MSS2026

Sterne Kessler Director Olga Partington, Ph.D. will speak on the panel “From the Bench to Investor-Ready IP: Why Strong Science Is Not Enough” at MSS2026, hosted by MSS Biotech Events in Bled, Slovenia. MSS is a three-day scientific symposium focused on purification solutions from development through manufacturing, integrating advanced analytics for gene therapies, vaccines, and biologic products, including plasma, proteins, and enzymes.

Session Overview

Turning research into a valuable invention is hard-won work. Turning that invention into IP that holds up when investors and partners come looking is a different challenge, and it often turns on early choices: what’s disclosed, when, and how the invention is protected.

This is the second of two linked talks on an invention’s IP. Hans-Wilhelm Meyers covers the front end, creating and protecting an invention; this talk covers the back end, whether that IP holds up when a company raises capital or closes a deal.

When an investor or acquirer gets serious, a patent portfolio faces scrutiny it rarely saw earlier. Do the claims cover the product or just the discovery? Can a competitor design around them? Above all, would the patents survive a validity challenge? These are judgments about how the IP was built, usually tested for the first time in diligence, when the answers are hard to change.

Informed by experience in the forums where patents are challenged, and illustrated with public life-sciences examples, the session shows why strong science doesn’t automatically become investable IP, and what researchers and technology transfer offices can do early to make sure it holds up later.

Key takeaways:

• How investors and acquirers scrutinize IP in diligence
• The difference between obtaining a patent and building IP that survives scrutiny
• Why validity, claim scope, and freedom to operate decide a portfolio’s value
• Common IP problems that surface late, in fundraising or a deal
• Practical steps to take early, while problems can still be mitigated