Prepared for the 2010 Australian Innovation Festival, this presentation provides some unique insight into the challenges of commercialising government intellectual property in the Australian context.
Commercialising Government IP: An Innovation Catalyst Seminar
1. Commercialising Government IP An Innovation Catalyst™ Seminar Prepared and Presented by Marcus Tarrant Managing Director Mission HQ Pty. Ltd. ATF the Innovate Trust
7. Mission HQ Overview The team have undertaken the following projects Federal and State Government Department of Defence (DSTO) – Technology Transfer Advisory Group Department of Industry and Resources (WA) – Investor Ready Programme Design and Opportunity Evaluation Framework Department of Land ‘Landgate’ (WA) – Innovation programme design, and commercial engagement programme (Business Associations), technology commercialisation programme CSIRO – IP management process NICTA – Audinate Capital Raising 4.2m CRC’s CRC-ACS, CRC for Polymers, Dairy CRC VC’s Innovation Capital, Starfish Ventures – Austhink, Audinate, Ceram Polymerik etc.
11. what are intangible assets? intellectual assets (IA) intellectual property (IP) intellectual capital (IC) patented technologies trade marks designs copyright databases trade secrets key skills know-how processes market data information un-recorded inventions data business relationships licenses branding reputation human resources Do I have something to commercialise?
18. -18- Tax What is the best structure for tax? What is the best way to minimize tax at exit? (all parties, ourselves) How to work with tax-exempt partners? How to minimise tax on IP transfer? What tax incentives are available to leverage? What structures do we need to put in place to ensure we are tax effective?
19. -19- Capital Rasing Do we have the money? What is our/their valuation? What VC funds have capital? Can we support a cash crisis? Can we support/maintain our equity moving forward? Can the opportunity support the time to injection? Where is the best place to get cash from?
20. -20- Experience Has any one harvested commercialisation activities before? Has anyone managed high growth before? Do we understand our IP and value in the deal? Are our cultures complimentary?
21. -21- Network Does our network have the pieces of the pie? Capital Management Start-up Experience Sales channels I.e: can we acquire resources via the network?
22. -22- Excludability What is the IP landscape, can we register patents? Can we create an industry standard? (individually, with market leaders) Will this have conflicts with the Trade Practices Act, National Competition Policy etc?
23. -23- Complimentary Assets Does the suitor have what we don’t? Cash? Sales Channel? Experience? IP? Culture? International access? History of success?
24. -24- Risk Do we have a large appetite for risk? Can we have a large appetite? What are the implications of a high risk deal going sour? Do we have the time and resources? What is the opportunity cost? How to we get cash out? Dividends/Liquidity event.
25. -25- Politics Personal agendas Emotional attachment to opportunities (When to pull the pin) Government policy agenda I don’t want to work here but I want to keep my benefits? Secondment, what are the impacts? Morale, entitlements?
26. -26- Market Forces - Porter’s 5 forces The threat of new entry The power of buyers The power of suppliers The threat of substitutes Competitive Rivalry Legislation/policy change
27. All commercial transactions are hard, time consuming and expensive There are many facets to any deal, this is further complicated by the checks and balances associated with government. Structure Ownership Valuation Due diligence Human resources Capital Politics market forces Competition Regulation etc Ministry approval Treasury approval Imposed restrictions Auditing Levels of control Extra due diligence Policy alignment -27-
31. -31- How are commercialisation strategies actually chosen? Complementary asset environment Others Go where the easy money is Past Experience Internal constraints & politics Business network of the entrepreneur Internal Innovation (intrepreneurship model) Risk adversity Market forces etc
33. -33- Some questions to ask… Is the opportunity real??? How big is the gap? What is the best options for my IP? What are the benefits of licensing as opposed to assigning rights to my IP? How do I avoid getting into a situation were I am competing with the parties I have licensed to? Does this new IP complement my existing core business? Do I have the right business capabilities to commercialise my product to its best advantage? Do we wish to commercialise to a world market? (ask all the questions again) Can we secure ownership of the IP? What is our appetite for risk? How much money do we wish to make? How much control do we need/want?