🧬 Steve Visco - PolyPlus - Part 2 | Global Competition | Defending & Monetizing Your Intellectual Property | Dealing With Patent Trolls & Needing Multiple Patents Per Technology | The Importance of Global IP Strategy for Startups

Part 2 of 3.

My guest for this week’s episode is Steve Visco. Steve is the Co-founder, CTO, and CEO of PolyPlus. Before PolyPlus, Steve worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as a Principal Investigator, running several programs in the field of solid state ionics, developing an extensive patent portfolio, much of which has been licensed to industry.

Join us as we sit down with Steve to discuss PolyPlus’ decade of experience as a licensing company during a time of rapid industry change.

Steve also covers how important intellectual property is for defending and monetizing your technology, how to deal with patent trolls and spurious lawsuits, and the benefits of scientists understanding patent legalities.

Learn more about his thoughts on why having multiple patents on a technology is important, and how crucial it can be to have an immediate global IP strategy as a startup. Please enjoy my conversation with Steve Visco.

Find Our Guest, Steve Visco, at these links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-j-visco-2910b57/
https://polyplus.com/

Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee
https://www.excedr.com

Social & Website
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@excedr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/excedr_inc
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExcedrInc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/excedr
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@excedr
Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:39 Episode start
02:01 Stanford’s tech transfer advice to Berkeley, finding an investor and CEO in Rudy Hurwich
03:55 Rudy’s business experience, the 4 members of the founding group
05:15 Lithium ion’s emergence, PolyPlus’ decade as a licensing company
07:12 American companies trying to catch up to Japan, batteries as the new oil
09:30 Intellectual property & the importance of patents, evaluating patents as part of M&A
12:54 How PolyPlus found their patent attorney, dealing with patent trolls & spurious lawsuits
16:48 Preparing for the interference lawsuit, benefits of a scientist understanding patent legalities
19:27 Licensing patents as a source of income, the dangers of over-licensing your portfolio
22:19 Learning about deal structure, the importance of having multiple patents on a technology
24:39 Choosing where to patent, patenting tech in the United States vs. Overseas
27:39 Startups & the importance of having an immediate global IP strategy
30:39 Outside IP attorneys & choosing when to bring one in-house/train one up
33:00 Outro

Enriched Notes:

Topics Mentioned:
Intellectual Property/IP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property
Dymo Industries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymo_Corporation
DuPont https://www.dupont.com/
Dow https://www.dow.com/en-us
Panasonic https://www.na.panasonic.com/
Sony https://www.sony.com/en/
Patent Trolling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll
Interference Patent Lawsuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interference_proceeding
Patent Cooperation Treaty-PCT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_Cooperation_Treaty
CRISPR Patent Dispute
https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/08/crispr-patent-fight/
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/breakthrough-gene-editing-technology-belongs-harvard-mit-us-tribunal-2022-03-01/

People Mentioned:
Rudy Hurwich https://hurwich.com/
Michel Armand https://cicenergigune.com/en/michel-armand
Meilin Liu https://www.linkedin.com/in/meilin96332354/
Jim Simons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Simons_(mathematician) 
John Goodenough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Goodenough
Joe Siino https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephsiino/ 

The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.