PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - University of Maryland Eastern Shore has opened the Shore's first Patent and Trademark Resource Center at the Frederick Douglass Library on its campus.
The center will provide resources for those seeking legal protections for their ideas and innovations.
Previously, no such center existed on Maryland's Eastern Shore. UMES officials say this center will not just help the public, but students as well as the University branches into more extensive research fields.
Dr. Pamela Allison, Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation for UMES says the center was fully funded by the U.S. Patent and and Trademark Office. That includes training for UMES personnel to assist the public and students.
"We're here to help entrepreneurs figure out if they have something, their idea can be protected, should be protected, and then we help them get to that point of filing for a patent or a trademark," Dr. Allison said.
UMES officials also say this is only the fifth patent and trademark center on the campus of an historically black college or university.
