Start Ups and the Business of Intellectual Property Intellectual Property (IP) plays a multi-dimensional role in every creative, knowledge and technology driven company and its role is more pertinent in a start up

1. IP BASED
STARTUPs
INDIAN CONTEXT

2. KNOWLEDGE BASED ENTERPRISES (KBE) IN INDIA
 KBEs are typically engaged in the areas such as software
development, consultancy, pharmaceuticals, financial services,
engineering services, biotechnology, etc.
 They operate in a highly competitive environment characterized by rapid
change arising from technological advances and have to satisfy increasingly
demanding requirements of their customers.
 Innovation and speed of response to changing market conditions are the
critical success factors for them and they are heavily dependent on the
accumulated expertise of a workforce consisting primarily of knowledge
workers. -Narayana Murthy
 _________________________________________________________________
 Contrast with brick and mortar startups
 innovative enterprises based on creativity of individuals

3. STATRUP
 New venture creation - 90% bull work -10% intellectual activity
 Beware of Regulatory framework /authorities – road blocks
 Money is the costliest resource
 Team in a business sense is a myth
 With all this – some ventures succeed – but failure rates are in
excess of 80%

4. PROPERTY
 Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly
by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation.
 Owner of property has the right to consume, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer,
exchange or destroy it, or to exclude others from doing these things.
 Important widely recognized types of property include 1. real property
2.personal property 3. private property 3. public property 4. intellectual property
(exclusive rights over artistic creations, inventions, etc. although is not always
as widely recognized or enforced)
 A title, or a right of ownership, establishes the relation between the
property and other persons, assuring the owner the right to dispose of the
property as the owner sees fit – But what is the value of the property

5. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY -1
 Idea – Unique? - ideas themselves are not patentable.
 Innovate – evolve into an invention - To be patentable, an invention must be a
new, useful and non-obvious method or process, described in enough detail
that it can be "reduced to practice" by a person with the relevant technical
expertise.
 Identifying nurturing and Protecting of Intellectual Property is a necessary
condition but not sufficient condition for success of an enterprise
 Focus on marketable / exitable timeframe based product development – not on
IP per se.

6. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY - 2
 Most of the patents / trademarks etc are of minimal or no
value in Internet and software businesses because those
categories of businesses generally come with continuous
change in technologies and business models.
 Excessive focus on a single metric like patents can result in
distortions in innovation activity that show up after some time.
 Do check if you are infringing into someone-else’s IP

7. BUSINESS PLAN – EXIT WITH PROFIT
 Exit with profit
 use Jugaad innovation principles –spend frugal and
be flexible etc
 Time is the essence of success in IP based Startups
and in many cases there is no second chance
 It is therefore very important to follow proven
methodologies to convert an idea into a profitable
from.

8. EVERYONE CAN INNOVATE !
Nothing succeeds like success
Good Luck
M. V. Rayudu