How can promising university research be transformed into commercially successful businesses, and what role does intellectual property play in making deep tech ventures investable?
In our latest episode of Innovation Unlocked, we are joined by James Hayward, Chief Operating Officer at Cambridge Future Tech, to explore the challenges and opportunities in building and funding early-stage deep tech businesses.
James discusses how Cambridge Future Tech can help bridge the gap between academic research and commercial markets, the importance of a commercially focused IP strategy, the role of patents in protecting innovation, and the complexities of negotiating IP ownership when establishing university spinouts.
James also shares his perspective on the value of IP, why spinout processes need to become more efficient, and the importance of balancing IP protection with the need to communicate commercial potential to investors and customers.
Listen to the full episode to discover what it takes to turn groundbreaking research into investable businesses and build successful deep tech ventures.
You can listen to the episode on Spotify here.
Episode summary
Topics discussed🎙️
- How Cambridge Future Tech supports companies from initial research through to incorporation and investment.
- Bridging the gap between academic research and commercial markets, including the challenges of IP ownership, university equity stakes and lengthy spinout processes.
- How patents can act as both a ‘sword and a shield’, alongside the importance of trade marks, trade secrets and a holistic IP strategy.
- Whether too much value is placed on early-stage patent portfolios and the importance of aligning IP investment with commercial objectives.
Key takeaways💡
- IP strategy needs to reflect commercial objectives: Patent protection is important, but businesses should consider the wider IP and ensure their investment in protection is proportionate to their commercial plans.
- Protecting innovation should not prevent businesses from communicating: Start-ups need to balance protecting their core inventions with sharing enough information to attract investors, customers and potential partners.
- University spinouts need greater efficiency: Lengthy negotiations around IP ownership, licensing and equity can delay company formation and ultimately slow down commercialisation.
- IP valuation is not straightforward at an early stage: The commercial value of university-originating IP may evolve as a business develops, making it important to take a pragmatic approach to negotiations and future investment.
- Deep tech offers significant opportunities, but comes with long timelines and risks: Emerging areas such as AI and quantum technology present exciting opportunities, while changing geopolitical and supply chain dynamics are creating new challenges.
Notable quotes🔊
- “Patents are a sword and a shield.”
- “Protect your IP… Know what your core inventions are and what you need to keep secret or not. But you can’t not communicate.”
- “There is very little point going hundreds of thousands or tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds into a full national scale patent, unless you are able to be proportional with your investment into commercial and team and other things that you’re going to need.”
- “Within universities and other research organisations there is a huge amount of really interesting, really commercially relevant intellectual property and invention that, with the right support and resources, could be built into the next wave of deep tech companies that could really make impact in the world.”
