Opteon

In House Workshops

Philip has presented In-House workshops at 41 organisations in 5 countries, including 8 of the world’s top 100 universities.

Can we help with the professional development of your team?

Click below on a workshop title to download a for its detailed program.

Download this page as a printable brochure.

Workshop content can be customised to meet the specific learning outcomes that are sought.

To enquire about an "in-house" workshop please email philip@opteon.com.au

Advanced

Collaboration Agreements and Research Agreements

1 day (click on the workshop title for a detailed program)

This focused workshop concentrates on the ownership of IP in collaborations between a company and a Research Organisation (university, research institute or government lab), and between Research Organisations, as well as IP ownership in industry funded research. Joint ownership and its adverse implications are covered. Ownership models are explored, along with criteria to select the most appropriate model. Strategies are discussed to effectively negotiate the ownership of IP in your favour. As well: Managing the risk of non payment of Research Monies; a thorough scrutiny of the terms of collaboration and research agreements; terms to make sure are included; terms to avoid; IP ownership and the participation of students and visiting scientists in industry funded research.

Contract Law for IP Professionals - 2 days (click on the workshop title for a detailed program)

A large part of this workshop was designed and developed in collaboration with a large university’s tech transfer office and research office and has since been extended. The catalyst for the development of this workshop was the university’s assessment that its staff engaged in negotiating IP transactions were better equipped to do so when they had knowledge of aspects of the contractual legal environment in which the negotiation was conducted. Its staff needed this knowledge to be equipped to recognise and deal more effectively with some of the implications of what they encountered. Legal implications and potential liabilities do not start when the drafting of a contract commences. They start much earlier. In this workshop we look at numerous research, collaboration and tech transfer case studies, and at the contract law impacting upon the IP professionals that deal with these transactions.

Licensing Master Class - 2 days (click on the workshop title for a detailed program)

This Master Class will:

help your staff recognise licensing terms and issues that may disadvantage you
help them effectively deal with those issues
expand your staffs' toolbox of solutions to controversial and complex licensing issues
help your staff achieve better licensing outcomes
improve your staffs' licensing skills.

Every part of a license is examined in detail, particularly the controversial and complex aspects of a license that can sometimes result in impasse or anxious negotiations. A major focus of the workshop is to give your staff an expanded toolbox of solutions to call upon when they encounter these controversial and complex licensing issues. The workshop is suitable for novice licensing professionals wanting to accelerate their skills building. The workshop is also suitable for experienced licensing professionals wanting to hone their licensing skills.

Formulating Royalty Rates and Other License Financial Terms - 2 days (click on the workshop title for a detailed program)

A licensor does not want to settle for a 5% royalty when the technology deserves 10%. A licensee does not want to pay a 12% royalty when the technology deserves no more than 8%. When your staff negotiate a license of technology they need to know what royalty rate and other financial terms they should seek (as a licensor) or agree to pay (as a licensee). This intense skills development workshop will teach your staff how to make that determination. It will show them the methodologies they should employ, and those they should not, and why. It will show them the sources of public domain information that they need to help them make that determination.

It will teach them the skills that they need, to reliably make that determination. The aim of this workshop is to give your staff royalty formulation tools and skills that they need to get better financial outcomes in license negotiations.

Negotiating Wisely - Strategies for Better Outcomes

in IP Deals - 2 days (click on the workshop title for a detailed program)

There is more to negotiating a license or other IP transaction than formulating the deal terms that you aspire to secure . You also need to formulate negotiation strategies that you will employ to secure them. It is the strategies that you employ that will influence the outcomes of the negotiation. The better your strategies, the better the deal terms you will be able to secure. Should you make the first offer in a royalty negotiation, or should you wait for the other party to do so? Which strategy does the experienced negotiator employ, and why? Are there steps you can take to make your proposals more persuasive to the other party? How do you package and deliver your proposals to make them compelling? There is more to a negotiation than simply stating what you want. That often results in adversarial positions and impasse. This workshop presents tried and tested negotiation strategies to achieve the best outcomes when negotiating IP transactions.

Start-Up Companies - Negotiating Investment Terms with investors - 1 day (click on the workshop title for a detailed program)

Venture capital investment into start-up companies has its own unique processes and language. What is a series? What is a tranche? What are pre-emption rights, conversion rights, preference rights, anti-dilution rights, winding up preferences, tag-along and drag-along rights, liquidity events, and matters for consensus? What are the governance arrangements for a start-up company that a venture capitalist invests in ? Does the venture capitalist control the company? What strategies are there to protect the founders in governance arrangements? What is a shareholders’ agreement? What unique things will a venture capitalist seek that it provide for? What criteria does a venture capitalist employ to judge an investment opportunity? What does a venture capitalist look for when considering investing in a start-up company? Our intensive one day workshop is designed to demystify the process and language of venture capital investment, and equip you to negotiate with a venture capitalist the terms of its investment.

The Basics

What Researchers Need to Know About IP and Commercialisation

1 day or two consecutive half days (click on the workshop title for a detailed program)

This workshop has been designed specifically for researchers and students. It introduces them to intellectual property, and to commercialisation. Its aim is to remove some of the myths that researchers and students sometimes mistakenly believe about intellectual property and commercialisation. The program includes:

What IP is
How it is Commercialised.
Commercialisation pathways
Researcher’s role in commercialisation
Evaluating Technology for Commercialisation
researchers create commercialisation opportunities.

1 day or two consecutive half days

This workshop focuses on the protection of a startup company’s IP.

It deals in greater detail with all the categories of IP that the startup must recognise and protect, including trademarks.

It also deals more thoroughly with

the patent application process
the trade mark application process
the dangers to the company of joint ownership of IP that it must recognise
how to manage joint ownership

Particular attention is paid to securing to the startup the ownership of IP created by

Employees
Contractors
Directors
Scientific Adviusory Boards.

The Basics for IP Professionals

2 days (or 1 day) (click on the workshop title for a detailed program)

This intense and comprehensive skills development workshop has been designed for new IP professionals that need to accelerate their learning of the essential skills they need. It is also a useful refresher for more experienced IP professionals. The unique needs and perspective of universities and research institutes are kept in focus. Common points of tension in university / industry partner relationships are covered, as well as ways to overcome these points of tension. After this skills development workshop, participants will have an excellent all round appreciation of IP, its management and commercialisation

What Founders Need to Know About Start-Ups and Venture Capital

1 day or two consecutive half days

This workshop focuses on two aspects of start up companies.

The first is the setting up, structure, and management of companies – the minimum that every company director must know.

The second is focused on seeking angel, seed, or venture capital

An investor’s investment criteria
Pitching
Preparing for an investor’s due diligence
What to expect from an investor’s term sheet
- What is negotiable and what is not
- Share preference rights
- Anti-dilution models to watch out for
- Option and share plans
- Company governance and the investor’s participation
- etc

Licensing Basics - 1 day

This one day workshop is a condensed version of our two day Licensing Master Class. While the two day Licensing Master Class is intended for tech transfer professionals that already have some licensing experience, this shortened one day program is intended to provide participants with basic licensing skills, for basic technology licenses.

It covers the same topics as Licensing Master Class, but not to the same depth or complexity. It introduces new licensing professionals to the nature of licensing and the essential terms of a license agreement.

By doing so it equips new licensing professionals to negotiate basic license agreements.

What Founders Need to Know About IP

Habits of Highly Successful TTOs - 1 day or 2 days

This is one of our most popular in-house workshops. Its focus is on what the most successful tech transfer offices in Australia and the United States do that is best practice, and even beyond best practice - better practice. The workshop is based on Philip’s intimate association with over 18 tech transfer offices over some 25 years. During this time he was able to observe what they did which was effective, and what they did which was not so effective. He was also able to observe the refinement and improvement of their strategies and processes. This became the basis not just of this workshop, but also the basis of Philip’s Commercialisation Improvement consulting.

In this workshop Philip shares:

strategies and procedures that contribute to the commercialisation success of the most successful TTOs.
lessons they learned and what as a result the most successful TTOs make sure they always do, or avoid doing.
traps that TTOs fell into on their path to success, commercialisation mistakes they made, and which they make sure they never repeat
“Do’s”; “Must Do’s” and “Don’ts” of the most successful TTOs

Ultimately, the workshop is about improving a TTO's commercialisation scorecard. That is, securing more commercialisation “hits” and less “misses,” by equipping the TTO with the proven strategies and practices employed by the most successful TTOs.

This workshop can be presented in a condensed 1 day version or a more detailed 2 day version.

Lurking Legal Traps - 1 day (click on the workshop title for a detailed program)

This workshop is a one day condensed version of the Contract Law for IP Professionals workshop. This one day version focuses upon risks and liabilities that may arise in the course of the negotiation of IP contracts including:

License Agreements
Research Agreements
Collaboration Agreements
etc