Internationaal innoveren? 6 tips van RVO voor slimme ondernemers

Als innovatieve ondernemer wil je misschien ook de grens over. Maar heb je dan al nagedacht over intellectueel eigendom, internationale wetgeving en bescherming van je ideeën? De Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO) helpt je graag op weg.

Wij delen alvast 6 nuttige tips van RVO, waarmee jij je internationale plannen een slimme basis geeft. Wat kun je verwachten?

🔹 Tip 1: Denk goed na over geheimhouding bij internationale beurzen
🔹 Tip 2: Voorkom onbewuste inbreuk op IE-rechten van anderen
🔹 Tip 3: Registreer je rechten in de landen die er voor jou toe doen
🔹 Tip 4–6: Over procedures, Europese uitputting én gratis advies van een octrooiadviseur

Daarnaast lees je het verhaal van start-up Speaksee, die hun internationale strategie slim hebben opgebouwd met hulp van RVO.

👉 Nieuwsgierig geworden? Lees alle tips, uitleg en het praktijkvoorbeeld op de pagina van RVO over internationaal ondernemen en IE-rechten.

5 Tips on how intellectual property can help fund innovations

Financing is the key to innovation and growth for innovative entrepreneurs. Want to know how protecting your intellectual property (IP) can significantly increase your chance of success? Benefit from the tips from the Netherlands Patent Office, discover how to conduct an effective patent search and learn from the experiences of other entrepreneurs.

Forms of financing

As an innovative entrepreneur, you want to develop and market your product or service so your company grows. You may often turn to the bank for a traditional loan. But did you know there are other ways to finance your new product or service? Ways such as subsidies and schemes, crowdfunding, or attracting investors. It depends on your company and the product idea that suits you. If you ensure proper preparation so that you know the financing options, you have a greater chance of success in finding capital. Do you want to attract the attention of investors? Then, recording your intellectual property and investigating existing patents is very important.

Discover our 5 tips to protect your innovation:

Tip 1: Investigate all protection options

As an entrepreneur, you register your invention with a patent to prevent counterfeiting. But there are also other ways to protect your ideas:

Patent law: for technical products or production processes.
Copyright and neighboring rights: for texts, images, and performances.
Trademark law: for logos, words (names), colours, sounds, and shapes of companies, products, and services.
Trade name law: for the name of a company.

Tip 2: Protect your intellectual property in time

It is often intelligent to consider intellectual property early in the innovation process. This is also evident from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) research. Start-ups that apply for a patent or other form of intellectual property right (IP right) at an early stage are up to 10 times more likely to receive financing than start-ups that do not.

Practical example

Start-up Weco (the Wave Energy Collective) develops innovative solutions to produce electricity from ocean waves. The company is very aware of the importance of protecting its invention and attracting investors. Weco now has 2 patents.

“We invest a lot of time and money in developing our innovation, which is why we are happy that there is such a thing as intellectual property. It also gives investors the certainty that somebody cannot simply copy.” Luc Hogervorst, Co-owner of Weco

Tip 3: Don’t give too much away about the technique

Novelty is a requirement for a strong patent. So, the technology you want to protect with a patent may not have been made public before the date of your patent application. Not even by yourself. Therefore, be careful with the information you reveal to others, for example, in joint R&D with other parties, discussions with investors, or crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding is a way to raise money from the general public (the crowd). This is often done via online crowdfunding platforms, where people can invest in various projects or initiatives. This way, you receive immediate financing without going to banks or applying for subsidies. However, it is essential to pay close attention when using crowdfunding. Keyboard developer Wooting also experiences this importance.

“Our crowdfunding campaign was a great success. But we did show quite a lot of the functionalities of our keyboards. That made it difficult to protect our product with a patent. Crowdfunding provides capital investment for hardware development and creates a bond with our customers in product development. But we now remain focused on what we reveal in advance!” Jeroen Langelaan, Engineer at Wooting

Tip 4: Make collaboration agreements on time

Many innovations arise in partnerships. But for investors, it is often desirable that your intellectual property is well defined or, even better, that your company is the sole owner of essential intellectual property. That is why this point deserves attention from the start of a collaboration. Before the partnership, record the background knowledge of the parties: this is the knowledge acquired in advance or outside of the partnership. This knowledge, therefore, does not count as knowledge that falls under joint development.

Also, clear agreements should be made about the intellectual property of the knowledge acquired in the collaboration. This is the foreground knowledge: all knowledge and intellectual property built up in the context of the partnership. In addition to knowing who will be the owner, you determine who will access the foreground knowledge and what conditions apply.

Tip 5: Investigate whether you are infringing on the intellectual property of others

Freedom-to-operate (FTO) means that you can market your product or service without infringing on the intellectual property of others. Find out by having an FTO investigation carried out. The investigation is also fascinating for investors because they want to keep their risk as low as possible.

Foto van octrooiadviseur Yp Kroon — Transcription

“An FTO not only shows investors that you are seriously considering your IP rights, it also gives them a risk analysis that makes them more inclined to invest in your innovation. Read all about it in my blog.”

Yp Kroon, Patent advisor

Take a workshop on intellectual property

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) frequently organises events, workshops, and webinars nationwide with various partners. View the agenda for an overview and register now (in Dutch).

4 Reasons to sit down early with a patent attorney

BLOG by EP&C Patent Attorneys

Patent protection is already crucial in this early phase, so we help the young entrepreneurs with that. I’ve been guiding them with patent applications, Freedom To Operate studies and more in recent years. And so we will continue to do that in the coming years. Many entrepreneurs, both starting out and experienced, only realize too late how important it is to sit down with a patent attorney at an early stage. And there are several good reasons for doing so.

REASON 1: WE CAN IDENTIFY THE PATENT RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES AT AN EARLY STAGE
Many entrepreneurs are so busy developing their product, starting a business and finding investors that their competitors’ patent rights are a blind spot. You may know who your competitors are, but do you know if they have relevant patent rights? This is a question that investors frequently ask. So you need to investigate that. Whether you do this yourself, or have it done; it must be done. Otherwise you run the risk of developing a product that infringes on someone else’s intellectual property. Which brings me to the next point.

REASON 2: WE CAN STILL EASILY ADJUST THE DESIGN
The earlier you know about third-party patent rights, the easier it often is to make minor adjustments to a design. These adjustments may make it possible to design around the existing patents and still be able to enter the market without infringing them. This can of course also be done at a later stage, but is then often much more expensive. The conversion of an entire production line costs more than adapting a concept.

REASON 3: WE CAN DISCUSS R&D RESULTS AT AN EARLY STAGE
Innovative entrepreneurs often overlook two things in the development process. First, they often do not realize that they are making simple but valuable inventions. In addition, they sometimes disclose new products before they are patented. In that case, that invention no longer meets the novelty requirement and they can no longer patent it. By discussing the R&D results with a patent attorney at an early stage, you can avoid these pitfalls.

By looking at this together, we will discover the inventions that seem obvious to you, and you will not disclose anything that should not already be disclosed. At the bottom line, this makes your patent portfolio a lot stronger. This increases the value of your company and your position in the market.

REASON 4: WE INCREASE THE CHANCE OF INVESTMENT
At Startlife, where finding investors is an important goal, we often hear that entrepreneurs come across better to investors after we have talked about intellectual property. Because of their improved understanding of the opportunities and threats related to their intellectual property, they exude professionalism and a grasp of the situation. Someone is more likely to invest in an organization that knows what it has already done, or wants to do, in the area of patents.

SMALL INVESTMENT
The earlier you start talking to a patent attorney, the more grip you have on the initial steps of your venture. Many people only take this step once their techniques have been further developed. This seems logical, but can end up costing much more time and certainly money. Even a brief conversation with a patent attorney can provide you with so much relevant information for your company that it is well worth the small investment.

Be aware of intellectual property

Protecting your intellectual property (IP) and assets is something that is often overlooked. This is a shame, especially in this day and age, where the internet is used as a main means of marketing, source of finding products, brands and new ideas on how to expand.

Intellectual property is more than just patenting inventions or prohibiting someone from copying your texts on their website. If these rights are used in the right way, it enhances companies brands, its position in the market and reputation.

An example of the last year is a beer brand which has the same name as a virus which causes a world wide pandemic: Corona. In this case, Corona could do several things based on their IP rights. Of course, they could change the name of the brand in order to avoid any confusion. However, using its trade mark and copyright could also be used to battle fake news or conspiracy theories on its connection with the virus. During this period, it also battled a conflict with a Chinese company, Chitanco. They wanted to free ride on the reputation of Corona by using the brand logo Chitanco for beer in the Benelux. Even though the brands names and way of writing were not similar, the fact that the brand Corona is so well known for its good reputation, caused that the trade mark Chitanco could not be used.

The aforementioned example shows that a good use of IP rights protects your brand so that others cannot free ride on your well established reputation. However, IP rights can also help you in the case that someone copies your website and/or lay out for e-mails. This is a tactic which is commonly used with phishing e-mails in order to make them look more legit.

Developing and/or inventing a product costs time, money, effort and resources. Insufficient legal protection can cause the product to be copied freely, which causes the investment to not be recouped. Sufficient IP protection prohibits another from copying your product, or make it possible to ask a license fee. This is can also be the case when developing software.

As said, developing a product cost an investment and the same goes for a trade mark. Developing a brands trade mark and deciding what it stands for is one side of marketing. Having it properly IP protected strengthens its reputation (as with Corona). However, not enforcing the trademark registration can cause invalidity of the trade mark. Furthermore, discovering that the trademark does not cover a new category of products, can cause damage to the brand and confusion for (potential) customers.

Another side of the medal is the situation in which it is unclear what the IP rights of a company are. This can either cause an unwilling infringement of the IP rights of another. In these cases not knowing what your rights exactly are, can also cause in paying damages which are not necessary or not selling products which you can.

Realize IP protection and what to keep in mind

The first step in realizing IP protection is to have in mind what needs to be achieved.

A first aim can be the protection of products. This can for instance be achieved by applying for a patent or establishing a copyright. If the aim is to protect a brands reputation from confusion or free riding by competitors, this can be done by registering a trade mark or trade name.

A second aim can be to build a brand. Having IP rights in mind while doing so, forces you to a have a strategy. By registering a trade mark, it has to be clear what the trade mark should be, to which products this sees but also foresee to which products the registration must be expanded in the future. This process can create a better overview of the aimed market with trademarks, products and services, so that it is easier to identify a market gap. Furthermore, it limits the chance of unintentionally infringing someone else’s IP rights.

A third aspect is that having an overview of possible/existing IP rights also helps for a quick response if there is a suspicion of an infringement.

The last aspect is that IP rights can differ around the globe. An example is that in the US copyrighted works can be registered, while in the EU this is not possible. Also, in China trademark protection is shorter and possible for other types of marks than in the EU. Furthermore, even in the EU it is possible that different countries have different laws regarding a subject. If we look at current matters, the Brexit is expected to have an influence on e.g. reregistering certain IP rights.

In any case, it is wise to get advice before deciding upon or using your IP rights.

How can BDO help?

BDO can assist companies and private persons in numerous ways regarding IP matters. We have an extended national and international network where we can rely on and advise you with. We are experienced in advising on IP matters in the broadest sense, such as software and copyright, but also on Adwords. We can advise on matters with establishing IP rights and send or assess received IP infringement claims.

Together with EP&C we are hosting two webinars on Wednesday 10 March and Wednesday 17 March regarding various IP related matters. These webinars are free of charge.