IP has never been more important to the evolution of our increasingly knowledge-based economy. Not more than a few decades ago, a company’s most valuable assets were tangible. Now, through online e-commerce, anyone can take an idea, a process, designs, algorithms, or brand, and expand into global markets and even create new industries. That’s why it is critical that we enforce our IP rights and protect American innovations, which are protected by intellectual property rights.

At Microsoft’s research labs around the world, computer scientists, programmers, engineers and other experts are trying to crack some of the computer industry’s toughest problems, from system design and security to quantum computing and data visualization.

A subset of those scientists, engineers and programmers have a different goal: They’re trying to use computer science to solve one of the most complex and deadly challenges humans face: Cancer.

A few years ago, my oldest daughter was part of a highly ranked high school marching band program. They were invited to compete in the first national marching band competition on the ellipse lawn at the White House. Like most early stage entrepreneurs, I was up to my eyeballs in alligators. I convinced myself that I was too busy to chaperone the trip and had to stay home and work.

AMES, Iowa – The third round of funding from an Iowa State University presidential initiative will build four research teams that will use big data to benefit human and animal health, improve cities and build new tools for researchers.

Iowa State President Steven Leath launched the Presidential Initiative for Interdisciplinary Research in 2012. The program provides seed funding to establish research teams from across campus to tackle emerging societal challenges. The goal is to help the teams grow into well-funded, cross-disciplinary research groups.

Image: This image shows flu virus as seen by an electron microscope. The Presidential Initiative for Interdisciplinary Research is supporting a team that will use big data tools for real-time tracking of flu in swine. -- Image courtesy of Phillip Gauger.

Twenty-odd years ago, most big companies would run just a handful of experiments each year. Today, the most innovative businesses run thousands—Intuit: 1,300, P&G: 7,000–10,000, Google: 7,000, Amazon: 1,976, and Netflix: 1,000—thanks to a combination of new technologies and "lean" business approaches. And it isn't just quantity that's rising but the quality and pace of experimentation, too. These days, the true test of how innovative a company can be is how well it experiments.

Paul Critchlow had earned his retirement. It was May of 2015, and he'd worked very hard over a long life, and as a young man, he had even fought in Vietnam. He went on to report for the Philadelphia Inquirer and served as spokesman for Pennsylvania’s governor. Finally, he’d spent the last 30 years at Merrill Lynch, half of those as its head of communications. Now that he was turning 69, it seemed like time for a rest.

Image: Photos: Celine Grouard for Fast Company

It would raise the stakes even higher, but that didn't stop Jay Flatley, Illumina's then chief executive, from sending in vials of his own saliva and blood to the company's newly opened lab. It was January 2009, and Illumina's scientists were about to embark on their first mission to sequence a whole human genome.

The project, internally dubbed "Jaynome," required a prescription from Flatley's doctor in case the scientists discovered something medically relevant. It took several weeks and cost tens of thousands of dollars for the lab to deduce the sequence of the genome.

Image: Noel Spirandelli for Fast Company

European car producers intend to relocate their research centers to Eastern Europe following the UK vote in favor of Brexit, to decrease their costs and to preserve free access to the European market, reports The Guardian.

Human resources companies are looking for trained personnel and executives to lead research & development teams in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. The car producers are also looking to relocate trained specialists from the UK to Eastern Europe.

Widespread debate about how to reform the U.S. immigration system has become a major theme in this year’s presidential race. The growing awareness of an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. has sparked Republican candidate Donald Trump to promise that, if elected, he would round up all “illegal” immigrants and expel many of them from the United States upon taking office. Even scholars who reject such extreme measures as impractical and counter-productive argue that U.S. immigration policy needs to undergo significant reforms.

When it comes to workplace events that produce resentment and anxiety, few score higher than the big annual performance review. Calls to end this time-consuming and often unproductive practice have gone unheeded — until now. Recently, Adobe, Kelly Services, GE, Deloitte and PwC have ended them, and the rippling out to smaller firms and other sectors appears to be underway. To which many say: good riddance.

One of the first questions we ask clients is, “How do you own your family business?” Often the response is legalistic: “We are a limited liability company”  or “Our shares are held in trust.” This information is essential, of course, but it leaves unanswered the more fundamental questions: “In your family business system, who gets to be an owner? And what, precisely, does ownership mean to you?”

Image: https://hbr.org

Jyväskylä, Finland -- The 11th European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship was held last week at this picturesque university town in the central Finnish “Lake District.”

9 ways to bend Windows 10 to your will Customize Windows 10 to your liking, not theirs. READ NOW Stanford University’s Henry Etzkovitz gave the opening keynote on “Triple Helix Innovation in a Crisis.”

Etzkovitz originated the concept of “Triple Helix,” for the combined efforts of government, industry, and academia in regional economic development. He declared that in the knowledge era, the academic strand of the helix is the critical component.

In this video, Entrepreneur Network partner Mark J. Kohler -- author of best-selling title The Tax and Legal Playbook -- goes over successful crowdfunding strategies. 

There are four rules that you must comply with as a business owner in order to crowdfund. Working with an SEC-approved portal, collecting the right formation and disclosure documents, supplying detailed expansions of the disclosure documents and ongoing compliance are the necessary steps to successful crowdfunding, Kohler says. 

For the first time in 80 years, thanks to Regulation Crowdfunding, startups and small businesses can raise up to $1 million from friends, family, customers and non-accredited investors. As of May 16, 2016, the JOBS Act’s Title III Regulation Crowdfunding exemption enables capital-raising via Securities and Exchange Commission-registered websites.

Prior to this SEC provision, entrepreneurs’ financing options came down to personal savings, credit cards, banks (if they could qualify) and angels or VCs (if they were among the lucky few). While most media attention about this new opportunity has focused on an entrepreneur’s ability to sell shares (equity) in his or her high-growth-potential company, a real (and neglected) opportunity is for Main Street businesses to raise debt capital through crowdfunding.

Paul Freedman was having lunch at Delmonico’s — not the original, which opened in the early 19th century, but a relic of it in the financial district. Lobster Newburg was still on the menu, the meat napped with a brandy-spiked butter.

“But the sauce used to have much, much more brandy in it,” Mr. Freedman said. “The style now is less severe.”

Even surfing can teach you how to be a better entrepreneur. 

In this video, Entrepreneur Network partner Bryan Elliott meets with professional surfer Tia Blanco to discover what she likes most about her career. 

Blanco doesn't surf for the fame, she surfs because it's what she loves to do. She says she thinks it's important for people to do what they love -- in both business and life. Surfing keeps her humble, happy and surrounded by people she cares about.

For those who are familiar with the principles of social entrepreneurship, the dividends they create for society are obvious, and the case for encouraging more of this kind of enterprise development is intuitive. As Thulsi Ravilla, the Executive Director of the highly acclaimed social enterprise Aravind in India put it, “Whether you are talking about cardiac care or education, the fundamental question is: ‘How do you provide it for everyone?’”

Dan Lyons knew his book would put him at risk. A former tech journalist and author, he’d written plenty of things that had made people angry at him — this was the guy, after all, who famously authored a blog that mocked Steve Jobs  — but this was the first time he’d do something that had the power to really change his own prospects.

Yesterday, Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews addressed the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Conference about the success of this national public-private partnership in catalyzing U.S. manufacturing and evolving to better support manufacturers. The Deputy Secretary referenced his own experience at Ford to speak about the recovery in American manufacturing since the financial crisis, and particularly the recent successes of the auto industry.

Image: http://nistmep.blogs.govdelivery.com

Good news, not so good news... On the positive side, governments have launched a series of significant new initiatives designed to inject capital into the Middle East’s entrepreneurial sector. To cite two examples, Saudi Arabia will establish a $1.1 billion fund to develop its venture capital industry, and Dubai will invest over $270 million in a program for enabling rapid development of transformative technologies. Across the region, we are seeing a welcome commitment by governments and private investors to encourage and fund entrepreneurship. The goal is simple: to spur innovation and economic development.

Image: http://www.forbesmiddleeast.com