IP Mistakes That Cost Founders
Founding Mistakes, IP Considerations, and Investor Due Diligence; Takeaways from our Tech Thursday panel.
Last month, we co-hosted a fantastic panel with ElevateIP Alberta ‘IP Mistakes That Cost Founders’. The key areas we talked about were:
Why early-stage founders should focus on traction first.
Which IP mistakes can actually kill a company.
When patents actually add value and when they don't.
How to pick a brand name that's both protectable and memorable.
What IP maintenance really is.
What investors are actually looking in your IP data room.
Our speakers were:
Jason Howg, Partner and Regional Group Manager at BLG
Kurtis Broda, Co-Founder & COO at Wyvern
Danny Zahynacz, Founder at RAD Medical Technologies
Moderated by: Louise Lee, Partner at BLG
→ Listen on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple
We covered (w/ timestamps):
00:00 – Intro: The true value of intellectual property for early-stage startups.
01:14 – Speaker Introductions: Perspectives from satellite, legal, and medical device sectors.
03:25 – Realistic IP Considerations: Balancing product development with legal protection.
05:28 – Founding Mistakes: The critical importance of IP assignments and competitive analysis.
08:29 – Low-Hanging Fruit: Implementing NDAs and identifying trade secrets.
10:26 – Strategic Planning: Deciding when to patent and the role of AI in IP searches.
13:00 – Patent Value: Understanding the business purpose and jurisdictional costs of filing.
14:59 – The "Secret Spice": Using trade secrets to complement existing patent portfolios.
22:01 – Strategic Branding: Choosing memorable names and avoiding expensive rebrands.
30:02 – Routine Maintenance: Managing data rooms and tracking competitor developments.
38:45 – Business Outcomes: Aligning IP strategy with revenue and manufacturing know-how.
41:01 – Audience Q&A: Global market prioritization, infringement risks, and medical regulations.
1. Why Early-Stage Founders Should Focus on Traction First
Early-stage founders have a ton on their plate: from product development, to fundraising, to customer traction, and even hiring, it can be easy to make IP mistakes in the early stages of a company.
Kurtis (Wyvern) broke it down in plain terms:
“Your patents aren't really worth anything until your product and company work. The thing that matters is your traction and your customers. You don't wanna make mistakes that will preclude you from IP success in the future, but until your company actually has traction and is valuable, it's more like: try not to make mistakes.”
2. Which IP Mistakes Can Actually Kill a Company
With the chaos of early-stage companies, as Kurtis mentioned, it is vital to not make mistakes, especially critical ones that can harm your company. Three key mistakes that stuck out to our panel:
IP assignments: Make sure your founding documents, and every agreement, whether employee or contractor, explicitly assign IP to the company. As Kurtis mentioned, this was missed entirely on Wyvern's setup docs.
"It could be a company killer if somebody doesn't get along and just doesn't wanna do that assignment later on."
Vague NDAs: generic NDAs are very difficult to enforce. Kurtis' advice: be as specific as possible about what you're actually protecting.
Hurrying the patent process: as Danny (RAD Medical Technologies) pointed out, rushing to file patents can have a negative impact, especially if the project shifts throughout the process, risking your patent not covering the final product.
"You get to the end of the project, ready to release it commercially, and realize the design has pivoted pretty far from your original IP."
This week in Calgary 👇
April 16th - LIVE Season 3 Finale: The Founder Mindset Podcast
Co-Hosted by: Thin Air Labs
Guests:
Brian Ford, VP, ATB Business Solutions
Brad Parry, President and CEO at Calgary Economic Development, and CEO at Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund
Andrew MacIsaac, CEO, at API
Ashley Gallant, Senior Executive Recruitment Consultant and Marketing Lead at Artemis Canada
Hosted by: Leah Sarich, Head of Story at Thin Air Labs
3. When Patents Actually Add Value… And When They Don’t
As Jason (BLG) mentioned, you create value for a patent; they do not create value for you. Before filing a patent, a simple question should be asked: why? If you cannot answer the ‘why’, with reasons such as blocking a competitor or building IP assets that investors care about, it is not the right time.
Brought to you by:
ElevateIP Alberta gives you access to the funding, support, resources and tools you need to protect your startup’s IP and grow your business. Learn more at their website.
4. How to Pick a Brand Name That’s Both Protectable and Memorable
Branding options can be a practice of paralysis by analysis, and while they are important, our panel agreed that availability and memorability were vital when choosing a name.
Jason candidly explained his experience with founders naming companies:
"They had a little brainstorming session, everybody wrote down what they thought would be really clever, they put it in a hat, and they picked a name. And then I look at the name and I think: this is a terrible trademark.
Naming is not nothing, however, as Danny reflected on his experience of holding off on trademarks and using the money elsewhere, only to realize he covered the IP process in retrospect:
"When we started out, our plan was always to partner with a bigger brand for distribution, so the brand of my company didn't matter so much to me. Four years in, I wish I'd applied for a grant and just covered the trademark process upfront."
5. What IP Maintenance Really Is
IP maintenance can cover a variety of topics, but one takeaway stood out above all else: it is vital to maintain IP assets proactively. How this looks for our panel in practice:
NDA tracking: Kurtis has set up an automated Claude task that runs monthly, flagging expiring NDAs; proactive tasks that keep you in the know before it’s too late (like hypothetically realizing during a risk disclosure with Lockheed Martin that your NDA expired).
Competitor monitoring: Danny sets a calendar reminder every six months to search what competitors have filed patent-wise, while Wyvern has a Slack channel dedicated to competitor intel. As Danny put it:
“The sooner you know, the sooner you can adjust, pivot, do what you have to do. It works both ways: both on IP health and understanding what that's going to look like for valuations.”
6. What Investors Are Actually Looking For In Your IP Data Room
Investors doing due diligence comes down to two major categories: agreements and assets.
Agreements involved NDAs, contractor agreements, employee agreements, and ultimately, can the company prove they own what they say they own? As Jason stated:
"You need agreements. Handshakes and hope aren't a great method."
The other category, assets, focuses more on product itself: patents, trademarks, and even trade secrets can serve as a valuable asset to deliver to investors. However, as Kurtis mentioned, traction can provide a buffer with the IP data room:
"If you have traction, investors give you leeway on the IP data room. If you're marginal, missing IP could just be the reason they walk."
🔜 What’s Coming Up in April:
April 23rd - The Future of Government Funding in Tech
Speakers:
Derrick Hunter, President & CEO at Bluesky Equities
Michelle Scarborough, Former Managing Partner of Thrive Venture Fund at BDC
Graeme Harrison, CEO & Managing Partner at Augur VC
Cam Linke, CEO at Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii)
Moderated by: Philippe Burns, Co-Founder at Tech Thursday
April 30th - How Energy & Mining Can Lead AI Adoption in Canada
Speakers:
John Mortimer, CTO at GeologicAI
Keri Lee, Managing Director at BlueMarvel AI
Moderated by: Philippe Burns, Co-Founder at Tech Thursday
More speakers TBA!
🫶 News from our Friends
Osler & Scotiabank, are teaming up to host Calgary’s first Premier AI Finance Demo & Vibe Coding Day on April 22nd. More info on the event here.
Uniting the Prairies (UP) is back April 29-30 in Saskatoon. It brings together high-growth prairie founders and 75+ investors from across North America in a 2:1 format that’s helped drive $40M+ raised since 2022. More info and tickets here.