More than 100 women innovators are taking part in WIPO’s Scale Up Your IP program, an online capacity-building initiative designed to support women-led university spin-offs, research ventures, and deep-tech startups. The program focuses on building participants’ capacity to address technology transfer challenges and strengthen the role of IP in their commercialization journey.
Launched in September, the program is designed around the realities of deep-tech ventures. Unlike many traditional startups, research-based companies often face long development cycles, high capital requirements, and complex innovation ecosystems involving universities, researchers, funders, industry partners and suppliers. Their most valuable assets may be intangible, that may be jointly developed or still evolving. Establishing a clear IP strategy early can therefore help to create ventures with a competitive position, manage partner relationships, and prepare for future investment.
Using IP as a commercial asset
The program started with a self-pace introductory module which established the foundation for the program by examining the different forms of IP that can support a technology-based venture and the role they can play in a commercialization strategy.
For women researchers and founders, this means looking beyond the question of whether an invention can be patented. A venture may need to consider a combination of patents, trade secrets, copyright, trademarks, industrial designs, know-how and contractual rights. The right mix will depend on the technology, its stage of development, the competitive landscape, the venture’s resources, capital and the markets it intends to enter.
The module encouraged participants to treat IP decisions as business decisions. Before disclosing a technology, approaching potential investors or entering into a collaboration, innovators need to understand what they have created, which elements are valuable, who may have rights in them and what should be protected or kept confidential.
These questions can help founders connect IP strategy with wider commercial decisions, including partnerships, financing, continuous product development, manufacturing and market entry.
Testing the idea behind the innovation
Module 2, “Unique Selling Point Validation,” asked participants to examine a question at the heart of every commercialization journey - What makes this technology different, and is that difference meaningful in the market?
A promising scientific result does not automatically translate into a compelling commercial proposition. Innovators must understand how their technology compares with existing solutions, which technical or functional features distinguish between it and whether those features respond to a real market need.
Participants explored how IP information can provide valuable business intelligence. A structured IP landscape analysis can help innovators:
- Test assumptions about unique elements in the technology.
- Identify related technologies and possible alternatives.
- See which organizations are active in a particular technology field.
- Track areas of research and technology development.
- Identify markets in which similar technologies are being protected.
- Spot potential competitors, partners or licensing opportunities.
The exercise followed a practical three-step approach. First, participants defined concepts and keywords linked to their technology’s unique selling point. They then searched IP databases, including WIPO’s PATENTSCOPE, before reviewing and interpreting the results. This process helps innovators refine both the technology and the commercial proposition.
Participants also examined how protection decisions can change as the venture develops. What to protect, when to seek protection and where to do so all involve trade-offs between timing, cost, disclosure, commercial priorities and target markets.
Getting IP ownership right before scaling
Module 3, “IP-Aware Venture,” moved from the technology itself to the organization behind it. It focused on the question, does the venture own, control or have the right to use the IP and other intangible assets it needs to commercialize and scale?
For university spin-offs and research-based ventures, the answer is often more complex than founders expect. A technology may have been developed using university laboratories, public research funding, shared equipment, collaborative projects or contributions from several researchers. The founder may have created additional IP after leaving the university, while employees, contractors, suppliers or external partners may contribute further assets during product development.
Participants examined how IP ownership can evolve across three stages:
- Research and development within a university or research institution.
- Establishing and structuring of a spin-off.
- During growth and scaling up operations through investment, partnerships and market expansion.
They considered how university IP policies, grant conditions, employment arrangements and collaboration agreements can influence the IP rights available to a new venture. They also explored the distinction between background IP—the knowledge, technology, data, materials or other assets that a party brings to a collaboration—and IP created through the collaboration itself. Making that distinction early can prevent dispute later.
Building an IP-ready venture
The program is also helping participants build the foundations of an IP-aware data room, that is, a structured collection of information that can support due diligence and controlled information sharing with investors and partners, including company ownership, legal agreements, IP portfolios, partner arrangements, employment agreements, and non-disclosure agreements.
For a woman founder preparing to raise capital, this information can make it easier to answer questions about the venture’s most important intangible assets. It can also help reveal gaps while there is still time to address them.
WIPO’s IP Commercialization Hub provides practical guidance on these issues.
Learning from each other
The program is designed as an interactive learning journey, with participants actively contributing throughout the sessions. Through live interactions, case studies and practical scenarios, they reflect on their own ventures, share perspectives and consider real-world IP decisions. This participatory approach helps participants connect IP protection, ownership, and commercialization directly to their own innovation journeys. It also creates opportunities for women innovators working in different sectors and regions to learn from one another and identify potential connections, partners and sources of support.
The program continues through October, where selected participants will have the opportunity to pitch their ventures to investors. The event will also introduce participants to WIPO tools and resources that can support them as they continue their IP and commercialization journeys.