INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUES IN STARTING HIGH-TECH VENTURES

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) and IPR protection are important issues in starting high-tech ventures. This paper analyzes potential IPR risks for high-tech start-ups and discusses how to prevent them. For a venture capitalist, the main issue is to confirm the value of target technology and its ownership. On the other hand, a technology holder is mainly concerned for the approach to cooperation and the proportion of technology investment in registered capital of the start-Lip. As far as a target technology is concerned, if it has been patented, the start-Lip should be prepared for different kinds of challenges to patent right, for example, patent invalidation application for insufficient disclosure or lack of novelty. Otherwise, if the target technology is not considered patentable, the non-patent technology or know-how can also be protected through legal system of trade secret and anti-unfair competition.