An introduction to securing, protecting and maintaining your IPR June 17th

For this meeting Zarah Rasool & Amy Williams from Baker Botts will bee presenting on intellectual property. There will be thre presentations:

1. Starting out – a brief look at IPR relevant to new businesses

• what IPR are you generating?

• who creates the IP and who owns it?

• how and where can you protect your IP?

• how are IPR maintained?

2. IP considerations when looking for investment

• does the company own all its IP?

• how will the IP be developed/exploited?

• taking security over IP in return for financing

3. Commercialising IPR

• healthcare and software licences

• key commercial terms, including payments and use rights

In early stage companies, ideas create value. Protecting these ideas helps prevent competitors devaluing a company’s presence in the market through copycatting and helps show investors exactly how much an ambitious, innovative company can be worth. Whether manifested as a physical invention, computer software, product design, mobile app technology or a new brand name, ideas require intellectual property protection to allow their value to be maximised.

Mechanisms range from automatic and free copyright protection; straightforward and cost-effective confidentiality agreements and the use of trade secrets; affordable trade mark protection; and finally the more complex patent protection option.

Every early stage company will have IP opportunities that will increase the figures on the balance sheet and the key is to identify these as early as possible in the development process. Once created and protected, IP can also be extremely important as a revenue stream. Commercialising your IP requires consideration of the key licence terms, in particular negotiating royalty rates and the rights relating to usage.