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We were well into the naughties (2000s) when I decided that academia was no longer going to work for me (not that it ever did).  During my lustrous academic career I repeatedly came into contact with lawyers and attorneys all after the same thing, my signature on a bit of paper assigning away all my intellectual property rights associated with my projects to the Powers (something I once resented). 

Intellectual Property. 

I had obviously heard about intellectual property, I was even listed as inventor on a patent application, I understood there was a registered trade mark for a product we developed and I damn sure new about copyright, or at least how to avoid copyright infringement when drafting academic papers etc…  I even remember doing an assignment on intellectual property during my undergrad.

At the time I worked in a laboratory focused on commercialisation, I reviewed some of the laboratory’s patent applications and briefly thought I could do ‘that’.  So here I am.  I have to say getting here has been relatively straight forward from a re-qualifying point of view, what has not been straight forward was my introduction to the professional arena (away from the .....(wait for it) equality of academia)!