A report assembled by the USPTO and the economics and statistics administration (ESA) states that intellectual property intensive industries account for 27.1 million jobs (18.8% of all employment). These same IP intensive industries, which are better defined in the report, also account for $5.06 trillion or 34.8% of the U.S. GDP. See also IP Contributes $5 Trillion and 40 Million Jobs to US Economy. Therefore, it is clear to see the importance of intellectual property within the economy of the United States.

“The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation,” said President Barack Obama explains almost two years ago in his State of the Union Address delivered to Congress in January 2011. Innovation is the process through which new ideas are generated and ultimately put into the marketplace.  Innovation is one of the main forces behind the growth of the U.S. economy — it spurs national competitiveness.

U.S.-based venture capital funds raised $5 billion in 2012's third quarter according to a Dow Jones press release that came out today, based on data compiled by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). 

That brings the total amount for the year's first nine months to $16.2 billion, a 31 percent increase over last year's total for the same time period, $12.4 billion.

I received a very exciting call the other day. It was from my 93-year young mom telling me she joined a “glee club”. Her group “The Angels” consists of seven elderly women who sing hits and show tunes from back in the day. And get this: their first performance is set for the holidays. My mom never sang in her life but in her tenth decade, she is exploring her creativity in many ways.

She’s just one example of  how it’s never too late to create dreams, to go after your bucket list desires or complete that lifetime project in your mind’s eye. In fact a large part of our nation’s creativity will come from the older population. Here’s why. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2011 there were more than 40 million Americans 65 years and older, approximately 13.3 % of the total U.S. population.  The over 65 age category is the fastest growing category in the country, with forecasts that by 2050 this group will account for more than one in five Americans 88.5 million seniors. And the good news is  that there is a growing body of evidence that creativity need not decline with age.

Are you the kind of person who has always wanted to start a business, and are ready to take the leap into entrepreneurship for the first time? Or has a tough job market prompted you to re-evaluate your goals and try to create something new?  Wherever you stand on the spectrum of entrepreneurship, congratulations on deciding to start a business and create new opportunities for yourself and others.

Ready To Start A Business?

If so, you’ve come to the right place. Over the next several weeks here on Small Business Trends, we’re kicking off a series of articles in our guide about starting a business and choosing the right structure.  We will tell you what you need to know about how to incorporate a business, how to form an LLC, and how to navigate the complexities of managing the business filings along the way. But we won’t stop there.

Market Size

The angel investor market in Q1,2 2012 showed signs of a continued steady recovery since the market correction in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009. Total investments in Q1,2 2012 were $9.2 billion, an increase of 3.1% over Q1,2 2011, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. A total of 27,280 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in Q1,2 2012, a 3.7% increase from Q1,2 2011, and the number of active investors in Q1,2 2012 was 131,145 individuals, an increase of 5% from Q1,2 2011. The increase in total dollars and the matching increase in total investments resulted in a deal size of $336,390 in Q1,2 2012, comparable to the deal size in Q1,2 2011 of $338,400. These data indicate that angels remain major players in this investment class and at valuations similar to Q1,2 2011. While the market exhibited a stabilization from Q1,2 2011, when compared to the market correction that occurred in 2008, these data indicate that the angel market has demonstrated a steady recovery since 2008.

Stage

Angels continue their appetite for seed and start-up stage investing, with 40% of Q1,2 2012 angel investments in the seed and start-up stage, virtually unchanged from the seed and start-up stage in Q1,2 1011 (39%) and in the full year 2011 (42%). There was, however, a shift to expansion stage financing to 22% of investments in Q1,2 2012 from 13% in Q1,2 2011, indicating that angels are positioning their investments for exits in the coming year. Historically angels have been the major source of seed and start-up capital for entrepreneurs and while this stabilization in seed and start-up investing is an encouraging sign it remains below the pre-2008 peak of 55%, signifying that there remains a need for seed and start-up capital for both new venture formation and job creation. New, first sequence, investments represent 49% of Q1,2 2012 angel activity, unchanged from Q1,2 2011.

Download the PDF: THE ANGEL INVESTOR MARKET IN Q1Q2 2012: A MARKET IN STEADY RECOVERY

If you get the opportunity to hear Clayton Christensen hold court, seize it. Christensen is a Harvard Business School professor and renowned author and innovation expert, perhaps best known for his book “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” which had a profound influence on many thinkers and business leaders, including Steve Jobs. Speaking at BoxWorks in San Francisco today, Christensen was characteristically soft-spoken, self-deprecating and good-humored, even prompting Ron Miller to describe him as “the Steven Wright of business research” and the anti-Aaron Levie.

His talk ranged across the board, touching on theories of disruptive innovation, effective management, product development and customer interaction. Some of the highlights and most memorable pieces of wisdom centered around the fundamental but often confusing relationship businesses have with their customers. Naturally, when building a growth product, businesses commit tons of time, energy and resources to getting to know their customers better and building something that solves their problem.

SAN FRANCISCO – Winners of Blue Button app competitions sponsored by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and The Advisory Board Comapny were announced Oct. 8 at the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco and at its Twitter hashtag, #health2con. 

Humetrix, of Del Mar, Calif., outside of San Diego, won first place and $45,000 for ONC’s Blue Button Mash-Up challenge so consumers can combine administrative and community data with the capability to view, download and transmit their health information.

Women entrepreneurs have come a long way over the last 40 years. Before 1974, banks could require women borrowers to guarantee their loans with cosignatures from husbands, fathers or male business partners. Today, women aren’t only starting small businesses faster than men, but they’re also creating more jobs. And the types of businesses and jobs they’re starting are diversifying workplaces in big ways. Women-owned firms are more likely to be smaller and also more likely to offer workers benefits like venture profit-sharing and tuition reimbursement. Making employee enrichment more of a priority is only one of many positive changes female leaders are bringing to business.

I’ve been interacting with veterans from all over the country that are at various stages in the entrepreneurial ventures. Many ask advice on how to get their own start-up off the ground and what things they can do enter this wildly unstructured world of entrepreneurship. I stress “unstructured” because I’ve found that the only fixed rules of entrepreneurship are state and federal laws, other than that, anything goes. Based off of my experience with TripPhix, the more wild and crazy you are, the better.

Go This Way! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Operating in an unstructured environment is different for us military folk. We may enjoy our freedoms, however, we’re so ingrained with process and procedure that we’re often unaware of how regimented we are. Just ask any military person for directions. Do they point with their index finger? No, they’ll hold their hand with their fingers together, their thumb tucked to the side and throw their arm in a direction with the hand acting as a spear point. That’s what we do.

The story of American innovation is one that is told all across the world and the American way of development is looked up to by many. The smartphone industry is another marvel from America and it took the world during a time when Europe was well ahead of American companies in the game. In 2005, the US was suffering from an energy crisis and had all its attention focused there. The primary players now, Apple, Google and Microsoft had a mere 5% of the market back then which was predominantly controlled by Nokia and RIM. In addition, 3G networks were spreading fast in Europe and were relatively unheard of in the US.

Now that PepsiCo has begun marketing in its flagship Pepsi brand in a much more significant way this year, investors, analysts and other pundits are giving PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi the benefit of the doubt as she continues to unfold her strategy for making the company a major player in better-for-you markets rather than just a traditional purveyor of snack foods and soda beverages. From Australia to India, from vending machines to sweeteners to ad agencies, PepsiCo is pushing to innovate.

Case in point: PepsiCo just announced a pilot rollout of its Pepsi Interactive Vending machine pilot program, allowing consumers in a handful of U.S. locations to not only buy a beverage, but also send virtual gifts, play games and even charge their mobile devices. In addition to buying a Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Sierra Mist Natural, Aquafina or Lipton Green Tea, users can also gift a 20-ounce bottled beverage to a friend by entering the recipient's name and email along with a personalized message. That person, in turn, can send a gift back to the gift-giver — or pay it forward by sending their own gift to another friend.

While politicians are out of town campaigning, the nation’s capital has been welcoming leaders in entrepreneurship education from America’s colleges and universities. Following a warm up from the younger “Empact” entrepreneurship education advocates, I joined a packed summit of university and community college presidents at the White House put together by the Commerce Department’s Nish Acharya, and then spoke this past Friday at Jeff Reid’s Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers conference at Georgetown University. It is increasingly clear that America’s colleges and universities have been retooling as engines of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Educators around the country seem determined to improve this engine’s efficiency, not just in terms of technology transfer, but also in entrepreneurship education, culture and support. Two years ago, I would merely have commented on the fact that entrepreneurship classes and career advice, once the exception to the rule, now appear on almost all campuses in more disciplines with entrepreneurship centers, incubators and accelerators—partly as a result of the Kauffman Campus challenges and investment. What is happening today is a much more exciting story.

Samurai culture is celebrated in history and revered in popular culture. Although the samurai may appear barbaric to the casual observer, the samurai were in fact intensely diligent in the way they lived their lives. The virtues of the samurai influenced the evolution of Japan as a society, and ultimately affected the course of global affairs in the 20th century.

What most pervaded the samurai philosophy and way of life was the recognition of life’s fragility. Danger was omnipresent and mortal combat frequent. In the book Samurai Strategies by Boye Lafayette De Mente, the author explores the seven samurai virtues that defined their way of life, and how we can apply them to our own lives. I believe these seven virtues possess special wisdom and application for the modern entrepreneur as well. Here’s how:

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Oct. 8, 2012 -- University of Maryland's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship is expanding its annual Cupid's Cup Business Competition to find the country's top student entrepreneurs. Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour, partnered with the Dingman Center eight years ago to launch Cupid's Cup and is now taking the competition to a national stage for the first time. Applicants will compete for a transformative prize package including $70,000 in cash prizes, coaching from a team of successful entrepreneurs, in kind services from leading edge companies and the prestigious Cupid's Cup. In an added twist, Plank will grant the 2013 grand prize winner exclusive access to a member of his professional network.

"I'm looking to identify and reward students who have the entrepreneurial drive and conviction to take the risk to start a business," Plank said. "The University of Maryland has proven to be incredibly fertile ground for talented entrepreneurs, and I am excited to expand our search and to share this inspiring program with passionate students across the country.  We look forward to providing the next Cupid's Cup winner with critical funding and a networking opportunity that we hope will propel their startup to the next level."

Facebook. Amazon. Apple. Not too long ago, these were the companies upending the status quo — unleashing provocative business models that changed our daily lives even as they transformed entire industries. Now it’s their turn to face the newbies.

The next class of start-ups aims to disrupt the disrupters. This drive to challenge norms is at the core of this year’s Chicago Ideas Week festival — co-hosted by TIME — which kicks off October 8 and features talks with Rahm Emanuel, Michael Bloomberg and many key entrepreneurs. It’s also at the heart of this list.

Foreign innovators get more U.S. patents than Americans.

U.S. Patents are important because they protect intellectual property from unauthorized copying or piracy, and as recently as the turn of the century U.S. inventors were being awarded more patents than their offshore peers, but since 2009 it’s been the other way around.

An estimated 337,910 U.S. patents went to overseas innovators between 2009 and 2012, and 329,768 went to Americans, according to the George Washington University Face the Facts Initiative.

LONDON – Four European cluster organizations for electronics said they are launching a Silicon Europe alliance to improve research coordination and investment in electronics. A summit is being planned to discuss how manufacturing can be revived in the region.

Alliance members said they want to expand Europe's position as a leading center for energy efficient micro- and nanoelectronics along with information and communications technology (ICT). The cluster partners from Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands represent about 800 research institutes and companies accounting for more than 150,000 jobs.

Last week's jobs report seems to throw cold water on the contention that tech entrepreneurs can solve America's employment woes. The Atlantic Wire used the report's data, which showed the most significant growth being in healthcare and education sectors, to dismiss social media startups as empty buzz rather than "a way to kickstart the economy."  

The New York Times ran a front-page article on Friday arguing that tech companies' lean teams carry "worrisome ... implications for the American work force," pointing to a study by the Kauffman Foundation that new businesses in 2011 have almost as many employees as they did in 1999. Companies like Instagram aren't helping the argument. When it was acquired for $1 billion by Facebook, it only had 13 employees; even today it only has one employee for every 2.8 million users.

New York City's Silicon Alley is giving its west coast rival a run for its money in the tech job arena according to a recent report from Bright Labs, a new data resource center from the job search startup Bright.com.  

Silicon Valley reportedly posted 9,874 tech jobs in the same period, and while the Valley is  still the nation's hot spot for tech jobs a few other areas are catching up, including the tech corridor between Venice and Santa Monica, Calif. known as Silicon Beach. It posted 7,368 jobs in the first eight months of this year, the fifth most of any region.

The American economy reports out “best in the world” performance as measured by the OECD Composite Leading Indicator Index on the world economy. The report was released at 7:00 a.m. Washington time on October 8, 2012 from Paris.

Worldwide growth indicators continue a weakening trend as seen over the past several months. But indicators suggest that the U.S. retains a positive outlook and shows best performance on the index despite global overall weakening.