Beyond IP

[Ilya Vensky]

Helico Bio looks at plants as a production source. So, we're looking at a genetically modified plant cell to act as a factory on its own, which is quite a complex and novel way to look at it. One of the 'aha moments' for us during the Callaghan Innovation Beyond IP programme was we were in the middle of negotiating several potential contracts in multiple territories and filing our first patent protection in the United States. We had a very extensive customised workshops that allowed not only myself but the entire team to understand the risks, and essentially motivations, to go into expensive IP filing. So, we looked at it holistically and decided that a lot of our technology might actually stay in a trade secret, rather than into straightforward patents.

Every member of the team now has their own sort of benchmarks, what type of intangible asset strategy they should be worried about. We check it on a weekly basis and try to figure out if there are any risks of exposing it to outside resources. Right now, we're in the middle of negotiation with a commercial partner, and it's an early-stage validation of a potentially very valuable business opportunity. So, we're preparing all of our calls and all of the documentation, and essentially our contract, based on the learnings that we had from the programme. Every startup, especially in New Zealand needs to look at intangible assets as their opportunity for growth. We might look at an opportunity to go for business in multiple markets, and that complicates the IP filing, patents filing right away, so intangible asset strategy is the only one you can kind of rely on when you know when you look at the global opportunities out of New Zealand, so it's very, very important.

Beyond IP - Cather Simpson | Engender Technologies

[Cather Simpson]
Engender Technologies is all about sorting sperm by sex. Essentially what we're giving farmers is a tool to accelerate the genetic gain in their herd, so it's sustainable for the farmers, the cows, and for the industry as a whole. In some ways as a startup it's kind of easy, what you want to do is you want to patent as much as you can, get it out there quickly, that adds value to your company but it's also your path to commercialisation because investors then want to invest in you, they see that you've protected your stuff.

When we got acquired by CRV our patent strategy, we were now a proper company not a startup anymore, and you need a more nuanced patent strategy. And so that's when we found out about Callaghan Innovation and their intangible asset programme. The Beyond IP programme connected us with a really awesome patent law firm in Auckland, and we worked closely with them just to begin our journey to develop this strategy. And at the same time their interaction with our team has begun to shift the culture within Engender, in what I think is the right direction. It's a very positive direction towards thinking about those intangible assets as a part of what we're creating. So, we sent our our key R&D leadership people to workshops so that they became more empowered, they began to see what types of innovations they might be able to protect or innovate around. We've also hired in-house legal, because it's very important to us that we craft our strategy and then make sure that we live our strategy. You often don't know what the most valuable parts of your idea are at the very beginning. And so, you know, submit those patents, think about what can be your trade secret, what can people not copy if you don't tell them about, and keep that one aside. But get advice. Call Callaghan Innovation, they have experts whose job it is to help you figure all of this out. And that would be my advice.