Iynna Halilou Tips

The biggest shift IP offices could make is moving from gatekeepers to enablers, and that means rethinking both access and economics.

Right now, the cost of protecting intellectual property is prohibitive for early-stage founders, particularly those building outside a well-funded ecosystem.

If a founder has to choose between hiring the first engineer or filing a patent, they're going to hire the engineer. That's rational. But it means they're building without protection, which puts them at a structural disadvantage the moment they try to raise capital or scale internationally.

IP offices could directly address this through subsidized or tiered-cost protection mechanism for early-stage companies, particularly in IP-heavy sectors and deep tech, biotech or even AI.

Beyond cost, there is a matching opportunity that almost nobody exploring.

IP offices could create co-investment or matching funding mechanisms for IP-intensive businesses. That could provide not just the legal infrastructure, but actual skin in the game.