Question
I'm a researcher at a German university. My team and I would like to commercialize a new kind of technology used in battery production. There will be some initial funding from a university fund with a potential outside investor later down the road. For now, there seems to be a limited budget for patent filings. How should we formulate our IP strategy based on this?
Answers: 4 public & 1 private
Apart from the helpful suggestions in patent matters, it might is worth a thought to search for a future concept together with your university. As an example from our latest experiences in a comparable case:
The researchers (former students and professors) established a limited liability company ("GmbH") for the commercialisation of the technology as a spin-off ("Ausgründung") from the university. The University on the other hand agreed to file the first patent applications (Germany and EU) on its own cost (and to its own benefit). In the next step the university contributed the IP as a non-cash contribution ("Sacheinlage") in change for shares in the company. Then an outside Investor was found, the worldwide applications could be filed and the company could thrive and prosper.
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