Steven Sunstein - Creating Effective Business Partnerships to Accelerate Innovation

Should a Young Healthcare

Company Care About

Protecting Innovation?

Steven Saunders

Sunstein Kann Murphy & Timbers LLP

March 30, 2015

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YES!

• Why?

Healthcare Companies have special attributes:

• Long Development times

• High Margins

• Large Markets

• High Demand

• Potential for $$ large profits $$ if successful

Barriers to Entry

• Long and expensive R & D cycles

• Long and expensive regulatory processes

• Highly specialized expertise

If that’s all you have…

• …you likely won’t achieve your goals.

You must protect your innovation!

• Patents

• Trademarks

• Copyrights

• Trade Secret

… but why?

It’s all about market share!

• Develop an arsenal of offensive weapons

• The other barriers were only defensive

How?

• Develop and manage a patent estate

• Maintain effective processes for licenses, agreements with third parties and employees, NDAs, trade secrets, etc.

• And…

Make sure your company can sell your product without infringing someone else’s patent

• Competitors

• Universities

• Non-practicing entities

• Individual inventors (e.g., doctors)

Who cares about this?

• You do!! (even if you don’t realize it)

• Investors

• Potential Acquirers

• Analysts for IPOs

• Future talent/hires

• Competitors

• Development Partners

• Customers

• Poor IP practices can sink an acquisition or financing!

– The diligence process often highlights the warts in company IP processes

Thank You

Steven Saunders

[email protected]

www.sunsteinlaw.com

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