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About Us |
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Intellectual Property Shield was founded in August 2005 by John Toth, President.
The Company is incorporated in Illinois, with offices in Colorado and Illinois. |
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After spending decades in technology businesses, and working with enterprises that
create and consume intellectual property, Toth realized that misuse of copyrighted
materials such as standards documentation and design specifications was rampant
throughout enterprises and their supply chains. These documents are very valuable,
and their prices reflect this. However, misuse of these documents is also rampant,
causing the stakeholders of this valuable content to increase prices to re-capture
the lost revenues resulting from such infractions as incorrect copying and distribution
practices. |
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Mr. Toth observed that the main reason misuse is so common is due to lack of knowledge,
not malicious intent. The typical purchasing transaction for this content usually
involves few or sometimes one person in the enterprise. Ergo, the content provider
may only “touch” the person or group signing the contract.
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While an individual may have signed a license agreement, the dozens or hundreds
of end users in their organization rarely see the agreement and don’t necessarily
understand the rules that govern the use of these copyrighted materials. The problem
becomes compounded when one considers that the typical user enterprise- literally
any company who designs or builds a product- may rely on dozens of these documents
every day. And each document may have its own permissions or restrictions that apply
to its use.
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When it became apparent that so few people know the rules that govern the use of
intellectual property, as opposed to the many people who use the information, Toth
realized a strong need for end-user education. He envisioned a web-based tutorial
that would “certify” end users, would not take a lot of time to complete, and would
be sold at a fair price. |
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In addition, the hundreds of organizations who provide this content (Standards Development
Organizations and aggregators) are only aware of their content and their limitations
on use: there is no single organization focused only on user education in the interest
of all providers. Hence, Toth formed Intellectual Property Shield, or IP-Shield. |
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ABOUT OUR FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT |
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Before founding Intellectual Property Shield in 2005, John Toth held various executive
positions with companies who deliver content and document management solutions to
national enterprises. He spent 10 years with Information Handling Services, a distributor
of intellectual property, where he was Vice President of Aerospace/Aviation Automotive.
At IHS, he developed the corporate sales team and worked with F500 companies who
develop, distribute or consume copyrighted content including: Lockheed Martin, Allied
Signal, Rockwell, Honeywell, Raytheon, UTC, General Dynamics, Motorola, AT&T, Northrop
Grumman and John Deere. Prior to that, Mr. Toth spent 20 years in the hardware,
mainframe and information technology sectors, working for Honeywell, Digital Equipment
and Stratus Group to name a few. John has a Computer Sciences degree from the Honeywell
Institute of Information Sciences in Chicago.
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