You have cultivated an IP portfolio for your start up with trademarks, copyrights, patents, know-how, trade secret and designs, what now? These assets of your organization can be retained through their life and can be used tactically to keep competitors at bay. However, there are instances where your IP rights could be shared with others in return for compensation. This is referred known as IP licensing, where if you do an outright sale of the IP asset it is considered…
Starting up can be exhilarating, rewarding, and exhausting. With your focus being on product development, managing investments, building key partnerships, and attracting the right employees, your intellectual property and its role can sometimes be relegated to the backburner. Intangible assets such as Copyrights, Trademarks, Trade Secrets and Patents are playing an increasingly central role in start-ups and their transactions. The creation of intellectual property, it’s licensing and commercialization is the new reality. As a part of any valuation by a…
These are some basic questions VCs and Investors ask before investing in a start-up. What is the value of Intellectual Property (IP) for the start-up's business, revenues and competitive advantage in the market? Is the start up IP driven? How strong is the start-up’s IP portfolio when compared with its competitors? Is the IP ownership clear, and are all link documents in place? Will the IP Portfolio help in retaining revenues, and opening new revenue opportunities? Is the start-up’s IP…
Clearing IP Risks is very important before starting a business. A mistake with respect to this can kill a start-up. Some basic IP clearance steps to be taken by all start-ups and entrepreneurs are: Patent Risk Clearance Check if your business idea is the subject of any IP/Patent protection by another person or entity. Perform a patent search to check if any patents cover any aspect of your business. If your business or technology falls within…
The post below has been previously published on 9th December, 2014. Besides minor dated references, the post gives a basic understanding of how start-ups can raise funds and get investments from venture capitals and other investors, through their intellectual assets. Funding activities during the last quarter, especially when it comes to start ups, was great! Apart from the US$ 1 Billion Fundraising by Flipkart, India saw several start ups being funded at various levels. A Report indicates 93 deals…
More often than not, start-ups focus on protecting their intellectual property, but ignore risks from intellectual property of third parties. IP of third parties may kill a business if appropriate risk clearance measures are not taken at the right time. While protecting IP is very important for start-ups and entrepreneurs, avoiding or mitigating risks from IP of third parties is even more important. A start-up company must take necessary steps to avoid the risk of infringing IP of third parties.…
Copyright protects ideas expressed on a tangible form. The expression may be in the form of literary work like website content, brochure content etc, photographic work such as pictures used on website, brochures, etc, artistic work like layout of website, drawings, etc, cinematographic work such as promotional videos, support videos, etc, and so on. Protection of copyrights provides several business and competitive advantages to startups and entrepreneurs. A startup company must protect its marketing materials, documents, websites and so on…
Choosing the right name/business representation word, logo, device or any other form of business representation is generally the first asset created by an entrepreneur, Often, entrepreneurs finalize on a name or logo and develop strong emotional attachment to it without proper research. While it is important to be passionate about the business and its representation, every entrepreneur must take the following steps before finalizing on a business representation: Ensure that the name, logo or any other representation shortlisted is capable…
Intellectual Property protection can provide business and competitive advantage to a company. While IP is assuming high importance for all companies, its value for a start-up can be extremely high, depending on the nature of the start-up. While IP, many a time, forms the core of technology/knowledge driven start-ups based on novel ideas, the spectrum of its value varies for others. Irrespective of the nature of a start-up, IP can help in gaining business/competitive value by: Providing the much needed…