I'm a Startup:
In today's world ideas are making difference, however; ideas alone are not protected under intellectual property law. There are some primary ways that you would be able to sue a third party for stealing your idea. The first is if you did, in fact, reduce the idea to a protectable form before telling the third parties about it.
Startups are defined as “young companies founded to develop a unique product or service, bring it to market and make it irresistible and irreplaceable for customers”. Startups are formations that sprout from new ideas thus, it is essential for them to transform the ideas into a protectable form to achieve success. In this scope, preparing comprehensive non-disclosure agreements (NDA), obtaining, and protecting IP: Trademark, design and patent applications have significant importance for startups to protect their ideas.
In addition to protecting the ideas, startups need to determine the real value and potential of their current intangible assets (such as patents, trademarks, designs, software, trade secrets, possible licensing opportunities etc.) to know their exact value. They also need a good IP management strategy specifically tailored for each, license agreement optimization, patent evaluation, legal assistance, and contract management to become a unicorn.
We provide a full service to the startups from the pre-seed stage to the exit through BATI Group consisting of BATI IP, Venture Building Center®, and BATI Lawyers & Advisers with our experienced team of lawyers, patent and trademark attorneys, and accountants.
Why NDAs are essential for startups?
A startup business that wants to raise financing from venture capitalists or other investors could worry that their brilliant idea will be stolen in lieu of receiving an investment. A signed NDA helps prevent this kind of idea theft. Without one, it can be challenging to demonstrate that an idea was stolen.
Businesses must keep working on projects, innovative ideas, or exciting new products secret lest they fall into the hands of a competitor to maintain a competitive advantage. Similar to this, start-up businesses with a novel and lucrative concept can only succeed if what they are developing is kept a secret. The legal instrument known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA, serves to protect such private information.
Why do you need to Obtain and Protect Your IP?
There will always be individuals who wish to copy your achievements and market your ideas as their own when you have a brilliant idea for a good product or service. Intellectual property protection is critical to fostering innovation. Without intellectual property protection, companies and individuals would not fully profit from their creations and would devote less time to R&D.
IP can generate income for your business through licensing, sale or commercialization of protected products or services. This can, in turn, improve your market share or raise your profits. In case of sale, merger, or acquisition, having registered and protected IP assets can raise the value of your business.
Why You May Need A Patent Evaluation?
A technical evaluation of inventions, allows us to assess if they meet the patentability requirements, define the optimal protection strategy, and to evaluate if such inventions add value to and are in line with the startups’ business.
IP Management Strategy
Intellectual property is a company asset and should be managed as such. An Intellectual Property strategy is a company's/startup’s plan of action to manage and protect its intangible assets. A company will usually need to develop policies on the acquisition, exploitation, monitoring, and enforcement of its intellectual property to maintain its position in the market and go further. Acquiring IP rights through registrations solely may not be sufficient to maintain your competitive position, it should be supported with commercialization to return maximum efficiency from your IP. Commercializing your IP, determining the territories where you need to seek protection and the scope of protection, and monitoring your existed IP rights keep you one step ahead. In this scope, we create a unique IP management strategy for each Client in compliance with there are of practice and needs to keep them one step ahead.
Why may you need License Agreement Optimization?
Legislative regulations on competition and commercial law may result in the invalidity or lack of effectiveness of some clauses inserted in technology transfer agreements signed by either licensors or licensees of intellectual property rights or trade secrets.
In addition to invalidity or lack of effectiveness, license agreements may contain clauses that cause substantial risks for the company, or obligations that are disproportionate.
License agreement optimization allows you to avoid (i) engaging in actions that violate competition law and could result in harsh financial penalties, (ii) reducing or eliminating the profitability of a project due to the unwitting adoption of disproportionate contractual terms and conditions or risks did not detect during the negotiation phase of the license agreement, (iii) the client's unintentional transfer of rights on future inventions in favor of the other party, as well as of future patents on them, (iv) paying licensors unjustifiable royalties that, in reality, do not fully or partially confer enforceable and legal rights.
IP Transactions & Assignments
IP contracts are key to obtaining a return on the investment in R&D, and to structure the successful development of an innovative project. The drafting of secrecy, R&D, material transfer, joint venture, technology transfer, license, assignment, agency, and distribution agreements is something we have a lot of expertise with.
We also help our clients with the evaluation of royalty rates in various technological domains and the terms and conditions of technology transfer agreements according to the kind of business and the project's maturity.
For instance, as a first step in the creation of a spin-off business, we are particularly active in the assignment of technology formerly owned by governmental agencies, research institutes, and universities, frequently gaining rights on an exclusive and global basis.
