There are plenty of mobile health apps — about 40,000 some media reports reckon — and investment has surged.
Last year, about $439 million was invested into 70 deals for healthcare startups that develop mobile health apps along with tools for online social networking, according to a Dow Jones Venture Source report published earlier this year.
But as Ted Driscoll, a technology partner with venture capital firm Claremont Creek Ventures sees it, investors interested in the mobile health space could be turned off by companies with products that can’t be protected from would-be copiers. Theoretically, patents are only supposed to be issued if products are unique and different, but it doesn’t always turn out that way.
He also talked about a recent investment in a company with an ear exam tool as part of an iPhone app. He spoke to MedCity News a its CONVERGE conference in Philadelphia Tuesday.
By Stephanie Baum
Stephanie Baum is the East Coast Innovation Reporter for MedCityNews.com. She enjoys covering healthcare startups across health IT, drug development and medical devices and innovations deployed to improve medical care. She graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania and has worked across radio, print and video. She's written for The Christian Science Monitor, Dow Jones & Co. and United Business Media.Visit website | More posts by Author
@IlseTreurnicht means great management for execution - what S patent protection in certain segments? startups don't have the $ to defend
One option for a health startup to increase its intellectual property is by licensing technologies from government labs. There is an organization of federal laboratories called the FLC that exists to help transfer these licenses. You can find out more about the FLC at www.federallabs.org, including information on what technologies are available and how to access them.