The development of an intellectual property strategy for a biotechnology company

The 2014 Masters of Advanced Technology Enterprise (MATE) programme is a multi-disciplinary course with the goal of creating teams that explore the challenges of creating successful technology enterprises. NacreTech is the result of one of the enterprises which has been developed within this course. It has found a market application for a nacre-like material as a biodegradable osteoconductive load bearing materials for orthopaedic implants and developed a target product profile to help guide further material development to out-compete existing materials on the market. In addition a proof of concept testing plan, intellectual property strategy and regulatory analysis has been conducted.  This thesis is based on the author’s experience working within NacreTech while applying current knowledge and thinking surrounding protecting intellectual property for biotechnology. In particular, the author has investigated the intellectual property aspects, such as the requirements of the complete specification, filing dates and locations, and existing strategy models, required for commercialisation of the NacreTech biomaterial and examines the factors which influenced the development of the intellectual strategy.