The Expert Spotlight: Patents with Purpose – IP Strategy for DeepTech Innovators
The Expert Spotlight: Patents with Purpose – IP Strategy for DeepTech Innovators
"Your breakthrough is only as valuable as your ability to protect it. Discover how to focus your patents on what actually drives value, without locking yourself out of tomorrow's opportunities."
About the Session
DeepTech innovation moves fast, however protecting it is anything but simple. With complex technology, evolving markets, and crowded competitive landscapes, DeepTech founders face a unique challenge: focusing patents on the key drivers of value while keeping the flexibility to adapt as the technology and market shift.
In this workshop, Peter and Adam from Franke Hyland will tackle the core question facing every DeepTech innovator: what's worth protecting, and how? You'll walk away with a practical framework to assess the IP priorities for your own project, so your protection strategy works as hard as your technology does.
What You Will Learn:
What Can Be Protected: What's patentable, and when another form of protection is the smarter play.
Mapping IP to Value: Connecting your IP to markets and the product features that matter most.
Prioritising Protection: How to rank the technical features worth protecting when you can't protect everything.
Mistakes to Avoid: The common IP missteps that cost DeepTech innovators time, money, and competitive edge.
Unsure if you're a deep-tech innovator?
If you're building something technical, whether that's hardware, software, cleantech, medtech, or anything in between, and you've ever wondered what's worth protecting (or whether you can afford to), this workshop is for you.
Meet the Experts:
Peter Franke
Principal, Franke Hyland
Peter is a patent attorney who treats IP as what it really is: a business tool. Named by IAM as one of the world's leading IP strategists in 2022 and 2023, he has drafted hundreds of patent families granted in Australia and major jurisdictions worldwide, working with clients from startups to listed businesses. His practice spans IP strategy, infringement and validity advice, freedom to operate, and expert reports for IPOs and trade sales, with particular interests in medical devices, AI and software, sustainable technologies, and energy. Having built Franke Hyland from scratch with Adam, Peter knows first-hand the challenges facing early-stage businesses, and how to build IP strategy around a commercial plan from day one.
Adam Hyland
Principal, Franke Hyland
Adam is a registered patent attorney in Australia and New Zealand with a rare dual perspective: a chemical engineer who spent ten years in food manufacturing R&D before joining the patent profession in 2000. Previously a principal of a major patent attorney firm, he holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) with Honours from UNSW and a Graduate Diploma in IP Law from the University of Melbourne. Having worked on both sides of the innovation equation, Adam specialises in helping innovators focus their IP strategy on what genuinely drives value.