IAM969- Pharmaceutical Attorney Helps Companies to Get Patent

Paul V. Ward is a Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Patent Attorney who lives in California. As a medical and graduate student, his research was focused primarily on diabetes and its complications.

After graduating from Loyola University Chicago (JD) and George Washington University (LL.M.) law schools, respectively, he worked in the area of pharmaceutical patent and antitrust litigation in Silicon Valley, California, and the heterocyclic compounds and pharmaceutical patent prosecution in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. He is an avid fan of literature, tennis, NFL, and collegiate basketball, and his main interest apart from reading and sports, is traveling the world to experience different cultures.

• CEO Hack: Learning something new every day
• CEO Nugget: If you have a passion don't give up, keep trying
• CEO Defined: Being proud of my work and giving it 110%

Website: https://rendezvousinchambery.com/

Instagram: @rendezvousinchambery
Facebook: @rendezvousinchambery
Twitter: @meetinchambery
TikTok: @rendezvousinchambery

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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[00:00:29.89] – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

[00:00:57.50] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Paul Ward of Rendezvous and Chamaree. Paul, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:01:06.90] – Paul Ward

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:09.20] – Gresham Harkless

Super excited to have you on, Paul. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Paul so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Paul is a pharmaceutical and biotech patent attorney who lives in California. As a medical and graduate student, his research was focused primarily on diabetes and its complications.

After graduate graduating from Loyola University in Chicago and George Washington University law schools respectively, he worked in the area of pharmaceutical patents and antitrust litigation in Silicon Valley, California in the hetero heterocyclic compounds and pharmaceutical patent prosecution in the Washington DC metropolitan area. He's an avid fan of literature, tennis, NFL, and collegiate basketball, and his main interest apart from reading and sports is traveling the world to experience different cultures. Paul, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:59.20] – Paul Ward

Yes. I am.

[00:02:00.59] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's do it then. I know I tripped over all those words, so I wanted to hear a little bit more.

[00:02:12.69] – Paul Ward

I have people in my field who can't even pronounce chemist who can't even pronounce it.

[00:02:18.59] – Gresham Harkless

I could understand why. There are some compound words, to say the least. But I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you got started with all the awesome work that you're doing. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story?

[00:02:32.00] – Paul Ward

Well, I always wanted to write, and first of all, as a young kid, I was an avid reader. I can recall as a young boy, I had four older brothers, often they would come in the house and put the book down, go outside, and play because once I started learning how to read, it was like a puzzle, and it would just become fascinated with it. And then from reading came writing, but I was also, fascinated and excelled in math and science. So that was what propelled me to attend medical school.

And I remember as a premed and a med student, my mother used to always tell me when I would write home to her, son, you missed your calling. You should be a writer. You should be a writer. So I always had this idea, to write this story. And it took me over two decades to finish it, but, it was something I wanted to do, and I finally did it. It's just great to see it come to fruition.

[00:03:46.59] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's that's awesome. As an English major and somebody who loves to write and read as well too, I appreciate the written language and how you're able to bring things to fruition. And I love that, you mentioned your mom and how, sometimes the people that are closest to us can see what we should be doing, our calling, our gifts, and sometimes they have to bring it to light so that we know that this is the way that we should be going.

[00:04:10.59] – Paul Ward

Yes. That's so true.

[00:04:13.00] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about the book and all the awesome work that you're doing. Could you take us through a little bit more about that?

[00:04:19.69] – Paul Ward

Of course. My career as a patent attorney keeps me very busy. So it was a struggle balancing my career with writing because, as everyone knows, the pharmaceutical industry, has a lot of money, and I'm the one who prosecutes the pharmaceutical patents. So, for example, if a pharmaceutical company, let's say, Johnson and Johnson, comes up with a new drug to, treat, let's say, diabetes, for example. They want to be the first one to have a patent on it, and that allows them a monopoly for twenty years.

So that drug, they can set the price and all of that surrounding it for twenty years. And then after twenty years, it becomes generic. So there's always competition to get that patent, that invention of the pharmaceutical being the pharmaceutical compound patented. And so they're filing lots of applications because it's just not Johnson and Johnson. There's Pfizer. There's Moderna. As you heard about the vaccine, everyone's now on the vaccine patent chase because they want the monopoly on it, and they can charge whatever they want for it.

So the pharmaceutical company or industry keeps me very busy because they want their patent, and then they should have it because they invest a lot of money for these drugs. And then because I'm busy with my career plus my family, I am trying to balance writing with both. And it's a struggle it's something that I welcome. It's not like I something I run from.

[00:06:19.30] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And I feel like I  read this quote where somebody says, you know, how do you write a book? And you and then somebody said, like, one word at a time, and that's how you do it. And so many times when you're juggling a lot, it's just as simple as being able to kinda continually progress towards that goal of writing that book. So, I appreciate you being able to do that and balance that with everything that you're helping these pharmaceutical companies out with. So I want to hear more about the book. Can you take us through that and and and what exactly it's about?

[00:06:49.69] – Paul Ward

Well, the book is about a it's it's a journey. It's an adventure. It's a medical, it's it's a medical mystery. The scientists came upon something and the historical fact there I mean, is the factual surrounding them, it's about a virus and how the virus was, discovered. That's all true. What I did was take these characters, and I weave the story in and out surrounding this discovery. And it's called Rendezvous and Chambre for a reason. Rendezvous is an English major. It's a double entendre. So generally, it means a place or meeting or a place for meeting. But the other part of it being a double entendre is also can be something risque or salacious.

So you have all these individuals heading to Chonburi in France starting from the Midwest and Missouri and Chicago, and you have nine people on this plane, and you're wondering why is everyone heading to, Chamboree. Is it because of the discovery? Yeah. Well, maybe. For some, yes. But you also have these characters, and they all have their divergent background. For example, one's a farm boy from Iowa. He's heading there. There's a beautiful woman, Karesa, who's, looking for reckless love or hungry for reckless love.

You have this intelligent, unconventional person. She's heading there. Then there's another character, Tracy. She's going there, but what's Tracy's background? Well, she's a lioness in adversity overcoming, you know, the stereotype of a young black woman. And then you have this very wealthy, heiress who's, heiress to a family fortune, and she's heading there. And so you wanna know what's the connection. Is it related to the discovery, or could each of them be running from their hidden haunted past? So the book gets you to tell a story to get you through to it and figure and why they were in Chamblee. And it's just a fascinating story because because you have all of these people with fascinating backgrounds.

[00:09:42.79] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I love that, and I appreciate you for breaking that down because I think so many times when we hear and I think that's why, you know, it always goes back to stories and being able to connect with people and kinda be captivated by the journey that they have and see how it ends up, seeing why, as you said so well, they're all going to Chamboree and what exactly they'll get a result of that progress, of that process is huge. And so, I was gonna ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you or the book or a combo of both. But what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes it unique?

[00:10:14.89] – Paul Ward

I think this because, first of all, the main character, is a a protagonist. And it's amazing. Wherever he goes, a dead body follows. And you're like, why are all the dead bodies following this protagonist?

[00:10:32.39] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:10:44.89] – Paul Ward

I have to say, I know it sounds corny, reading. I'm always trying to educate myself on something. If I meet someone and they tell me they're from such and such a place, I'll go and Google it and look it up and see, oh, okay. I never met anyone from Morovia before. And what's it like being there? And I'll find out what it is, what they eat, what is their culture like, what language they speak, and how it came to be known as Monrovia. But the main thing is it's true. You can learn something every day, or you learn something new every day.

[00:11:24.50] – Gresham Harkless

And, I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something if you were to hop into a time machine you would tell your younger business self.

[00:11:37.39] – Paul Ward

That's that's a good question. For me, the struggle for me was once I got this book written, if you ever sit down and you write a book, it's an accomplishment. But I had this three hundred, fifty, four hundred page book, and I was like, wow. What do I do with it now? And I started sending my manuscript out to the publisher, and I kept getting, you know, rejection after rejection after rejection.

And I was like, wow, okay, I have this book. I'm getting rejection after rejection. I'm getting, like, frustrated, depressed, and I did all this work and nothing. No one will get to see it. And I was just ready to give up. And I just happened to have a friend who just happened to call. She was she's a poet. And she said, oh, what are you doing at all? Another rejection. And I don't wanna go to brunch or do anything. She said I'm coming to pick you up. And she's convinced me. She was like, you don't understand how the system works.

There's a person who is just in a room. They pick it up, and they're bored and they're sleeping. They just push the step. They reject shit. Don't give up, don't give up, don't give up, keep trying. And I would say the advice that I will have to anyone is, if you have a passion if you have a dream, don't give up because you haven't failed unless you give up. So never give up. Never give up. No matter if it's your dream, no matter how many people tell you no, how many doors are slammed in your face, keep knocking on that door.

[00:13:21.50] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Paul, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:35.50] – Paul Ward

That's a weirdly good question. What does it mean to me? Well, I had a story to tell, and I told it. And I wasn't writing a book to sell millions and millions and millions of copies. I wanted to share a story and have people read it and say it. So for me, it's just being proud of my work, giving everything that I could, you know. And if it didn't work out, it didn't work out. But at least I gave it a hundred and ten percent, and I tried my best. Mhmm.

[00:14:21.70] – Gresham Harkless

Love that. And I think so many times we think the fear that we have, is, like, the worst pain you can have or the or the rejection or things not going the way, that we want them to go, but I almost feel like the worst pain is is not trying. And I think that, as you said, those are things that we can control. We can control the effort that we put in.

We can control going forward. We can't always control the outcome, but we can continue to kinda go forward. And I think if we tap into that, we understand these are our gifts and these are the things that we do, and this is as best I can make them come to fruition as possible and set forth on that, then I think that is something that we all need to tap into.

[00:14:59.70] – Paul Ward

Yes.

[00:15:01.39] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Paul, I truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get ahold of you. Get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

[00:15:19.00] – Paul Ward

The best way I would say is to go to, www.rendezvous.com, or you can Google me at poleward dot com. It explains, there's a synopsis of the book, and it also tells you a little bit more about me. So, I would refer you there. And if you have questions or anything about the book, you can also email me from that website.

[00:15:51.10] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Thank you so much, Paul. We will have the links and information in the show notes too just so that everybody can get a copy of the book and get a hold of with and hold of you get in touch with you. So I truly appreciate that, Paul. I appreciate your time again, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

[00:16:05.00] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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