Papula-Nevinpat and Aalto Entrepreneurship Society’s Summer of Startups announced their partnership early June this year. The co-operation has so far consisted of consulting the participating teams.
“When designing the program for this year’s Summer of Startups, we wanted to pay attention to intellectual property rights and the issues the teams might have. Thus, we started co-operation with Papula-Nevinpat, one of the largest and most well-known patent and trademark agencies in Finland. Intellectual property rights form the backbone for every strong brand. Hence, the earlier IP matters are adopted as part of a company’s agenda, the better,” says Jesse Miettinen, Vice President of Aaltoes.
This year’s Summer of Startups featured 14 teams that are in need of IP consulting concerning all the things early-stage companies need to take into account when developing the business. Avanto, one of the teams, is developing infrared heated functional clothing and was in dire need of IP consulting at the beginning of the program. “When dealing with physical products, it is essential to protect new innovations before bringing them to public attention,” says Visa Kupias, one of the two co-founders of Avanto.
As part of the partnership, every team in the program gets a consulting session on IP matters from Papula-Nevinpat. This is to ensure that no team in the program would have to experience the pitfalls of not taking care of intellectual property rights when developing the early-stage business. “Careful planning of IP strategies as early as possible is not only cost-efficient but can also make a great difference when expanding to new markets, for example”, says Jerry Härkönen, Trademark Lawyer, Papula-Nevinpat.
Avanto was able to schedule their consulting session early in the summer, which benefited them greatly. “It was really good that we could meet up with Jerry Härkönen and Folke Johansson from Papula-Nevinpat. We had a discussion with them about what our ideas were and what we wanted to do with them. They directed us to the right path on how to continue with our patenting and trademark processes,” says Aino Aarnio-Juurinen, the other co-founder of Avanto.
“Co-operating with AaltoEs and participating in the Summer of Startups program has given Papula-Nevinpat great insight into the current stage of the startup scene in Finland, and we are more than happy to see an increase in the awareness of IP matters. However, as the field of intellectual property is constantly evolving, it is important not to stay still. Thus, we hope to work with AaltoEs also in the future to give startups the most up-to-date information, our full support and the chances for success they deserve”, continues Jerry Härkönen.
Papula-Nevinpat
Papula-Nevinpat is a globally recognized patent, trademark and design agency. We represent a broad range of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to SME’s and private individuals. We help our customers succeed through professional IP services rooted in the digital age. In addition to our Finland-based global operations, Papula-Nevinpat has a strong foothold in the Eurasian market with local offices in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Summer of Startups 2016 by Aalto Entrepreneurship
Summer of Startups is an accelerator program run by Aalto Entrepreneurship Society that accepts 13 teams consisting of students and recent graduates with a business idea. Summer of Startups helps the teams in taking the first steps as entrepreneurs in a low-risk environment.
Between June 6th and August 5th, Summer of Startups provides the teams with coaching from the most experienced serial entrepreneurs in Finland and professionals from multiple business areas. In addition to coaching, the teams will get free office space and a grant of up to 5000€ to cover their living expenses and to allow full-time business development.
Summer of Startups ends at Demo Day on August 5th. At Demo Day, teams will present their prototypes and scalable business plans, which they produced based on their business idea during the summer. Demo Day usually gathers 400 to 600 investors, media representatives and students. On average, 2-3 companies have been founded each summer during the past years, which have employed over 60 people for years and generated revenues in millions of euros.
Summer of Startups alumni include companies such as Venuu (2013, venuu.fi), a marketplace for event venues, Catchbox (2012, getcatchbox.com), a throwable microphone manufacturer and Netmedi (2012, netmedi.fi), a healthcare applications developer.
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