The Inventors Association of Idaho has a new venue and a great speaker to kick off its November meeting.

Beginning with November monthly meeting, set to start at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2, IAI members will meet at the auditorium on the second floor of the Columbia Bank building, 414 Church.

Speaking will be Sandpoint attorney, Doug Marks, a partner in the Kunzler Law Group in Salt Lake City, Utah, who will speak on a hot topic for entrepreneurial inventors — legally protecting your intellectual property through a complex supply chain.

For inventors with entrepreneurial start-ups the world has changed significantly in recent years. Advances in communication and transportation have transformed inventors’ ability to take advantage of worldwide skill-sets, said IAI member Bill Hertzberg.

“In the past, most companies had to bring all the aspects of their business under one roof,” he said in a press release. “But now, when you dream up an idea for a fantastic new product in your easy chair in North Idaho, you might hire software developers in India, product designers and engineers in California, marketers in New York, app developers in Utah, patent attorneys in Idaho, a factory in China, and distributors in Minnesota, all without leaving your office. And you’ll likely do all that for less money.”

While it can be a great thing, Hertzberg said that at each stage of this process, you put your intellectual property in the hands of third parties who might have their own plans. Consequently, you need to define who owns the code written in India, the designs developed and engineered in California, the logos produced in New York, and the products manufactured in China.

Marks, will address these and many other issues surrounding product development and manufacturing at Wednesday’s meeting.

The Kunzler firm has gathered several world-class attorneys in a small but high-powered operation. The firm’s intellectual property group represents world-class clients in their efforts to protect their copyrights, trademarks, and patents. The firm’s corporate section provides senior-level guidance to emerging growth companies, venture capital investors, private equity funds, and private investors.

Marks heads the commercial section, which provides general-counsel style advice to clients specializing in software and product development, internet business, manufacturing, and international transactions. He also has a strong background in commercial leasing, and he assists many growing companies in their efforts to find space for their operations.

A native of Sandpoint, Marks graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1987 as one of five valedictorians. After a year of college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, Doug served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris, France. Upon his return, he earned a degree in political science from BYU, where he met and married his sweetheart, Sharon Day. He attended BYU Law School, one of the country’s top 10 law schools, and served as senior editor on the BYU Law Review. He graduated summa cum laude in 1997, and has worked at Elsaesser, Jarzabek, and Anderson in Sandpoint, as assistant general counsel for Coldwater Creek, and at several online businesses with his brother Richard.