MIDWEST INVENTORS CONFERENCE

Keynote Speaker: DONALD GRANT KELLY

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE

Don Kelly is the Director of the Patent Trademark and Copyright Research Foundation of the American Academy of Applied Science and former Director of the Office of Independent Inventor Programs of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In this capacity, Mr. Kelly is manages a variety of initiatives in support of independent inventors. Through his lectures and writings, he is recognized everywhere as a champion of independent inventors and small business entrepreneurs.

 Upon receiving a BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1964, he began his public service career as a Patent Examiner. Other public service assignments have included: Science Advisor to a U.S. Congressman (1975-1976); a tour in the White House as Washington/Geneva Coordinator for the GATT Negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland (1976-1978); and Patent Information Director at the National Technical Information Service (1980-1981).

 Don Kelly served in the private sector (1981-1983) as Marketing Director for the British publisher, Pergamon Press, Ltd. Mr. Kelly chaired America’s Bicentennial Celebration of the U.S. Patent and Copyright Systems.

Don Kelly is an active member in the Office Safety & Asepsis Procedures (OSAP) Research Foundation, the License Executive Society, and the National Inventive Thinking Association. He has been a finalist judge in the National Collegiate Inventors Contest, and currently serves on the advisory boards of several regional and national inventors’ organizations.