November 1, 2006—L&H Fellowship brings IP issues to WSU students.

The newest faculty fellowship in the College of Business addresses a topic of increasing importance to entrepreneurs and researchers worldwide: intellectual property. The law firm of Lee & Hayes, PLLC created the Lee & Hayes, PLLC Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship to drive the CB's delivery of critical information on this topic to business and engineering students.

As intellectual property attorneys, Lee and Hayes work with entrepreneurs at all stages of the innovation cycle. “We’ve found that IP is a key component involving most startups, especially those that have a technology component,” says Lee. “IP issues are becoming more important to companies as we shift to an idea-focused economy. It’s something well-educated students should understand.”

Lee and Hayes became interested in the idea of a fellowship two years ago after watching former CB Dean Len Jessup work to grow the College’s Center for entrepreneurial Studies (CeS) and engage engineering students in business programs. The fellowship has been awarded to CB Associate Dean and Director of international and entrepreneurial initiatives Jerman Rose, who leads the CeS and teaches a cross-listed entrepreneurship course for business and engineering students.

“We deal with entrepreneurs all the time; in some aspects we think of ourselves as entrepreneurs,” says lee of their firm lee & Hayes, PllC. “We wanted to help give students the knowledge they will need to begin to address the issues that entrepreneurs face.”