Here's how my friend Eduardo Drake opened his latest message to me: "I'm on a mission to help 100,000 entrepreneurs move on their ideas and make the world a better place."  Now, who can't love that?  Eduardo EduardoDrakeis, to say the least, one ambitious, high-energy guy. He's an attorney for startups and entrepreneurs, based here in Minneapolis. He previously worked for a powerhouse IP firm in town, which is highly regarded nationally, also having offices in Silicon Valley and Austin, TX. But he got the entrepreneurial bug a while back and wanted to start his own IP law firm, dedicated to startups. That's when he called me to learn more about what I do, and to get better FantasticIP-logonetworked into the startup community here in Minnesota. You can tell by his firm's name that he is not your typical patent and trademark attorney — it's Fantastic IP Consulting.

Eduardo led a session at last year's all-day MInnebar conference on the topic of patents, one that was very well received (as I can personally attest). He's a fun speaker and obviously very well-informed on this subject. (Check out his bio on the Fantastic IP web site to see the list of tech companies he worked with at his previous employer. It is impressive.)

Now, I learn Eduardo is launching a "build-your-own-patent" training course for Minnesota entrepreneurs. It's a much expanded version of the presentation at Minnebar 2013. It's called Skip The Buzz Kill & Build Your Own BadAss Patent Protection, and it will be held Tuesday, February 4, 2014, from noon to 1:30 pm at CoCo Grain Exchange in downtown Minneapolis.

In this course, Eduardo says he's committed to "distilling 20 years of legal wisdom and know-how into 90 minutes of actionable knowledge tailored to help you get your badass provisional patent application done fast and done right." Sounds like one heck of an offer to me!  And, because I work with so many tech entrepreneurs developing innovative, new technology, I certainly plan to be there. Here's a discount code for my readers to get $25 off the list price: FantasticIPdiscount25. See you there!