A2O Advanced Materials CEO Natalie Dakers brings a wealth of innovation and IP experience to her role.
Before joining the company, Dakers was already a founder and CEO four-times over: at biopharmaceutical company Neuromed Technologies, the Accel-Rx Health Sciences Accelerator, and the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), as well as its commercial arm CDRD Ventures. It’s safe to say she knows the importance of a strong IP strategy, and she has applied that knowledge at A2O.
A2O is creating a new class of bonding solutions for an array of industries, including marine engineering, energy, chemicals, and apparel.
The company has taken a new approach to adhesives with a solution that:
- Works underwater as a non-toxic coating system
- Self-heals when cut or damaged
- Sticks to commonly incompatible materials like plastics and metals
- Is reversible and repeatable, meaning it maintains its adhesive properties even after it has been separated
To help protect its innovation, A2O Advanced Materials turned to the AccelerateIP program. We met with CEO Natalie Dakers to discuss the company’s IP approach and its experience in the program.
Can you tell us about how important IP is to A2O Advanced Materials
It’s fundamental. Like any innovation-based company, a lot of our value is based on the nature of our patents and to what extent our technology is protected.
Products in our industry are manufactured all over the world. If you only have patent protection in a comparatively small jurisdiction like North America, you set yourself up for challenges in the future because your competitors are all over the world.
Having said that, securing patents globally is a very expensive proposition for a startup. So a program like AccelerateIP can help startups fill that need without drastically increasing expenses.
Image via A2O Advanced Materials website.
What was the state of A2O’s patent program before taking part in AccelerateIP?
A2O Advanced Materials is a spin out from the University of British Columbia, so the company already had applications for three patents families when it launched—two for the catalyst and one for the actual materials. One of those patents has already advanced into the national phase.
Fast forward to when we started AccelerateIP, and we had another very important patent approaching the national phase. The program came at just the right time for us.
What would you say about your experience with AccelerateIP and the impact it had on A2O?
At the time, with national filings coming up on an important patent, we needed to decide the extent to which we wanted to protect the technology and in how many countries we wanted to file. Given the nature of our industry, we needed to go broadly. AccelerateIP made that decision so much easier for us —without the program, we would have had to consider limiting the number of countries in which we could file. It would have been a heavy trade off decision.
It’s had a profound effect on our patent portfolio.
Where would A2O be without the AccelerateIP program?
Without the program, given the timing of our financing, our ability to file nationally would have been compromised.. It certainly would have been much more limited protection.
The nature of this program is truly unique. There are a lot of interesting grant programs available for startups, but very few of them, if any, allow patents to be an eligible cost. For AccelerateIP to give companies the ability to get funding for patent filings is a huge benefit. For A2O, the timing of AccelerateIP was absolutely critical.
If your startup is interested in accessing IP support to grow and protect your ideas and intellectual assets, apply for our AccelerateIP Program.
Header Image Credit: Paul Joseph/UBC Applied Science
