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ARTICLE · 24 JANUARY 2016

How Digital Health Startups Can Leverage Intellectual Property

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
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One of the fastest growing segments of startups is digital health startups, creating cutting-edge innovations that improve the management and operations of hospitals and clinical practices, and the effectiveness of patient care.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Aaron Capron
Aaron Capron
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One of the fastest growing segments of startups is digital health startups, creating cutting-edge innovations that improve the management and operations of hospitals and clinical practices, and the effectiveness of patient care. Given the steady increase in competition in this field and the need for startups to obtain venture capital funding, these digital health companies should protect their innovations through intellectual property.

But many obstacles hinder the acquiring of such protection. On the business side, startups have limited resources and are preoccupied by the huge day-to-day essential efforts of starting the new company. On the legal side, recent federal court decisions and corresponding U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) policies have made acquiring protection for certain types of software-related technologies more difficult to obtain. Facing these obstacles, digital health companies can struggle to develop meaningful protection for their

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