According to a story in the Deseret News this past June, BlendTec won the case for $11 million in federal district court. The jury confirmed that the blender was “considered a direct copy.” What’s most surprising is that they had an actual email from Vita-Mix saying that they planned to copy BlendTec.

I’m at Wordcamp Utah and heard BlendTec owner Tom Dickson speak about the case. He’s the famous “mad scientist” in all the videos. He blends everything from glow sticks to broom handles. Dickson is also the engineer who designed the 5-sided blender. His design is key to helping pull the contents of the blender to the blade.

Apparently Vita-Mix isn’t the only one to copy the blender design. The company wants to send a strong message to copycats. They plan to ask the judge in the case to triple the payout to over $30 million.

This is a huge victory for BlendTec and for Utah. BlendTec is a hero for marketers – their videos are #67 in the all time most subscribed to videos on YouTube. Their starting marketing budget of $50 and a few videos that went viral put this Utah company on the map. Now they’ve shown they can hold their own against bigger more well-known competitors.

Related post by Janet Thaeler

PR Pros – Will you Blend?

When: Wednesday July 28th 9 am – 11 am
Where: City Center at 351 W Center St, Provo
What:

9:00 – 9:05 : Intro and some light breakfast
9:05 – 9:45 : “Getting Started on Foursquare – Play your way to more customers” by Jon Sheppard
9:45 – 11:00 : “Facebook and Twitter oh my, Building Business through Social Media” by Brian Seethaler and Pete Codella

OrangeSoda is a leading SEO company in American Fork, Utah with expertise in the area of online search engine marketing.

RSVP on Facebook for this event.

Check out the flyer below and please pass the word to your associates.

“The first five years are the most challenging for a new startup,” said UVEF 2010 chairman John Pilmer. “These companies not only demonstrate impressive growth in these early years, but do so during the greatest recession of our lifetime. If these companies can excel in a down economy, we can’t wait to see what they do in a recovery.”

David Bradford, Chairman of Fusion-io, emceed the ceremony. He praised all finalists for their entrepreneurial spirit and contributions to Utah’s business community.

“These companies prove to the business community that Utah entrepreneurs continue our state’s remarkable history of entrepreneurial leadership,” Bradford said. “New business startups here remain a strong and thriving force in the development of our local and national economy.”

This year’s other award recipients are Imagine Learning, Local Results, High West Distillery and Saloon, FundingUniverse, SEO.com, Simply Mac, FamilyLink.com, Entice Labs, Pounders Hawaiian Island Grill, Jive Communications, Campus Book Rentals, Kynetx, Parallel HR Solutions, Zoobies, Franchise Foundry, ILLUMRA, Snapp Conner PR, Appigo, CFOwise, Lumos, Xcelus, Fiftyfilms, Qualified Address and Izatt International.

Nominations were judged on several factors including revenue growth and job creation.

This is UVEF’s eleventh Top 25 Under Five competition. UVEF has highlighted the development of more than 200 individuals and their companies through the ceremony, including Utah success stories like Omniture, Skullcandy and Xango, among many others.

About UVEF
The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum (UVEF) is a volunteer non-profit support group linking entrepreneurs to Money, Markets, and Mentors. Celebrating 21 years of new business success, UVEF empowers current and future business leaders to thrive in today’s competitive market. We provide real-world, practical education and valuable resources on how to access needed capital, attract new customers and tap into industry experts. For information on upcoming meetings, speakers and exclusive membership benefits visit www.uvef.net.

Press Contact:
Andon Carling
PilmerPR
801-368-7249
acarling@pilmerpr.com

Wednesday June 23rd
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Grand America Hotel
Imperial Ballroom
555 South Main Street
Salt Lake City, UT 81444

The keynote speaker will be Michael E. Gerber who has authored 13 books on entrepreneurship, appeared on Business Week’s bestseller list for 28 consecutive months and is currently a NYT bestseller for The Most Successful Small Business in the World: The Ten Principles. Gerber is the founder of E-Myth Worldwide with over 70,000 business clients in over 145 countries.

Top finalists include the following Utah investors, who will also be at the event:

• Warren Osborn — Managing Director for Stoneway Capital
• Martin Frey — Spent 13 years as a Sr. Director at Cisco
• John Richards — Co-developed and launched the first-ever online Yellow Pages, Co-Managing Partner of BoomStartup
• Kyle Love — Founding member of the Utah Angels
• Robb Kunz — Co-Managing Partner of BoomStartup
• Nobu Mutaguchi — Invested in over 25 Utah-based startup and emerging companies
• Dan McPhun — Co-Founder of Park City Angels
• JD Gardner — Founder and Managing Director at Monarch Partners
• Mark Burton — 2006 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year
• Rod Watson — Angel investor dealing mainly with software and biotech companies based in Utah and Oregon
• Brad Walters — Vice Chairman of Utah Technology Council, Previously CEO/President MaxStream
• Mike Levinthal — Former VC with the Mayfield Fund, serves on the Boards of Altiris (ATRS), Directpointe, Infopia, Metricstream, Senforce, 3point5, Utah Capital Investment Corporation (UCIC) and the Forever Young Foundation
• Ron White — Founder and General Partner at Advanced Technology Development Fund
• John Pestana — Co-Founder of Omniture
• Jim Evans — CEO at Xactware

All are invited; RSVP is requested (so they know how much food to gather).

Come join fellow lovers of technology (and who doesn’t?).

Just sign the Guest List and mark your calendar for THIS FRIDAY, June 11 from 11:30 to 2:00 p.m.

At OrangeSoda, 732 E Utah Valley Drive, American Fork, UT

Jeremy Hanks

LaunchUp is a social gathering wherein 3-or-so up-and-coming technology entrepreneurs present their businesses to a group to let everyone know what they are doing, and to give and receive feedback. It’s a great way to meet some of the early startups in the area and to see how others are raising the barn (so to speak).

This month’s LaunchUp is tomorrow night, Thursday, at 6:30. The event is at the Miller Free Enterprise Center / Salt Lake Community College (9750 South 300 West in the Sandy area, just West of the freeway.)

Tomorrow features food and three cool new companies: 00Tunes, Buystream.tv, and Instructure. The ‘Amp Session’ will be presented by Josh Coates, and ‘In The Weeds’ will be presented by DJ Waldow.

For more details, please visit the LaunchUp site.

Funding Universe is hosting their popular SpeedPitch event on July 7, 2010 wherein you can pitch your new business to 20 to 30 investors for free. Free! (They used to charge for this event.)

I participated in a SpeedPitch last year and not only enjoyed the time meeting and getting feedback from investors, but found that I was able to better refine my company pitch and the experience was well worth the effort.

SpeedPitch is an opportunity to pitch dozens of active and engaged investors. The format is simple & personal. You’ll sit at a table with just 3-4 investors whom you’ll pitch to and converse with. After rotating through 10 tables of investors a catered lunch will be served over a final 30 minutes of networking.

July 7, 2010
11:30 am – 1:30 pm
Salt Lake Community College — Miller Business Innovation Center
Karen Gail Miller Conference Center
9750 South 300 West
Sandy, UT
map

Prizes

• The winner gets a plaque! (… and $5,800 of services from our sponsors):
• NOWAdvisors: 12 hours of financial & accounting services = $1,800 value
• FundingUniverse: startup services = $2,500 value
• Amazon: web services = $500 value
• CLI: legal services = $1,000 value

Modern copy machines store a copy of every copy made. Shocked?

I was, just as I began thinking about all the things I have made copies of; contracts, agreements, financial records, plans, password documents I keep in a safe. All kinds of confidential business stuff. My heart really began to race as I considered all the places I might have copied personal documents such as social security cards, drivers’ licenses, bills, taxes and medical records. Oh my!

The security risk isn’t immediately apparent until you realize many of these machines are leased, and ultimately go back into the system to be leased again, or sold. Sometimes to your competitor, sometimes to foreign countries, and sometimes (as implied in the video, below) to people who know they are getting a harvest of confidential information that can be exploited. Think about all your records being copied by your doctor, your financial planner or your credit card company.

As a business, we have a responsibility to keep records safe and secure. It also pays to be aware of how securities can be circumvented, if even in the most benign of ways.

So, as my public service announcement of the day, I present to you one of the most shocking YouTube videos I have ever watched:

*Thank you to my good friend and Utah CFO Kent Thomas for the adrenaline rush this late Friday afternoon. Kent is my CFO, and always has my back.

For business bloggers, the challenge is how to continue gaining readers and attracting more people to your message. This, of course, is a goal of business blogging and supports your ultimate objective of teaching people about your product or service, so they can change the world. Next time you post to your business blog, run through this quick check list to make sure you are doing the minimum best practice to get the word out and expand your influence.

Visit BusinessBloggerTips.com and read this week’s Business Blogger tip.

ANNOUNCEMENT: KEEP THIS QUIET… I am conducting a ’soft launch’ of my new Business Blogger Tips blog, where you can turn to each week for a practical tip on how to promote your business with a blog. Practical tips range from writing tips, software recommendations, social media best practices and, of course, SEO.

If you have a moment, please go check it out, subscribe, and join me in discussing great tips for blogging your business.

Pass the word to any colleagues you have who might be interested in improving their business blog. Thank you!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my weekly Business Blogger Tips Podcast on iTunes!