Startup founders share a common DNA: they move fast, they’re customer obsessed, and they’re driven to succeed. Blue Tech founders bring the same startup ethos but face the unique challenge of then deploying their solutions at sea. This playbook highlights three essential strategies for Blue Tech startups to protect their ideas, fund their innovation, and safely navigate maritime law issues.
1. Protect Your Tech – Intellectual Property Strategies
Blue Tech solutions involve a unique blend of hardware, software, data collection, and other innovations. A robust IP strategy maps to each aspect of your product or service and utilizes the right tools to protect your ideas and support fundraising and commercialization.
Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are the foundation of an IP strategy for ocean technology companies. Trade secret protection can extend beyond traditional manufacturing secrets to protect proprietary algorithms or autonomy logic, sensor calibration methods, data processing, specialized testing protocols, or other sources of competitive advantage. To ensure protection as a trade secret, protected information must not be generally known, and reasonable efforts must be made to maintain its confidentiality.
Patent Strategy
Determining what to patent and when requires careful analysis. Patent protection can be essential for ocean technology startups developing novel hardware solutions, sensors, autonomous systems, and data collection methods but care should be taken to assess whether a patent is appropriate or if the technology should be protected as a trade secret to avoid disclosure.
Copyright Protection
Software-driven ocean technology solutions may benefit from copyright protection for their proprietary code, user interfaces, and technical documentation. Registration provides enhanced protection and remedies for infringement and may be the best course of action for publicly released code.
Trademarks and Brand Protection
Building a recognizable Blue Tech brand requires a comprehensive trademark strategy. This includes protecting company names, product designations, and distinctive logos that identify the company’s products and services in the marketplace.
2. Fund Your Innovation – Entity Formation and Fundraising Strategies
Corporate Structure
Blue Tech startups should consider a corporate structure that supports capital formation and accommodates the realities of ocean tech solutions such as longer development cycles and working capital needs.
The traditional corporate structure offers Blue Tech startups several advantages, including established frameworks for investor relations, employee compensation plans, and eventual exit strategies. A corporation can also provide a clear governance structure for companies anticipating multiple funding rounds.
Fundraising
In addition to venture capital and other equity funding, Blue Tech startups should leverage grants, prizes, and other programs focused on biodiversity, sustainability, defense, and maritime issues, and aim to sequence these funding opportunities alongside equity rounds.
Funding rounds are often tied to specific milestones and Blue Tech startups should plan for lengthy development timelines and seek funding that covers testing, support vessel costs, insurance, and the specialized facilities needed for ocean technologies in addition to the ordinary expenses that traditional tech startups face.
3. Deploy Your Products – Maritime Law Strategies
Unlike land-based startups, Blue Tech companies face complex maritime law considerations when deploying their products. Depending upon the particular application, Blue Tech companies may face maritime-specific jurisdictional, safety, and operational requirements. Blue Tech startups need to be aware of their compliance responsibilities at the state, federal, and international levels and be prepared for the expectations of investors, venture partners, and governments for safe operation at sea.
The applicable legal regime is context-specific. Autonomous developers should consider maritime safety and mariner notice requirements, while Blue Tech companies deploying to the sea floor may need to navigate specific regulations related to seabed interactions, existing subsea installations, and environmental requirements.
Before going to sea, entities should ensure their contracts with partners and support vessels include the appropriate data security and confidentiality agreements needed to protect their technology. Lastly, Blue Tech companies should ensure that they obtain the appropriate insurance and maintain logs, maintenance records, licenses, and certificates.
Conclusion
Successful Blue Tech companies will integrate intellectual property, corporate finance, and maritime compliance strategies to support their product development efforts from day one. Blue Tech executives looking to learn more are encouraged to contact Todd Amaral at tamaral@apslaw.com for more information about these and other strategies to support the development of innovative ocean technologies.
About The Author
Todd D. Amaral
Todd focuses on assisting clients in the Ocean Tech, Blue Tech, and Climate Tech industries. He combines experience with issues related…
