Protecting innovation: Intellectual property management in biotechnology

At BRAIN Biotech, we safeguard our innovations from the outset. Our IP management ensures innovation can be scaled safely, protecting investments, enabling licensing opportunities, and strengthening long-term competitiveness.

Support from dedicated IP and legal team

At BRAIN Biotech, we help our partners safeguard their innovations, ensuring that each discovery evolves into a sustainable market advantage. With longstanding experience in IP management, we guide our customers in developing patenting strategies tailored to their specific technology field. Our dedicated IP and legal team expedite protection for innovative ideas arising from both internal R&D and customer collaborations. Where needed, we connect our customers with renowned intellectual property law firms to ensure best-fit protection in complex or emerging technology domains and get maximum scope of protection.

BRAIN Biotech’s patent portfolio reflects the breadth of our innovation:

• Novel enzymes for industrial bioprocesses
• Novel tools for genome editing
• Engineered microbial production strains
• Wild-type microorganisms that have been discovered and developed for new applications
• Bioprocesses that make it possible to create entirely new foods and beverages

How does IP evolve? Types of patents and patent requirements

There are different types of patents. The so-called “composition-of-matter” type of patent regards compounds, molecules, products and microbial strains per se, which gives you a high level of protection.

Further types of IP are “process patents” - which protect a method - or “manufacture patents” - which protect articles of manufacture - for a desired product and the use of it. Sometimes a single invention may fall into more than one category so that there is no clear distinction between these types of patents.

To be patentable, a compound, a composition or a method has to fulfil three main characteristics:

• Novelty: The subject matter must be new and not previously known or described
• Inventive Step: It has to be sufficiently inventive and must not be an obvious modification of existing materials to someone skilled in the field
• Usefulness: The subject matter must have a useful purpose

Protect the patent where the market is

For Europe the novel accomplishment of a Unitary Patent System provides a single, broad patent for up to 25 EU member states with lower costs and administrative burden than traditional national patents. It is advantageous for businesses seeking protection in multiple countries in Europe. Yet, non-EU member countries like UK and Switzerland must be validated separately. 

For countries outside of Europe, a single international patent application under the PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) is usually the first choice. This application is a bundle of multiple applications that provides a unified filing system. At a later point, the applicant enters the national phase for each country to seek protection.

Each country's national patent office then handles the application under its own national laws and procedures, leading to separate national patents if granted.

IP as a key to gain competitive advantage

The four key elements of innovation are collaboration, ideation, implementation and value creation. Value creation from intellectual property occurs by transforming intangible assets like patents into tangible benefits, such as exclusive rights, competitive advantages, revenue streams from licensing, increased business valuation, and attraction of investors.

Patenting requires teamwork

Protecting innovation is a team effort. Inventors, IP management and patent lawyers experienced in the field of biotechnology work hand in hand to get the most out of innovative scientific results. Let’s make sure your next breakthrough is secure from the start.

Photo: Copyright BRAIN Biotech AG
Graphic: AI generated.