The tech world eagerly watched the developments of a recent courtroom battle between electronics juggernauts Samsung and Apple. Highlighting the unfair tactics of both parties, a court in South Korea recently came to a verdict with anti-climatic results with punishments equating to trivial amounts. But one of the underlying issues and arguments was that copying puts a hindrance on innovation and creativity. Despite this being something heavily contested by Apple in the past, the Cupertino, California company has not missed a beat and come to represent one of the world’s most valuable and desirable brands. Technology aside, the same comparisons could be made to the fashion world in the battle of high vs. fast fashion and virtually any industry around. The term “good artists copy, great artists steal,” gets thrown around with ease in the creative realm, but at what point does it become truly detrimental? Or is it simply a case that the best will consistently rise to the top. To state the obvious, for small brands and companies, having their unique selling points ripped off by larger brands can be a death sentence given their limited resources. However, has the Internet effectively equalized this all providing a much more democratic platform for all to see? So the final question, “does copying hinder innovation and creativity?”

The conversion of the Brunswick Naval Air Station for civilian reuse offers a model for other communities and regions in Maine facing economic challenges.

Since the Navy officially ceded operation of the base to civilian authorities in 2011, the airstrip has reopened as Brunswick Executive Airport, and 16 businesses have moved into former military properties on the 1,700 acres now called Brunswick Landing.

The White House named 18 Presidential Innovation Fellows, the first set of proven private sector innovators chosen to bring their expertise to work for the government in Washington, D.C., for six months on five high-impact projects using electronic data and tools.

The projects are related to health data access, online business practices, electronic payments and making more federal data computer readable, according to Todd Park, White House chief technology officer, during the Aug. 23 announcement.

What makes a regular person into an entrepreneur? Is it her parents and a particular type of upbringing? Or is it certain born preference and qualities? Maybe a stint at a start-up accelerator or training program can have an influence?

Certainly any and all of these biographical details can contribute to the making of a successful entrepreneur, but so can living abroad, research suggests.

D and O (directors and officers Insurance) also protects company executives.  Whether you are a for-profit or not-for-profit organization, an executive liability package should be considered just as important as general liability.

What Does Executive Liability Cover?

Executive liability is a name commonly used in reference to a package of coverages including (but not limited to) director’s and officer’s (D and O), employment practices, and fiduciary liability.

Twenty Rochester region firms have been selected for a program designed to boost growth.

The Greater Rochester Enterprise Incorporated program will be paid for with a $200,000 grant from the Empire State Development Corporation, along with matching funds from GRE.

The initiative hopes to serve as a pilot project that could be copied by other regions of New York and potentially connect all of the state’s economic development groups.

SINCE 1900, the life expectancy of Americans has jumped to just shy of 80 from 47 years. This surge comes mostly from improved hygiene and nutrition, but also from new discoveries and interventions: everything from antibiotics and heart bypass surgery to cancer drugs that target and neutralize the impact of specific genetic mutations.

Now scientists studying the intricacies of DNA and other molecular bio-dynamics may be poised to offer even more dramatic boosts to longevity. This comes not from setting out explicitly to conquer aging, which remains controversial in mainstream science, but from researchers developing new drugs and therapies for such maladies of growing old as heart disease and diabetes.

The Gabriel Institute, creators of a new technology that measures how people will perform on a team, has just launched an unusual crowdfunding campaign on Indigogo.com. The funding will enable TGI to complete a component that is specifically designed to predict entrepreneurial ‘fit to mission’.

Like most crowdfunding offers, contributors will collect ‘Perks’ in exchange for funding support. What’s different in TGI’s campaign is that 10,000 of the new Entrepreneurial Teamability reports will become a free resource to any entrepreneur, anywhere, who is participating in a startup incubator, business accelerator, or entrepreneurship program.

Are you treading on shaky ground at work, quietly looking for a new job as you try to figure out how to recover? Or are you in transition, still wondering what you could have done differently? Let’s face it. In this economy, it’s all about survival, and to survive you need the right team.

Along the way to creating Teamability™, which is a completely new way to measure how people will ‘team’ together to achieve common goals, we learned a lot about how different people are attracted (or driven) to make meaningful contributions in group activities. When an individual has a strong focus on serving one of ten fundamental organizational needs, we call that their ‘Role.’

Teams comprised of people who naturally and effectively serve the ten organizational needs, will tend to generate positive ‘team spirit’ and coherent behavior. So if you find yourself doubting your own capabilities, or blaming yourself for a job-related misfortune, think again. Even the most heroic individual effort cannot equal the power and performance of strong, balanced, synergistic team.

Think of this as a peek into the world of Teamability – where it becomes possible to solve the ‘right people, right seats’ puzzle, and to predictably structure, develop, manage and motivate successful teams.

Gail Bishop is doing all she can to avoid “the valley of death.” A fate to which Bishop — a professor of microbiology and internal medicine at the University of Iowa — said she has seen too many academics fall prey.

Bishop and her business partner and fellow UI scientist Tony Vanden Bush have created a medical technology they feel can be commercialized. (See “Lock and key” sidebar.)

However, the pair is faced with the quintessential problem of translating an idea from the lab into a business venture.

Vic Gatto is a partner in the Nashville venture capital firm Solidus, which funds a variety of startup companies involved in three industries: health care, technology and media/information.

Solidus is an early-stage venture firm. It invests in very small companies — typically run by just two or three entrepreneurs — just as the owners begin to run through money raised from friends and family sources or other initial startup cash. Solidus’ money is the first institutional capital these small firms take as they strive to grow into larger, successful and important companies.

A toilet that uses solar power and generates hydrogen and electricity, another that makes charcoal, minerals, and water, and a third that sanitizes excrement and recovers resources and clean water: these are all inventions that are attracting funding in an international push by the Bill and Melinda Gates Fondation to produce sustainable sanitation for all.

Announcing the winners of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge this week in Seattle, Foundation co-chair Bill Gates, said:

"Innovative solutions change people's lives for the better. If we apply creative thinking to everyday challenges, such as dealing with human waste, we can fix some of the world's toughest problems."

Have you ever felt like you’re fumbling around in your corporate job looking for a place to belong, to thrive or to simply feel fulfilled? I did, and I never found it. One day, I finally woke up from the fog: I was building my dream in the wrong place. Corporate America and the whole notion of working for someone else was not my cuppa tea. Period.

Dell commissioned a Women's Global Entrepreneurship Study to understand regional differences between women entrepreneurs in India and the U.S--here's what they found.

In anticipation of the June 2012 Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) global conference in New Dehli, Dell commissioned a Women's Global Entrepreneurship Study to understand regional differences between women entrepreneurs.

There's a lot of buzz these days about doing business in Maryland. Here are the facts about why businesses call Maryland the "Land of Opportunity." Please watch this video and visit ChooseMaryland.org for more information.

Thank you,

Christian S. Johansson
Secretary of Business and Economic Development

Hubs and clusters, institutes and ecosystems: In recent years, we and others have talked a lot about the morphology of innovation systems, which are frequently anchored by major centers of research and comprised of related regional clouds of entrepreneurs, orbiting firms, industry actors, and educational institutions.

Strengthening that optimal structure was the idea behind our companion proposals for the creation of a network of regional energy discovery-innovation institutes and the establishment of a program to aid and abet nascent clusters with competitive grants. And it is also the point of the Department of Energy’s Energy Innovation Hubs program as well as the several regional innovation cluster programs now running, including at the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, that have moved along these lines.

In 1950, Ewing Kauffman launched his pharmaceutical company, Marion Laboratories Inc., in the basement of his modest home in Kansas City. During his first year in business, he had sales of $36,000 and a net profit of $1,000. By the time he sold his company to Merrell Dow in 1989, it had become a global diversified healthcare giant with nearly $1 billion in sales.

In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak launched Apple. The first world headquarters for their world-changing venture was Jobs’ family garage. At the end of its fiscal third quarter this year, Apple reported quarterly revenue of $35.0 billion and quarterly net profits of $8.8 billion.

An article released by ChannelNewsAsia yesterday revealed some interesting facts. According to a survey (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS)) done by NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, up to 80% of Singapore students have given some thought to founding their own business.

A total of 3,133 students across the three public universities and five polytechnics were surveyed by the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre. The survey was administered through a web-based questionnaire from May to September 2011.

TED Talks have become a worldwide phenomenon. It's a platform where the brightest minds — scientists, designers, inventors —  go to spread their ideas. Many of these leaders deliver their insights at TED conferences around the world, which are then uploaded onto TED.com. To date, the talks have received over 800 million pageviews. TED has just released a list of the top 20 talks of all time, which we've compiled here.