Build your IP strategy early. Scale it intentionally.
Building a life sciences company requires more than breakthrough science. It requires a clear, defensible intellectual property strategy from day one. The decisions you make early on, including what to patent, what to keep confidential, where to file, and when to file, can shape your company’s future.
The Life Sciences Startup IP Resource Center is designed for founders, in-house counsel, inventors, and investors who are navigating those critical IP decisions. It brings together practical guidance on the full lifecycle of IP strategy, from foundational concepts and first patent filings to global protection, prosecution, and readiness for transactions and investments.
Whether you are preparing your first patent application or positioning your portfolio for investment, this resource center is designed to help you make informed, strategic decisions at every stage.
Start Exploring Essential IP Strategies
Developed for founders, in-house counsel, inventors, and investors navigating intellectual property decisions at every stage.
Browse our resources by stage — wherever you start, you’ll find practical guidance written for the important decisions life sciences founders and their teams actually face.
Contacts
I. IP Foundations
Understand what intellectual property is and why it matters to your company’s value.
II. Building an IP Strategy
How to plan your first patent filing, understand patentability, and decide what to patent versus keep as a trade secret.
Your First Patent Application Filing
What Makes an Invention Patentable? The Four Core Requirements
Trade Secrets in Life Sciences: Protecting What You Cannot — or Choose Not to — Patent
III. Protecting Innovation in the United States and Globally
What changes when your invention needs protection outside of the United States and the key differences to plan for.
Navigating Patent Protection Beyond U.S. Borders — Key International Differences
IV. Managing Patent Prosecution
A practical walkthrough of the patent prosecution process, how to speed it up, and how to protect your commercial product, including the label.
The Patent Prosecution Process: A Practical Guide From Filing to Grant
Accelerating Patent Prosecution: Getting to Grant Faster
Patenting the Drug Label: Protecting the Full Scope of Your Commercial Product
V. Inventorship and Government-Funded Research
Who qualifies as an inventor and what Bayh-Dole means for IP developed with federal funding.
Understanding Inventorship: Who Is — and Who Is Not — an Inventor
Intellectual Property and Government-Funded Research: Navigating the Bayh-Dole Framework
VI. Freedom to Operate, Transactions, and Due Diligence
Clearing your path to market and getting your IP deal-ready for licensing, financing, or acquisition.
Freedom to Operate: Understanding Your Path to Market
Licensing, Agreements, and Transactions: Turning IP Into Commercial Value and for Securing FTO
VII. Trademarks and Brand Protection
Building and defending the commercial identity behind your science.
Trademark Strategy for Life Sciences Startups: Building and Protecting Your Commercial Identity