Time to come out: every innovation entrepreneur has a relationship with IP

A newborn baby desperately needs its parents. The parents need to feed that little sweet and vulnerable person, but they need to do a lot more than that. They need to change their little darling’s nappy, rock it to sleep, comfort it, and most importantly, constantly hold it, hug it and kiss it. A baby that doesn’t get hugged and kissed withers away, and may even die.

We don’t change that much when we grow up. Sure, we learn how to feed and clothe ourselves, and sometimes even go to bed on time (except when we were students). But we still need all that human contact. We need to interact with other people, we need to talk to other people, share ideas, be open, love, hug – as much as possible.

Another thing we learn as we grow up is when to be careful and protect ourselves. We need to know where to draw the line; when to push back, stop interacting, or even demand that other people stop behaving in a way that can harm us.

We need to have clear boundaries in our interaction with other people, in order to be comfortable around them, and in order to interact with them on the basis of mutual understanding and benefit. The same principles apply to interaction with other people in the business of innovation and creativity.

Innovation and creativity need openness, they need interaction. More than 80% of all innovation is done in one or other form of collaboration, through contact and interaction, and with some form of openness. Conversely, less than 20% of innovation is done “in-house” only, without help from or interaction with other people or organizations.

But innovation and creativity not only need openness and interaction, they also need borders, and protection. They need rules of politeness, rules of conversation and rules of behaviour and interaction. In essence, that is what Intellectual Property is all about.

Intellectual Property (IP) is the tool we use to define what it means to “own” or “share” an invention. It’s the tool we use, not only to protect and reward creativity, but also to open it up albeit in a controlled manner.

It’s the tool that allows us to say, as in human relationships: this is where I draw the line, this is where and how I’m willing to interact with you, to meet you and open up to you. This is how much I want to share, and this is what I want to keep to myself. This is how we want my, or your creativity, or the combination thereof, to be rewarded.

This means not only that IP is a lot more than just a legal monopoly granted by patents, trademarks, copyrights or other formal rights. IP also includes trade secrets, knowledge and know-how, use of open source, creative commons, wikis and social media, relationships with employees, consultants, partners, customer, even contracts.

But it also means, that any innovative and creative business, any startup, any entrepreneur, must have an idea where to draw the line.

Where does your property start, where does it end? What will you allow others to do with your innovation or creation? How open are you about what you do? Is openness an advantage or disadvantage? Which rights to do you have, which rights do you want to share, individually or in a community, which rights do you want to give away, in return for something else?

The right answer to these questions is more than just a tool; it is an integrated part of any business model based on innovation, technology or creativity.

Any entrepreneurial story around innovation, technology or creativity will always have an IP side to it. And any story that does not mention IP, is missing something.

Does this mean that the IP situation of any innovation or technology business is, in Facebook terms, “it’s complicated”?

Let’s face the truth: isn’t that almost always the case for any business relationship?

So let’s not hide in the closet but come out and acknowledge that every entrepreneurial story has a relationship with Intellectual Property, and that Intellectual Property is an essential part of any enterprise in innovation and technology.

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About Joren De Wachter

Joren De Wachter is qualified as a lawyer in two jurisdictions, Belgium and England & Wales. He has almost twenty years of experience in advising technology companies, both from an in-house as from an outside perspective. He has advised senior officers within his clients’ business, and he has extensive experience working with private equity investors, and publicly quoted companies in the US and the EU. His experience is truly international, having taken responsibilities for more than twenty different jurisdictions in all continents of the world.

His decision to set up his own consultancy business was driven by the observation that, although many technology companies know their technology, they typically don’t integrate the Intellectual Property assets deriving from that technology into their business model. Rather, they treat Intellectual Property as a cost at best, or “something for the lawyers” at worst. In doing so, those companies miss out on opportunities to increase revenue, control and direct costs better, and create substantial shareholder value.

Joren lives in Brussels with his family. In his spare free time, when he’s not chatting with his young children about the meaning of life, he is a passionate cyclist, and he also plays the guitar in a rock-cover band.