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A Genius Marketing Idea: Books for Dummies
The familiar yellow-and-black Dummies book series may be geared for dummies, but a Milwaukee, Wisconsin patent lawyer who's written five Dummies books, is anything but. This article, Patent attorney helps inventors and entrepreneurs protect their ideas, Greater Milwaukee (10/25/07) profiles attorney Jill Gilbert Welytok, an attorney and CPA whose childhood experience working for her dad's mail order business inspired her interest in patent law. Welytok's dad originally came up with the idea of attaching a fake fish to a wood plaque which would flop in response to nearby motion. But because he never patented the idea, competitors began producing the product as well. After law school, Welyok took a CPA exam (she'd helped with the books in her father's business as well). She worked as a tax attorney for a large firm for a while, but decided to sit for the patent bar so she could help small businesses protect their ideas. When Welyok's three children were born, she took time off from law practice and started to write Dummies books, five in total, on topics including "Nonprofit Law and Governance for Dummies" and "Sarbanes-Oxley for Dummies" (a surprising hit, albeit one that sounds like an oxymoron to me). Thereafter, Welytok opened her own firm, Absolute Technology which represents inventors and entrepreneurs.
The lesson of Welytok's story is clear: writing a few Dummies books may turn out to be a really smart idea to advance your career and build your practice.
Posted by Carolyn Elefant on October 25, 2007 at 03:48 PM | Permalink
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