
The Dallas Regional Chamber will host its 4th annual healthcare conference on Wednesday, October 17th from 7:30 – 10:00 am at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Downtown. The topic is reform but not everything you’ve heard before. The speakers will focus on what’s next for Texas and what we can expect in the upcoming legislative session. Continue reading
Guest Blog: Your Ideas Are Worth Protecting
By Nickou Oskoui, Associate, Jones Day, (bio) and Chiji Offor, Associate, Jones Day, (bio)
Whether you are a startup company, entrepreneur, University or nonprofit—if you have a new idea, or are doing something in a way that you believe is innovative, then that idea, or that “thing,” is likely worth protecting. Patents, trademarks, copyrights and even just simply maintaining your ideas as confidential are all ways of protecting your innovation and development efforts. These “intellectual property” tools can both protect the sweat equity put into your development activities and distinguish your company from its competitors. This is one reason that understanding how intellectual property issues may affect your business is so critical, regardless of whether you are an early stage startup, a mid-sized business, or a Fortune 500 company.
Not only is understanding intellectual property important from a competitive standpoint, but intellectual property brings substantial value when it comes to financing, M&A and other business transactions. You don’t have to take our word for it; all you have to do is look to real-world examples. One such example is Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Google for roughly $12.4 billion. Why? By some estimates, almost half of that amount, $5.5 billion, was attributable to Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio. Reportedly, from Google’s perspective, Motorola Mobility, with its deep patent portfolio, comprised of roughly 17,000 patents and 7,500 pending applications, and merited a $40/share premium on its stock price. The reason: timing, coupled with Motorola Mobility’s early, strategic, and systematic identification and protection of patentable innovations. Against the backdrop of a rampant patent disputes in the mobile handset and operating system industry (e.g., think Apple v. Samsung), by most accounts, Google strategically acquired Motorola Mobility in a response to intellectual property challenges to Google’s own Android operating system. So, Motorola Mobility was in the right place, with the right Intellectual Property, at the right time for Google—and reaped the rewards of its diligence and foresight. Continue reading
What does it mean for the USPTO to select North Texas for a satellite office?
By Jeremy Vickers, Director of Innovation
The United State Patent & Trademark Office recently selected the North Texas region to host one of its four satellite offices, with the other three going to Silicon Valley, Denver, and Detroit. What does this mean for North Texas?
This announcement comes at a time when our region is evaluating its future in technology, commercialization, research, and entrepreneurship. We ask ourselves ‘How do we become better?’ constantly and the answer lies in this new office. Being selected will put North Texas on the map for yet another great reason, and it will impact our strong economy significantly.
The first questions we fielded after the announcement: Why did DFW get this? Why not Austin? The answer is both simple and complex. It lies in the culture of DFW, the strength of our law firms and Bar Association, DFW Airport and our diverse technology base. The reason we won may very well be the same reason we get frustrated for not being known as a worldwide leader in one industry: our strong, broad economy and ecosystem. Continue reading
DFW Selected as One of Three New USPTO Satellite Offices
By Jeremy Vickers, Director of Innovation
The Department of Commerce made the official announcement that Dallas would be the recipient of one of its new four regional Patent and Trademark Offices. The Chamber has been working for more than a year with other local organizations making compelling cases to the USPTO on why Dallas is the obvious choice for this selection.
Dallas was selected along with Denver, San Jose and Detroit, which is scheduled to open next week. Dallas/Fort Worth has long been a leader in corporate & IP law, corporate innovation, technology startups, and university research & commercialization. Receiving national recognition by the Department of Commerce only reinforces that North Texas will continue to be a leader in these areas. We hope this opportunity will allow for greater collaboration in our region with Federal Agencies and our higher education institutions as they grow their research budgets and commercialization activ
ities. This opportunity will provide DFW with both job creation and Commercialization. Continue reading
Economic Development Update
By Erica Flores, Coordinator, Economic Development
The Dallas Regional Chamber’s Strategic Plan, launched in 2010, identifies the DRC’s primary role: economic development.
Every DRC initiative will support the Dallas region’s economic growth, thus fulfilling our mission:
Together, we will lead the Dallas region to become the most economically prosperous region — and the most desirable place to live and work — in the United States.
The DRC’s economic development team works vigorously to help support that mission. Each month we’ll provide an update on these initiatives and projects that support our strategic plan goals. Continue reading
Q&A With Local Golden Seeds Angel Investors
By Jeremy Vickers, Director, Innovation
The Dallas Region has a growing angel investment community and female investors are on the rise! Golden Seeds has expanded to Dallas and now has 21 local women as members and investors in its $26 million Angel fund. We interviewed two of the Golden Seeds members, Carol Nichols and Maribess Miller, to let you know more about an upcoming angel investor training session.
JV: What is an Angel Investor?
An Angel Investor invests his or her own money in a business that is new and transformational. This investment typically occurs at an early stage in the development of a business, after the company has been formed and before venture capital investment is raised. Angel investors tend to invest individual amounts of $25,000 per company or up to $250,000 per company through a fund. Continue reading
Ideas are a Dime a Dozen: Business Structures
By Jeremy Vickers, Director, Innovation
Ah, the ever exciting business structure discussion. Is there a business topic more exciting? Could watching paint dry draw a larger crowd than the intricacies of LLCs? Let’s attempt a somewhat more exciting and incredibly less academic viewpoint of business structures.
I am, however, obligated to at least detail what each structure looks like, but I’ll do so in the least painful way possible…a chart!
| Description | Taxes | Stock | Ability to Raise Capital | Cost to Form | |
| Sole Proprietorship | Individual operates business | Flow through to owners | Stock owned by one individual | Low | Very Low |
| LLC | Limited liability corporation | Flow through to owners | Stock owned by multiple individuals with liability limited to initial capital only | Moderate | Moderate |
| S Corp | Corporation with pass through taxation | Flow through to owners | Limited quantity and type of investors | Moderate | Moderate |
| C Corp | Corporation with corporate tax structure | Corporate + Distributions | Unlimited quantity and type of investors | High | Moderate |
| Partnership | Two or more partners own stock | Flow through to owners | Stock owned by two or more individuals | Moderate | Low |
| Non Profit | Public Corporation with charitable mission (501(c)3) | No Taxes | No stock owned | None | High |
| Multi Structure | Often a mix of LLC’s, Partnerships, and Corporations will be created to reduce risk | Depends upon layout of structures, but can be complex | Stock owned by a variety of investors, corporations, limited partners, and general partners | Moderate | High |
President Obama signs JOBS Act into law
By Sarah Carabias-Rush
On Thursday, April 5th surrounded by both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law. These pro-innovation, pr0-capital formation bills are designed to make it easier for small businesses and entrepreneurs to gain access to early stage capital.
The balance between protecting investor rights and providing access to capital will be critical to the success of this bill. President Obama called to ensure that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is properly funded in order to protect this new investor class – namely the average American citizen.
The new law will do the following:
- Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act: Also known as the “on ramp” bill. Data shows job growth is directly linked to an IPO. This bill reduces the cost of going public by providing companies with a temporary reprieve from SEC regulations by phasing in certain regulations over a five-year period, making it easier for smaller companies to go public.
- Private Company Flexibility and Growth Act: Under SEC regulations, privately held companies are limited to 500 shareholders, or they must go public. This bill increases the cap on shareholders from 500 to 1,000 and would exclude from the cap securities held by shareholders who received their securities as part of an employee compensation plan. This is the first cap increase in nearly 50 years.
- The Small Company Capital Formation Act: This bill raises the Regulation A SEC exemption for mini-IPOs from $5M to $50M. Raising the offering threshold helps small companies gain access to capital markets without the costs and delays associated with the full-scale SEC securities registration process. This is the first time in 20 years that the cap has been raised.
- Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act: This bill legalizes crowdfunding. The SEC regulations prohibited entrepreneurs from raising equity capital from a large pool of small investors. Under this bill, companies can pool up to $1M from investors, with each individual investor limited to $10,000 or 10% of his/her annual income, whichever is less.
- Access to Capital for Job Creators Act: The SEC regulations prohibited companies from “general solicitation or advertising” to protect less sophisticated investors. This bill eliminates the ban, so long as the purchasers are “accredited investors” and sufficient steps are taken to protect the less sophisticated investors. This would allow companies greater access to new sources of capital (accredited investors only).
- Capital Expansion Act: This bill is designed to support the ability of community banks to make loans to start-ups and small businesses. The bill increases the number of permitted shareholders in community banks from 500 to 2,000, allowing these banks to better deploy their capital without the increased SEC compliance costs.
The Dallas Regional Chamber applauds this bipartisan effort and encourages businesses and investors alike to educate themselves on the new opportunities afforded them through this new law. As these laws into implementation, we encourage the SEC and others to provide the leadership necessary in striking a balance between appropriate investor protections and making it easier for start-up businesses to raise the capital necessary to grow and create new jobs.
For more information on the Dallas Regional Chamber’s innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives, visit www.dallaschamber.org/innovation or www.InnovateDFW.com. For the Chamber’s small business initiatives, visit www.dallaschamber.org/index.aspx?id=SmallBusinessInitiative. Lastly, for the more information on the Chamber’s public policy efforts, please visit www.dallaschamber.org/publicpolicy.
Economic Development Update
The Dallas Regional Chamber’s Strategic Plan, launched in 2010, identifies the DRC’s primary role: economic development.
Every DRC initiative will support the Dallas region’s economic growth, thus fulfilling our mission:
Together, we will lead the Dallas region to become the most economically prosperous region — and the most desirable place to live and work — in the United States.
The DRC’s economic development team, including industry clusters and innovation, as well as business information and research, work vigorously to help support that mission. Each month we’ll provide an update on these initiatives and projects that support our strategic plan goals. Continue reading
