It was not a good moment for Kodak. 

In the early 90s, Polaroid sued the photography giant for allegedly infringing on no less than 12 of its patents. Consequently, Kodak was ordered to pay almost a billion dollars in damages to its competitor and, by 2012, had filed for bankruptcy.

The moral of this story? Neglecting intellectual property (IP) can cost you everything. And obtaining a patent could be what saves you from a similar fate. 

This temporary legal and exclusive right to stop others from commercialising their invention allows innovators to protect their ideas, attract investment and gain a competitive edge in the market. 

As part of our She Built This series, two Aussie founders share their patenting experiences and advice on the process – while another weighs whether a patent is the right move for her brand.

Veena enjoys the hands-on work of the lab.

A lucky save

It was just over a week before Professor Veena Sahajwalla AO was set to unveil Green Steel – a first-of-its-kind steel made by recycling waste materials – at a US conference when she realised the risk of presenting her ideas without a patent in place.

“At that point, I thought it was too late,” said Veena. “I had to leave the country in a week to travel to the US, so I had to stop everything else to meet the provisional deadlines, but we made it happen.”

The University of New South Wales, where Veena is a professor, brought patent attorneys on board to guide her through the process. 

“You might not necessarily think about patenting on day one but, looking back, you will certainly thank yourself for doing the IP work,” she says.

Today, Veena holds nearly 40 patents. Beyond safeguarding her ideas and inventions, she sees them as “a powerful way to bring a lot of new partners on board”.

“Every time you commercialise something it feels like you’re doing it for the first time, which can actually be fun,” she says. “It never gets boring or stale.” 

Fiona’s spray-on skin has helped hundreds of burn victims.

A false start

Back in the 90s, around the time Polaroid sued Kodak, plastic surgeon Professor Fiona Wood AO and scientist Marie Stoner were taking healthy skin from burns patients, growing skin cells in their laboratory and spraying them on to wounds. 

The result? Significantly better healing with less scarring. A truly remarkable, life-saving invention. 

“And so we put in a provisional patent … but we made the mistake of doing it on the fly with the insight of a gnat,” says Fiona. “We didn’t understand the whole game plan.”  

The process behind applying for this patent looked like cold-calling a lawyer and paying them a couple of thousand dollars to file it. Then it just sat there. 

“We lost that first patent because we weren’t in a space where we understood the commercialisation process in a timely fashion,” says Fiona. “We had to come back to it when we’d done more work and we were more savvy.” 

For their next attempt, the duo found a patent lawyer who would take them from start to finish.  

“So that was our second bite of the cherry,” says Fiona. “It was much more comprehensive and thought out, with the right support in place – and that one actually stuck.”

The healthcare pioneer compares the process of patenting to competing in a marathon.  

“More like an ultramarathon,” she adds. “I look at it now and I think, how did we do it? And I think we were incredibly stubborn and we didn’t know we couldn’t.”  

IP has been a priority for Tess from day one.

On the fence

Alongside a group of co-founders, branding expert Tess Robinson recently launched Land Lab, a line of science-backed supplements containing native Australian plants. 

“IP has been a huge part of our discussions in the Land Lab team, from the very start,” she says. 

While they’ve secured their brand name trade mark and are respectful of Indigenous Knowledge, Land Lab are yet to patent their unique formulations.  

“The next product that we’re launching has a pretty interesting process that will be the first of its kind, so we might think about patenting that,” says Tess. “But it’s such an intense process. I’m not sure that it’s worthwhile.” 

No doubt other founders and inventors are pondering the same thing. To patent, or not to patent? Knowing whether your innovation qualifies isn’t always straightforward. But as we learned from Kodak, it really does pay to find out which IP protections are best suited to our creations. 

It’s time to call dibs on what’s yours.