Let’s Talk HealthTech: IP and collaboration in healthcare

How do you make sure collaboration in healthtech leads to innovation and not to conflict? That question was at the centre of Let’s Talk HealthTech, a session organised by imec.istart at the Bioville incubator on the Health Campus Limburg in Diepenbeek.

Around 70 participants explored co-creation in healthcare through four roles: the startup, the healthcare organisation, the investor and the IP expert. Bram Janssen, European and Dutch patent attorney at Arnold & Siedsma, covered the legal and IP side. He explained why it pays to think early about IP protection, ownership and clear agreements between partners.

Bram was joined on the panel by Charlie Beirnaert (CTO, Innocens), Steven Leuridan (QBIC Fund) and Brian Desplinter (AZ Groeninge). Together with the audience, they discussed the opportunities and challenges of collaboration between startups and healthcare organisations, including data protection, intellectual property, regulation and funding.

The key lesson was that clear agreements on IP and collaboration don’t hold innovation back. They are what allows innovation in healthcare to grow in a lasting way.

Thank you to imec.istart and Isa Rogiers for the invitation.