Associate Peter Hanschke is an Ottawa-based product management specialist. His post is part of our continuing series about the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market. We welcome your comments.
By Peter Hanschke
Startups begin with little to no money. Much of the early development of their product is funded by the owner, by his or her friends and maybe even by an angel. Every dollar is used wisely and focused at the topmost activity. To build the product from concept through to MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and to the point where a small number of customers can use the product, the company has one, maybe two, full- or part-time developers. In some cases the owner pitches in occasionally to help in development or testing.
Young and lean
In such an environment, drive, enthusiasm and the will to succeed fuels the development process. The product takes shape as the development iterations roll by. Occasionally more money is needed to fuel the development engine, which the owner must somehow secure. Without real customers validating the solution, it’s difficult to get significant funding to speed up the development process or build a more enriched product.
Despite the tough times at this stage of the startup, this is in fact a very desirable situation.
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As part of our series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked veteran technology executive and investor Ron Weissman to share his thoughts on how startups can achieve success. This is the next of his commentaries and we welcome your comments.
By Ronald Weissman
Product checklists are the Silicon Valley product marketers’ crutch. They are so overused as to provide more cliché than caché, as they try “prove” that their product has better features than the other guy’s—as if that’s all that matters to buyers. Myopic marketers often forget to ask whether these checkbox differences are actually important to customers. While it has its place, checkbox marketing often conveys little about the brand or the underlying quality of the vendor – factors that may be as or more important to buyers.
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As part of our ongoing series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, David French, a senior Canadian patent attorney with 35 years of experience, now provides a further of his commentaries on the importance to a company of protecting its Intellectual Property.
By David French
In the last blog post in this series we identified how “loopholes” can seriously undermine the value of a patent. In an earlier post, we touched upon the novelty requirement for obtaining a patent. In this post, we address in greater detail the reality of the existence of prior art and its impact on potential patent coverage.
The Golden Rule of patent law is that a patent claim cannot take away from the public anything that was previously available to the public. That is, the claims of the patent, defining the exclusive rights of the owner, cannot describe or read on anything that existed previously. If they did, the patent could be asserted against something that was previously available. That is prohibited.
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As part of our ongoing series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, we asked serial entrepreneur Jason Flick to share some of his insights. This is his next commentary and we welcome your feedback.
By Jason Flick
Past posts in this series have explored the complexities of turning intellectual property created in a university into a flourishing business. Some of the issues are specific to Canada, but, generally speaking, there is no reason why we can’t do more with what we have. My biggest complaint is that by my estimation – and I have also heard the number elsewhere – 80 percent of startups in Silicon Valley have a close working relationship with a university, while in Canada, the number is much closer to 20 percent. To be honest, I think that Canadian figure is optimistic. I would love to hear examples of productive relationships between universities, colleges and startups.
How do we fix this and why is it happening? I have invested a fair bit of time working with, and trying to work with, our academic institutions. Let’s start with why we so rarely lever their strengths to support startups here in Canada.
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As part of our series examining the ecosystem necessary to bring technology to market, David French, a senior Canadian patent attorney with 35 years of experience, now provides his next commentary on the importance to a company of protecting its Intellectual Property.
By David French
In the previous postings in this series I talked about the importance of having an IP Co-ordinator on the team and the three principles that apply if the objective is to obtain meaningful patents, This time, I will address how “loopholes” can seriously undermine the value of a patent.
Everybody has heard that patents can have loopholes. Often, the truth that a patent has loopholes is only appreciated when an attempt is made to enforce the patent against a competitor. When this occurs, the competitor, after consulting with a specialist, may be able to modify its product so that it does not fall within the scope of the claims of your patent. How does this unfortunate situation arise?
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By Peter Hanschke
