Partner Lucas Watkins was quoted in a Chemical & Engineering News article discussing the intellectual property challenges faced by biotech startups in coworking spaces. He provided valuable insights on the importance of protecting patents and trade secrets in shared laboratory environments:

"Whenever you have two companies collaborating in an IP-heavy industry like this, you will need to very clearly set out: Who's going to own the IP?" Lucas emphasized the need for caution in shared spaces, warning about potential risks: "The nightmare scenario is that your scientist has a conversation with the person at the bench next door: 'How am I going to solve this problem? This reaction isn't working. How am I going to get it to work?' Someone else suggests an idea that ends up being critical to a patent that you obtain. And years later, they may come out of the woodwork and say, 'Oh, that was my idea. I should be an inventor on your patent.'"

Watkins advised startups to prioritize legal counsel from the outset: "You want to do that at the beginning of the relationship, and not when something has become valuable." His comments underscore the complex IP landscape navigated by emerging biotech companies in shared innovation spaces.

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