Protecting Your Hydrogen Investment: Intellectual Property Issues

The past 18 months have seen an explosion of interest in hydrogen, with investors scrambling to invest in this burgeoning industry sector and valuations for hydrogen-related companies multiplying rapidly.  As interest and investment in the hydrogen market grows, companies will look to protect their investment in emerging hydrogen technology.  Intellectual property laws provide a variety of ways to monetise innovations while preventing competitors from freely benefiting from research and development efforts.  For example, a company may file for patents that provide a twenty-year monopoly in most countries in exchange for public disclosure of a new invention.  Alternatively, a company might decide to keep its innovation as a trade secret that may be protected indefinitely from theft but not independent creation by others.