The journey of developing proprietary know-how can be long and arduous. It requires significant investment and often involves many challenges, as innovation, is an inherently risky proposition. Nonetheless, for those companies that are focused on commercially valuable applications of their know-how, and persist with continually iterating and improving, over time, the intellectual property (IP) they develop, invariably becomes increasingly valuable.

 

INTRODUCTION

At Parkway, over many years, and as the results of substantial investment, we have developed a considerable intellectual property (IP) portfolio centered on our portfolio of proprietary process technologies.

In order to protect our IP portfolio, we have systematically developed a multilayered IP protection strategy, incorporating a range of complementary approaches.

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OVERVIEW

Parkway has developed a multilayered IP protection strategy, incorporating i) process technology development, ii) trade secrets, iii) know-how, iv) trademarks and v) patents.


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    ADVANTAGES

     The advantages of the Parkway’s multilayered IP strategy, particularly the trade secrets & knowhow approach includes

    • Enduring obligation for partners, collaborators and clients to keep IP secret, providing ultimate protection in all jurisdictions, indefinitely.
    • Protected through confidentiality agreements (clients, partners, employees) which requires the counterparty to agree to not challenge the IP and prevents unpermitted disclosure, misappropriation and direct competition.​
    PROTECTING VALUE

    Protecting Process Technologies

    • It is common for complex process technologies similar to those developed by Parkway to be protected through trade secrets as opposed to patenting.
    • The strongest form of IP protection, is secrecy.

     

    Disadvantages of the Patenting Process

    • Patenting process requires full disclosure of process novelty, which may enable misappropriation through:
      • Unpermitted or “mistaken” use, and/or
      • Development of a “variant” process derived through reverse engineering of patented IP.
    • Patents have a fixed-term and are jurisdiction specific, therefore limiting the useful commercial life of the patent. This can be problematic when licensing IP as a solution.