How Do We Decide What To Exploit?

Like all organisations, Ploughshare is resource limited and as such must carefully pick the opportunities for commercialisation. The first step involves evaluating Dstl’s published patents according to the following criteria:

• Novelty
  how different is this technology?
• Strength of IP
  is there sufficient, defendable IP to make the opportunity commercially viable?
• Addressable market
  how big is the true market and which way is it going, a reducing market may not be the best place on to which to launch a new product?
• Development
  how developed is the product or technology, is it a theory, a prototype or a fully working demonstrator?
• 3rd Party Issues
  who else owns rights to this technology, is there likely to be sufficient money / benefit for all to share?
• Availability of a technology champion / management team
  are key individuals available to exploit the opportunity?

The output is via a weighted scoring matrix that allows diverse technologies to be prioritised according to greatest commercial potential. Shown below is an example:

The cases are then subjected to a further evaluation to assess which exploitation route (licensing, spin-out, joint venture, co-development etc.) is most appropriate for the technology. This assessment takes into account of through-life IP costs; the cost, risk and time for product development; detailed market analysis to understand supply chains, barriers to market and the drivers for new/improved products in each market sector and access to an appropriate management and technical team.

Depending upon the results of these analyses Ploughshare Innovations decides whether an opportunity is appropriate for licensing (including co-development) or whether the proposition merits a dedicated new venture based upon the technology.