BLOOD IN THE WATER
America's Assault on Innovation

Blood in the Water: America's Assault on Innovation takes an inside look at the sorry state of the U.S. patent system, the crooked dealings that got us here, and what it's going to take to get us back on track. Kip Azzoni Doyle is the inventor of the CardShark, the original and still the best combo smartphone case/credit card wallet ever made. It all started with an idea, and for Kip—like for a lot of independent inventors—that idea was going to be her ticket to the American Dream: self-determination, success, and college tuition payments for her four kids. Kip filed her application, submitted her designs, paid her fees, and had her patents issued and her product in-hand… and then she found herself infringed, sued, and threatened with invalidation before the Patent Tribunal and Appeal Board—the "death squad" for patents*—and through it all the system that was supposed to have her back was nowhere to be found. Stunned and wondering how a governmental institution expressly designed to protect "indie" inventors like her could so thoroughly drop the ball, Kip went digging… and discovered that the situation is far worse—and the potential consequences far more dire—than she'd even begun to imagine.

KIP AZZONI DOYLE is the inventor of the CardShark, the original and still the best smartphone walletskin on the market. She is also a writer who attended Pomona College and then graduated from NYU before earning a master's degree in Screen Writing from the Tisch/Gallatin Division of NYU. She is the co-author, along with her former husband, Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni, then head of Ferrari North America, of Selling Dreams: How to Make Any Product Irresistible. She now lives in Chicago with her husband, Mark Doyle, and their 200-pound St. Bernard, Geronimo. Connect with her online at www.BloodInTheWaterBook.com. 

SCOTT BURR is a graduate of the creative writing program at the Colorado College. He is the author and co-author of multiple books in various genres, including novels, short story collections, fitness training manuals, memoirs, and essay collections. He lives in Northeast Ohio. Connect with him online at www.ScottBurrAuthor.com.

*Federal Circuit Chief Judge Randall Rader, to the American Intellectual Property Law Association annual meeting in October, 2013.