Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | February 9, 2026 | wbjournal.com From before the days of Robert Goddard to today, patent attorneys have fueled and protected visionary ideas BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor W hile Robert God- dard's liquid rocket helped bring man 240,000 miles to the Moon, he didn't have to travel very far to have his world-changing invention patented. anks to earlier innovators, in- cluding Ichabod Washburn, a pioneer of iron wire production, by the time Goddard patented his multi-stage and liquid-fueled rockets in 1914, Worcester already had a litany of attorneys who were there to help, said Charles Slatkin, founder of e Goddard Project and e Wonder Mission, two initiatives formed to honor Goddard's legacy. "e idea was that Worcester, at its time, was kind of the Silicon Valley of the Industrial Revolution," Slatkin said. "ere were 14 patent attorneys on Main Street, and people were here inventing all the tools and technologies that would fuel the Industrial Revolution." Goddard turned to Southgate & Southgate, a Worcester-based firm, to secure those two first rocket-related patents, according to documents he submitted to the U.S. Patent Office, two of 214 patents Goddard would file in his lifetime. While Southgate & Southgate closed up shop decades ago, Central Massachu- setts is still full of attorneys and patent practitioners helping modern innovators protect and profit off their ideas. "e more valuable your idea is, the more I'd say to do your homework, be- cause there'll be people very interested in your idea, too," said Frank Gleason, an attorney at Worcester-based firm Mirick. Establishing a patent When it comes to patents, the first step is establishing ownership, said Donald Muirhead of Westborough IP Group, one of the 246 patent practi- tioners in Central Massachusetts regis- tered with the U.S. Patent and Trade- mark Office. "Sometimes somebody will say 'I've got this great technology idea. I think I want to start my own company and get a patent,'" Muirhead said. "But you need to first establish that their prior employer doesn't have rights to it. If you're a pro- fessor in a university and you've signed an employment agreement, they're required to assign all your patents to the university. You can't just file your own patent and start a company, without at least a waiver." Aer ownership is established, the next step is for Muirhead to wrap his head around what the invention actually does. "Most inventions are solutions to a problem," he said. "I ask them to tell me what existed before their invention and then how their invention solves that problem. ose are kind of the pieces that we try to put into the patent application that we present to the patent office." Even with a carefully-filed patent application to USPTO, the odds are low it will be accepted on the first attempt, Muirhead said. "ey look for what's called prior art, which are things that are like what you're trying to patent," he said. "en they typically reject about 98% of the first round with the patent office." is typically kicks off negotiations, where Muirhead goes back and forth with the reviewer, aiming to find a sweet spot where the patent can be approved without being narrowed down too much to be of little value. Since Muirhead first passed the bar in 1989, the biggest non-technological changes in the patent field have come from evolving policies at the USPTO, he said. "e thing that makes it harder or easier is kind of what's going on at the patent office," he said. "ere was a stretch about 15 years ago, where they PHOTO | MATT WRIGHT Protecting innovation Donald Muirhead of Westborough IP Group F O C U S LAUNCHING INNOVATION: CENTRAL MASS. VISIONARIES Frank Gleason joined Worcester law firm Mirick late last year, the latest move in his long career as a business and IP litigator.

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