Intellectual property: what funders and investors need to see

On this page

The reality
What you can protect, what it costs, how long it takes
1. What the attorney costs
2. Going abroad: three routes and one deadline
Software and AI after Emotional Perception
What each funder asks
1. Who owns what in a collaboration: the Lambert models
What investors check
Strategy: what to file, when, and what to keep secret
Money for IP
Write the IP answer
Pitfalls
Checklist
Questions
Sources

Intellectual property (IP) is where grant applications lose quiet marks and investment rounds stall late. This guide covers what to file, when and at what cost since the April 2026 fee rise; what each funder asks; what an investor's lawyer checks; and the money that pays for it.

File before you disclose. The UK gives no grace period for your own talk, demo, web page or crowdfunding page. A £75 online filing buys a priority date.
Official fees are the small part: £405 to a UK patent grant against £4,000 to £10,000 plus VAT for an attorney to draft and file.
Some Innovate UK competitions now score a 400-word question on IP, freedom to operate and defensibility, and refuse projects without "clear background IP ownership or rights".
Investors want signed assignments from every founder, employee and contractor. Without them, one company went to trial to prove it owned its own code.
Software and AI: since February 2026 a UK claim that involves any hardware is an "invention". The fight is now inventive step, where only technical features count.
Money exists: IP Advance pays £2,250 of a £3,000 audit, Innovate UK allows £7,500 per SME for filings, and the merged R&D scheme no longer cuts relief because you took a grant.

The reality

25% average rise in IPO fees on 1 April 2026, the first across most services for more than twenty years¹²
£405 minimum official fees for a UK patent: £75 + £200 + £130³
4% of UK patent applications filed without an attorney are granted (Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, March 2024)⁶
14% of UK SMEs hold a patent, 21% a trade mark, 37% any registered right (IPO survey, February 2023)⁷

What changed, so older advice is out of date:

When	What changed	What it means for you
1 April 2026	IPO fees rose by about 25%; trade mark fees had not moved since 1998, patent fees since 2018¹	Any cost figure from before April 2026 is wrong; use the tables below
11 February and 14 July 2026	The Supreme Court dropped the Aerotel test for software and AI; the IPO's practice notice now applies an "any hardware" test⁹¹⁰	Software and AI claims clear the exclusion and are judged on technical contribution
2026 competitions	Innovate UK added a scored question on IP, freedom to operate (FTO: whether you can sell without infringing others' rights) and defensibility (competition 2582, closes 18 November 2026)¹¹	A 400-word answer with its own marks; the template is below
Accounting periods from 1 April 2024	The merged R&D scheme removed the rule that cut SME relief on grant-funded projects¹²	Taking a grant no longer costs you R&D relief
8 October 2026	The IPO published IP Advance: £2,250 towards an IP audit, you pay £750, through Innovate UK Business Growth in England¹³	Worth requesting, but Business Growth is paused to new requests (see Money for IP)

What you can protect, what it costs, how long it takes

Official fees are the IPO's from 1 April 2026. Attorney fees come on top.

Right	Protects	UK official fees	Time and term	Abroad
Patent	How something works: a technical invention that is new and not obvious. Not a business method, a mathematical method, a presentation of information or software with a "non-technical purpose"³	£405 to grant: £75 application (online, paid on filing), £200 search, £130 examination. Renewals from year 5: £90, rising each year to £810 in year 20 (£6,160 in all); late fee £32 a month⁴⁵	Published 18 months after filing; search normally within 6 months; examination "could take place several years after you apply"; lasts up to 20 years³²	12-month priority window; the EPO covers 30+ countries, the PCT 150+; a UK patent stops copying in the UK only¹⁴⁶
Trade mark	A name, logo or other sign that tells your goods or services apart	£205 for one class online, £60 for each extra class (three classes: £325); renewal £245 plus £60 a class¹⁵	Examination in 2 to 3 weeks, a 2-month opposition window, registered in about 3 to 4 months if unopposed; renew every 10 years¹⁶¹⁷	Madrid System through the IPO: £50 handling plus WIPO fees¹⁵¹⁸
Registered design	The look of a product: shape, pattern, ornament, in 2D or 3D	£60 for one design online, £85 for up to 10, £185 for up to 50; renewals £85, £110, £135, £170¹⁹	Decision within 2 weeks; 5 years, renewable to 25. Unregistered: automatic, 3 years for appearance, up to 15 for shape²⁰²¹	Separate filings; ask at a clinic
Copyright	Original written work, software code, web content, databases, images, music	None: automatic, no UK register, © mark optional²²	Author's life plus 70 years for written and artistic work; 70 years from publication for sound recordings²²	Nothing to file
Trade secret	Information that is secret, valuable because secret, and subject to "reasonable steps" to keep it so²³	None, but the controls cost: NDAs, access limits, the NPSA and NCSC "Core Security Measures for Early-Stage Technology Businesses" that Innovate UK requires of grantees²⁴	As long as it stays secret	Nothing to file
Database right	A database made with "a substantial investment in obtaining, verifying or presenting the contents"; the maker owns it, the employer for staff²⁵	None: automatic	15 years from the end of the year it was completed²⁵	UK regulations; take advice abroad

What the attorney costs

The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) ballpark, March 2024, plus VAT⁶.

Stage	Cost
Draft and file a priority application	£4,000 to £10,000
UK prosecution to grant	£1,000 to £3,000 more
PCT filing at month 12	about £5,000 (official fees of about £2,694 on top, below)
Advice on an examination report	about £2,000
National and regional phase at month 30 or 31	£2,000 to £6,000 per territory; USA, EPO and China about £10,000; eight territories £20,000 to £25,000, then "a similar amount again" over two years or more to reach grant
Running an international portfolio for one invention	£5,000 to £10,000 a year on average; renewals abroad £300 to £900 per country

Gov.uk: "you are unlikely to get a patent without professional help"³. The first meeting is usually free⁶.

Renewals then rise every year; selected years from 1 April 2026⁵:

UK patent renewal fee by year

Year 5£90first renewal

Year 10£230

Year 15£480

Year 20£810£6,160 over years 5 to 20

Going abroad: three routes and one deadline

Route	Covers	Official fees	The decision point
European Patent Office	30+ countries from one application¹⁴	Schedule at epo.org (an interactive table, not quoted here). Micro-entities (fewer than 10 staff, turnover or balance sheet of €2m or less, fewer than five EP applications in five years), universities and non-profits get 30% off the main fees, since April 2024²⁶. Validation translations run about £1,000 to £2,000 plus VAT per country (a law firm's figure)²⁷	File by month 12 to keep your priority date
PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty international application)	150+ countries, one filing, then a national phase country by country¹⁴	E-filed through the UK office with an EPO search: £100 transmittal + £1,242 international fee (CHF 1,330) less up to £280 e-filing reduction + £1,632 EPO search (€1,885) = about £2,694, before excess pages or attorney fees (WIPO tables, September 2026)²⁸	File by month 12. Enter national phases by month 30 (WIPO's default) or month 31 for the UK and the EPO²⁹³⁰. This is where the large costs land
Madrid System (trade marks)	The member countries you designate	£50 IPO handling + WIPO basic fee CHF 653 (black and white) or CHF 903 (colour) + CHF 100 per class beyond three + a fee per country, for example CHF 460 per class for the USA¹⁵¹⁸. A UK business, one class, USA only: CHF 1,113 plus £50	Any time after the UK application

Software and AI after Emotional Perception

Until February 2026 the IPO used the Aerotel test to refuse many software and AI claims as a program for a computer "as such". In Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller [2026] UKSC 3 (11 February 2026) the Supreme Court held that "the Aerotel approach should not be followed", aligning the UK with the EPO. The company's neural network "is a program for a computer", but because it "can only be implemented on some form of computer hardware" the claim is not excluded. The case went back to the IPO for novelty and inventive step⁹.

The IPO's practice notice of 14 July 2026: "Any claim which involves technical means (e.g. some form of computer hardware) is an 'invention'" and "just one technical feature is sufficient to confer eligibility". Only features that contribute to technical character count towards inventive step, so a claim whose differences from the prior art are non-technical now fails for lack of inventive step. Examiners should not follow the old Manual of Patent Practice paragraphs until they are rewritten¹⁰.

Before	Now	So
Refusal at the "invention" gate for software, AI and business methods	A processor in the claim clears the gate	Stop writing "it is software, so we cannot patent it"
Argument about whether a "technical contribution" exists	Argument about whether the technical features are new and not obvious	Write the disclosure around the measurable technical effect (speed, memory, accuracy, control of a machine), not the business outcome
"Business method on a computer" refused as excluded	Still refused, under inventive step	A pricing algorithm or a workflow is no more patentable than before
Machine-learned models in a grey area	"Computer programs generated by machine learning are therefore computer programs, nonetheless"¹⁰	Protect models and weights as trade secrets and copyright; patent the technical mechanism if there is one

What each funder asks

What the Innovate UK assessor sees (competition 2582)

Question 8, scored, 400 words, "Intellectual property (IP) position, freedom to operate (FTO) and defensibility": "background IP and control: what you own and control that underpins the innovation"; "foreground IP: what new protectable assets will be created in this project and how you will capture and retain them"; "FTO, licensing and IP risks: key third party IP, open source, data licensing". The brief wants "a clear route to defensibility, such as protectable IP", and will not fund projects that "do not sufficiently provide clear background IP ownership or rights" or "do not result in defensible foreground IP"¹¹.

FTO evidence "can include results of patent searches, literature surveys and competitor analyses"³¹.

Funder	What they ask or require	Who owns the results	Do this
Innovate UK, new pattern	The scored question above¹¹	You: clause 19.1 of the grant terms, "Any intellectual property rights (IPRs) developed during or as a result of the project are owned by you"; 19.2 you must hold the rights to any third-party IP the project needs; 5.7 "reasonable measures" to protect it²⁴	Answer in three labelled paragraphs (template below); budget up to £7,500 per SME partner for filing new project IP; trade marks are "marketing or exploitation costs and therefore ineligible"³²
Innovate UK, older pattern (e.g. competition 2560, closes 2 December 2026)	Approach: "the freedom you have to operate"; Outcomes: "how you will protect and exploit the outputs of the project" through "know-how, patenting, designs"³³	Same terms	State who searched, when, where and what they found
Innovate UK, after the offer	Within 30 days your project manager uploads "an exploitation plan" and "a collaboration agreement if collaborative", signed by all partners and settling background and foreground IP; "a maximum of 90 days to complete all your project set up"³⁴. The terms add: update the plan "at least once every 6 months" and exploit the results in the UK for 5 years after (clauses 17.2, 17.3)²⁴	Between partners, whatever the collaboration agreement says; Lambert examples³⁴	Draft the collaboration agreement before you apply, not after you win
UKRI research grants	"Unless otherwise agreed, all intellectual property shall belong to the party that generates them"; several organisations means a formal collaboration agreement; "reasonable efforts" to use the results; publish as normal (terms updated 1 October 2026)³⁵	The research organisation, then its IP policy: Manchester's defaults are 90/10 for software and 80/20 for everything else plus 1 to 5% of net IP revenue; Liverpool cut its default stake from 50% to 20% in April 2024, 10% or less in less IP-intensive sectors³⁶³⁷	Spin-outs: guides/research-to-company
KTP	No UKRI or KTP page opened states who owns project IP; the grant goes to the knowledge base and the associate is its employee³⁸	Set in the KTP agreement	Check the KTP agreement before you sign
EIC Accelerator	The full application requires an "FTO analysis" alongside the 20-page form, deck, financials and letters of intent³⁹	You	Commission the FTO before the full-application cut-off
Horizon Europe	Annex 5 of the grant agreement (version 1.2, June 2026): "Results are owned by the beneficiaries that generate them"; joint ownership only where contributions cannot be separated, then a written agreement with 45 days' notice before licensing; beneficiaries "must adequately protect their results" and use "best efforts to exploit" them for up to four years after the action; access rights for implementation are royalty-free, for exploitation "under fair and reasonable conditions", with no right to sub-license; background is identified in writing⁴⁰	The generating beneficiary	Sign a consortium agreement; DESCA 2.1 (February 2026) is the standard model⁴¹
Contracts for Innovation (SBRI)	A procurement, not a grant, priced with VAT; "a way to create and retain intellectual property"; the challenge owner "retains free usage rights to foreground intellectual property (IP) developed during the funded project"⁴²	You keep it; the buyer uses it free	Price the buyer's free use into the bid; see guides/innovation-procurement-and-nhs

Who owns what in a collaboration: the Lambert models

Innovate UK points collaborators to the Lambert toolkit³⁴. Pick the model that matches the deal you want and negotiate from it⁴³.

You want	Lambert model
The university owns the IP; you use it non-exclusively in a field, with no sub-licences	1 (2 if you want the right to negotiate a further licence; 3 to negotiate an assignment)
You own the IP; the university keeps non-commercial use	4 (4A: each party takes an assignment of the results it will exploit)
Contract research: you own it, and the university does not publish without your permission	5 (6: you own, the university keeps academic and research use)
A consortium	A: each owns what it creates; B: results assigned to one lead exploiter; C: each takes what is "germane to its core business"; D: each owns its own, licences limited to the project

Also: "ensure that all foreground IP belongs to the parties of the collaboration agreement and not to sub-contractors", list the background IP each party brings, and decide who sues infringers⁴⁴.

What investors check

What the investor's lawyer asks for

The UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) expects "Licensing agreements and assignments including any agreements with employees" and "Any patents, copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property-related documents". "The longer you take to supply the documents they request, the longer you will have to wait"⁴⁵⁴⁶.

The default rules are the trap. An employer owns an employee's copyright "subject to any agreement to the contrary"; a freelancer "will usually retain copyright in any works he produces"; a commissioned work stays with its creator "unless you otherwise agree it in writing"⁴⁷.

Sprint Electric v Buyer's Dream, High Court, 2018

Sprint Electric's sole programmer had worked through his own service company since 1997, for tax efficiency. When relations broke down, the service company claimed to own the source code. The court held that "the true relationship … was that of employer and employee", so Sprint Electric owned the copyright, and "no reasonable parties would have agreed that SEL would pay for the material yet be denied ownership of, or any access to, it". The company won, but only after a trial, and having already paid £400,000 in 2007 for an assignment of some modules⁴⁸.

Oxford University Innovation v Oxford Nanoimaging, Patents Court, 2022

The spin-out stopped paying royalties in February 2019, arguing its 2016 licence was void because the patents belonged to the DPhil student who did the work, not the University, and that the student IP terms were unfair. By spring 2021 "over £700,000" was outstanding. The court held "The Licence is not void" and ordered the spin-out to make an interim payment of £700,000 to the University's company⁴⁹.

Check	What they want to see	Fix before the round
Chain of title	Signed assignments from every founder (including pre-incorporation work), every employee (an IP clause in the contract) and every contractor or agency; a confirmatory assignment at the round	Get the signatures now; a contractor's silence means they still own it⁴⁷
University IP	The licence or assignment: field, territory, exclusivity, royalties, milestones, assignment triggers, sub-licensing rights; a university stake within the 10 to 25% (life sciences) or 10% or less (software) norms⁵⁰	Finish the licence before you raise; "in negotiation" is a diligence finding
Patents and designs	Filing receipts and the register entry; status live, not lapsed; renewals paid⁵	Check the register before writing "patent pending": an offence if the application was refused or withdrawn⁵¹
FTO	A search or opinion with date, databases, territories and findings; design-arounds for anything close	At minimum your own documented search; an IPO patent opinion costs £200⁵²
Open source	Every component and its licence; GPLv3 requires you to license "the entire work, as a whole" under the GPL and convey the source if you distribute it⁵³	Replace copyleft components in anything you ship, or isolate them
Trade marks	Your name cleared and filed in your main classes; no live opposition (the window is 2 months after publication)¹⁷	Search the register before you print anything
Data	Who owns the database (the maker, or the employer)²⁵; data licences from partners; data-protection records if you hold personal data (no source opened lists this; include it anyway)	Put the data licences in the room
Warranties	UK Private Capital's model subscription agreement (February 2025 edition) carries the standard IP warranties; it is behind a member login, so your lawyer reads it⁵⁴. Founder liability is "customary" to cap at a year's salary⁵⁵	Disclose every known gap in the disclosure letter rather than warrant around it

A data-room IP folder, in the order a lawyer reads it:

01 Register of IP: every patent, design, trade mark and domain, with
   number, status, territory and renewal date
02 Assignments: founders (pre-incorporation), employees (contract
   clauses), contractors and agencies
03 Licences in: university, data, software; field, territory, term,
   royalties, change-of-control clauses
04 Licences out and collaboration agreements, including Innovate UK and
   Horizon Europe terms that bind you
05 FTO: searches and opinions with dates and territories; design-arounds
06 Open-source bill of materials with licences
07 Trade secrets: what they are, who has access, the controls
08 Disputes, letters before action, oppositions

Strategy: what to file, when, and what to keep secret

The order that keeps your options open:

An IP plan in order

Searchyour own prior-art and FTO search, dated
Decidepatent, trade secret, design or trade mark for each asset
FileUK priority application before any disclosure
Assignevery founder, employee and contractor signs
Month 12foreign filings, with an attorney
Before the raiseFTO opinion and a data-room IP folder

File before you disclose

Anything public anywhere before your filing date counts against you. The UK ignores a disclosure only if, within six months before filing, it was obtained unlawfully or in breach of confidence, or made at an officially recognised international exhibition, which ordinary trade shows "are unlikely to" be⁵⁶. The IPO calls this "the most common mistake"⁵⁷; a disclosure "could be the sale of a product or just a description on a website or product brochure"⁶. Decks sent without an NDA, conference papers and crowdfunding pages count too.

File a UK application (£75 online) with a full description before the demo day. The clock then runs like this, and publication at 18 months means "you cannot patent an invention AND keep it secret"⁵⁸³⁶²⁹³⁰:

From priority filing to national phase

Day 0UK filing, £75 online: your priority date; now you can disclose
Month 6Search report normally back
Month 12Last day to file abroad (EPO, PCT) with the same date
Month 18Application published, whatever happens
Month 30PCT national phase, WIPO's default
Month 31PCT entry to the UK and the EPO

Patent or trade secret

Patent when	Trade secret when
The product reveals the invention once sold, so secrecy is impossible	The advantage is a process, a model or a dataset nobody can see from the product
You need an asset to license, sell or show an investor	Publication at 18 months would hand rivals your method
The technical contribution will survive inventive step after Emotional Perception	The edge is know-how, data or speed of iteration, which patents do not reach
You can fund the month-30 decision: £10,000 to £25,000 plus VAT for several territories⁶	You will document it and run "reasonable steps": NDAs, access controls, the security measures Innovate UK requires²³²⁴

A secret without controls is not a trade secret in law²³. Write down what it is, who may see it and how access is logged: that is diligence evidence and the "capture and retain" part of the Innovate UK answer.

Do the first search yourself

Espacenet, the EPO's free database of applications and patents worldwide, where the IPO points you⁵⁹.
Google Patents and The Lens (also "over 200 million scholarly records") to cross-check⁶⁰.
The IPO's "Search for a patent" service for UK status, owners and the Patents Journal (the old Ipsum address redirects there)⁵⁹.
Literature and competitor websites: an FTO problem can sit in a brochure as well as a claim.
Record the date, terms, databases and results. That record is your FTO evidence until you can pay for an opinion.

Manchester's PatLib centre runs "commissioned novelty and other IP searches"; every PatLib offers a free one-hour IP appointment⁶¹⁶².

When to pay an attorney

Pay for drafting (4% of unrepresented applications are granted⁶), the foreign-filing decision before month 12, the national-phase choice before month 30 or 31, and an FTO opinion before launch or a raise. Use the free routes first: CIPA's "free 45-minute online consultation with a Chartered Patent Attorney" (not for disputes or interpreting existing patents)⁶³ and the North West clinics below.

Defensive publication

To stop others patenting something you will not patent, publish it. Research Disclosure "establishes an invention as prior art preventing others from patenting the idea" and "Patent examiners are required to search Research Disclosure by PCT statute"⁶⁴; its price was not confirmed.

Enforcement: what a patent really buys

Reality	Figure
Where SMEs sue	The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC): claims capped at £500,000 unless the parties agree otherwise⁶⁵
What you can recover in costs	£60,000 on liability, £30,000 on a damages inquiry, however much you spent⁶⁶
Small claims (up to £10,000)	Copyright and trade marks yes; patents and registered designs no⁶⁵
Insurance	"£100,000 of cover can cost around £1,500 for patents", excess "typically" from £1,000; it reassures "lenders and investors"⁵²
A cheap reality check	An IPO patent opinion on validity or infringement: £200⁵²

"Patent pending" is a legal statement

Marking a product "patented" when it is not is an offence (a level 3 fine)⁶⁷. So is "patent pending" where no application was made or it "has been refused or withdrawn"⁵¹. Write "patent application GB[number] filed [date]" and keep it true.

Money for IP

Source	What you get	Conditions	Status at 18 October 2026
IP Advance (IPO)	"£2,250 (including VAT)" towards an IP audit; you pay "£750"	Trading business with fewer than 250 staff and IP essential to its growth plans; through regional partners, Innovate UK Business Growth in England; not guaranteed¹³	IPO page published 8 October 2026¹³. Business Growth: "New requests into the service, outside of the above, have been paused as part of the current planning cycle"⁶⁸. 342 SMEs were audited in 2025/26²
Innovate UK project costs	Up to £7,500 per SME partner for filing new project IP	Filing only; trade marks ineligible; cannot be moved to other cost lines; unspent money stays unspent³²	In the current costs guidance
Patent Box	10% corporation tax on profits from UK, EPO and 13 EEA-state patents	You own or exclusively license the patent and made "a significant contribution" to it; elect within 2 years of the period end; profits from up to 6 years before grant can be claimed in the year of grant⁶⁹⁷⁰	2024-25 (provisional): 1,735 companies, £2,283m, large companies 95% of relief⁸
R&D relief, merged scheme	A 20% taxable credit: about 15p net per £1 at the 25% rate, 16.2p for loss-makers at the 19% notional rate	Accounting periods from 1 April 2024; "The SME rules restricting relief where part of the project expenditure has been subsidised have been removed"⁷¹¹²	Current
Enhanced R&D intensive support (ERIS)	An extra 86% deduction and a payable credit of up to 14.5%: about £27 per £100 of R&D	Loss-making SMEs with R&D at least 30% of total expenditure; PAYE cap of £20,000 plus 300% of PAYE and NIC⁷¹⁷²	Whether the subsidy-rule removal applies identically to ERIS was not confirmed on any HMRC page opened; ask your adviser
IP-backed lending	Loans secured partly on IP	The government's December 2025 response calls it "a specialist activity" and names "NatWest's new IP growth loan"⁷³	Terms reported but not confirmed by any lender page opened

Patent Box mostly reaches large companies: in 2024-25 (provisional) 1,735 companies shared £2,283m of relief⁸.

Patent Box relief by company size, 2024-25

Large companies 95%
Other companies 5%

What the reliefs are worth (arithmetic shown)

£1,000,000 of patent profit taxed at 10% instead of 25% saves £150,000 a year, before the rules that reduce the qualifying amount⁶⁹. A loss-making SME spending £300,000 on qualifying R&D at 35% intensity could claim ERIS of about 186% × 14.5% × £300,000 ≈ £80,900⁷².

Free IP help in the North West

Business & IP Centre (BIPC) Greater Manchester, Central Library, St Peter's Square: free IP clinic with local attorneys (trade marks, designs, copyright) on the second Tuesday of the month, patent clinic on the third; book on 0161 234 1990 or patlib@manchester.gov.uk. Nine local centres, Blackpool Central among them⁷⁴⁷⁵.
BIPC Liverpool City Region, Central Library, William Brown Street: CIPA patents clinic on the first Tuesday of the month, 5pm to 7:30pm; patents guidance on the last Thursday and copyright and contract guidance on the second Thursday, both 1pm to 4pm; book via bipc@liverpool.gov.uk or 0151 233 5825. Four local centres⁷⁶⁷⁵.
BIPC Cumbria, Carlisle Library: free one-to-one business and IP appointments, referrals to IP lawyers and free database access (cumbria.bipc@cumbria.gov.uk)⁶¹.
No other Lancashire or Cheshire BIPC is listed; use Manchester, Liverpool or CIPA's online clinic⁷⁵⁶³.
Live offers tagged IP on Bearings: explore.html?q=intellectual+property.

Write the IP answer

Innovate UK's question in 400 words

Three paragraphs under the assessor's headings; every claim carries a number, a date or a name.

Background IP and control. [Company] owns [code base / design /
formulation / dataset], created by [founders / employees] under
[assignments signed on date]. Patent application GB[number], filed
[date], covers [mechanism]; status [search report received /
examination requested]. Licensed in: [university / partner] licence
dated [date], exclusive in [field, territory], [royalty]. No third
party has rights over the background.

Foreground IP and how we capture it. The project will produce
[asset 1: e.g. a control method], filed as a UK priority application by
month [n] (within the £7,500 project allowance) before any disclosure;
[asset 2: model weights / process parameters] held as trade secrets
under [access controls, NDAs, named measures]; [asset 3: brand]
trade-marked at our own cost. The collaboration agreement (Lambert
model [x]) assigns project results in [field] to [company]; [partner]
keeps [non-commercial use].

FTO, licensing and IP risks. A search of Espacenet, Google Patents and
the IPO register on [date] by [who] for [terms, classifications] found
[n] relevant families; [GB/EP number] is the closest and our approach
differs because [feature]. An attorney FTO opinion is scheduled for
month [n]. Open source: [components] under [MIT / Apache]; no copyleft
in shipped code. Data: [dataset] licensed from [source] on [terms],
usable for commercial training. Residual risk: [the one you cannot
remove], mitigated by [design-around / budget / insurance].

A deck's IP slide

Title: What we own, in one line
Left:  Registered: GB[number] filed [date], [status]; trade mark
       [classes]; design [number]. Secret: [what], controlled how.
Right: FTO: searched [date], [territories], [result]; opinion [date].
       Chain of title: all founders, staff and contractors assigned.
Foot:  University licence [exclusive, field, royalty]. Next filing
       [what, when]. Patent Box eligible from grant.

Weak (hypothetical)

Our platform is protected by patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms. No competitor can copy our approach. We will protect all project outputs as appropriate.

Strong (hypothetical)

Background: we own the firmware and calibration method (founder assignments 4 March 2025; engineers' contracts carry IP clauses). GB[number], filed 9 January 2026, claims the drift-compensation method; the June 2026 search report cites two documents, neither anticipating claim 1. Foreground: the adaptive sampling control will be filed in month 8, before the month 9 field trial; the trained model stays a trade secret (three named staff, logged repository). FTO: our Espacenet and Google Patents search on 12 September 2026 (G01N, 41 families) found EP[number] closest; it needs a reference cell we do not use. Attorney opinion (£3,000) in month 3. Open source: FreeRTOS (MIT); no GPL shipped.

How funded projects actually phrase it

Public abstracts on UKRI's Gateway to Research

Funded projects state the position plainly. Limosaero Ltd: "Limosaero will engage IP specialists to conduct an IP audit and assess freedom to operate." RE Hydrogen Ltd: "RE Hydrogen has filed 7 international patents on this technology." FitnessGenes Ltd: "complete a freedom to operate analysis, search patent literature for issued or pending patents." No scores are published; the text gives counts and a named FTO step, which is what the question asks for⁷⁷.

The Malted Waffle Company, Tamworth, 2018

An IPO-funded IP audit found that a component of the company's new waffle machine "could be exploited in other industries"; the managing director said "we will be seeking patent protection for this". No figures were published. The audit found an asset the company had not counted⁷⁸.

Pitfalls

Disclosing first. A talk, web page or sale before filing destroys novelty⁵⁶⁵⁷.
"Patented" when it is pending, or "pending" when it lapsed. Both are offences⁶⁷⁵¹, and investors check the register.
IP in a founder's or student's name. Assign it to the company in writing, or the licence you rely on can be challenged⁴⁹.
Contractor code. The contractor owns what you paid for unless the contract says otherwise⁴⁷; Sprint Electric needed a trial to establish it owned its own source code⁴⁸.
No FTO. Innovate UK scores it and the EIC requires it; a filing receipt with no search is not defensibility¹¹³⁹.
Assuming the UK covers abroad. Foreign filings must claim priority within 12 months⁶⁵⁸.
Paying for patents before product-market fit. Eight territories at month 30 cost £20,000 to £25,000 plus VAT⁶; pick the two or three you can sell in.
Forgetting the cheap rights. A design costs £60 with a decision in two weeks²⁰; a trade mark £205, not chargeable to an Innovate UK grant¹⁵³².
Lapsed renewals and scam invoices. Renewals rise from £90 to £810 with a £32 monthly late fee⁵; the IPO warns of "unsolicited invitations/misleading invoices" you need not pay⁵⁷.

Checklist

Every founder, employee and contractor has assigned IP to the company, including pre-incorporation and university work
Nothing about the invention published, sold or pitched without an NDA before the priority filing
UK priority application filed; 12-month and 30/31-month dates in the calendar
Trade secrets written down, with access controls and the NPSA and NCSC core measures
Your own prior-art and FTO search recorded: date, databases, terms, findings
Attorney FTO opinion scheduled before launch or the raise
Open-source bill of materials checked for copyleft in shipped code
Trade mark cleared on the register and filed in your main classes
Innovate UK IP answer drafted in three labelled paragraphs
Collaboration agreement drafted before applying; it and the exploitation plan are due within 30 days of the offer
£7,500 filing allowance in the project budget if a filing is planned
IP Advance audit requested if eligible; Patent Box election diarised for the year of grant
Data-room IP folder built in the eight-part order above
"Patent pending" wording checked against the register

Questions

Do I need a patent to get an Innovate UK grant?

No. Innovate UK asks how you will protect and exploit the outputs, through "know-how, patenting, designs" or other means. Where the IP question is scored it wants clear ownership of background IP, a plan to capture defensible foreground IP, and an honest FTO position. A documented trade secret with controls can answer that; "we will patent as appropriate" does not.

How much does a UK patent cost in 2026?

From 1 April 2026, IPO fees are at least £405 to grant (£75 application, £200 search, £130 examination), then renewals from £90 in year 5 to £810 in year 20. An attorney typically charges £4,000 to £10,000 plus VAT to draft and file and £1,000 to £3,000 more to reach a UK grant (CIPA, March 2024).

Can I patent software or AI in the UK now?

More easily than before February 2026. After the Supreme Court's Emotional Perception decision and the IPO's July 2026 practice notice, a claim involving any computer hardware is an "invention". Only technical features count towards inventive step, so business logic on a computer still fails.

Does a UK patent protect me in the EU or the US?

No. A UK patent covers the UK only. You have 12 months from filing to file abroad with the same priority date: through the EPO, a PCT application or national filings.

What IP documents do investors ask for?

Assignments from founders, employees and contractors; patents, trade marks and designs with their status; licences in and out, including any university licence; an FTO search or opinion; an open-source list; and the collaboration and grant terms that bind you.

Is there funding for IP in the UK?

Yes. IP Advance pays £2,250 (including VAT) towards an IP audit; you pay £750. In England it runs through Innovate UK Business Growth, paused to new requests at 18 October 2026. Innovate UK grants allow up to £7,500 per SME partner for filing new project IP (not trade marks). Patent Box taxes patent profits at 10%, and the merged R&D scheme no longer reduces relief on grant-funded projects.

Should I patent or keep it secret?

Patent what the product reveals when sold, or what you must license or show investors, if it is technical enough to survive examination. Keep secret what nobody can see from the product (process parameters, model weights, data) and document the controls so it counts as a trade secret in law.

Sources

Intellectual Property Office, "New fees from 1 April 2026 for designs, trade marks and patents". https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/intellectual-property-office-new-fees-from-1-april-2026/new-fees-from-1-april-2026-for-designs-trade-marks-and-patents ↩↩
Intellectual Property Office, "The Patent Office Annual Report and Accounts 2025 to 2026". https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-patent-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2025-to-2026/the-patent-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2025-to-2026 ↩↩↩
GOV.UK, "Patent your invention" (fees from 1 April 2026). https://www.gov.uk/patent-your-invention ↩↩↩↩↩
Intellectual Property Office, patents list of current and new fees (CSV). https://www.gov.uk/csv-preview/698b663346be5092a1cfd89c/Patents_list_of_current_and_new_fees___4_.csv ↩
GOV.UK, "Renew a patent". https://www.gov.uk/renew-patent ↩↩↩↩
Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, "SME Patent Pack", March 2024 (PDF). https://www.cipa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-03-CIPA-SME-Patent-Pack.pdf ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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HMRC, "Patent Box relief statistics: September 2026", published 24 September 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/patent-box-reliefs-statistics/patent-box-relief-statistics-september-2026 ↩↩
Supreme Court, Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents [2026] UKSC 3, 11 February 2026 (paragraphs 20, 96, 98, 99). https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/uksc/2026/3 ↩↩
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Innovation Funding Service, competition 2582, "Efficient, Structured and Controllable AI Systems", question 8 and scope, closes 18 November 2026. https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/2582/overview/9fdb47a5-011c-4c47-ac5e-c426e295fe89 ↩↩↩↩
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GOV.UK, "IP Advance grant funding", published 8 October 2026. https://www.gov.uk/business-finance-support/ip-advance-grant-funding ↩↩↩
GOV.UK, "Protecting your patent abroad", updated 4 June 2026. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/protecting-your-patent-abroad ↩↩↩
Intellectual Property Office, "Trade mark forms and fees" (from 1 April 2026). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trade-mark-forms-and-fees/trade-mark-forms-and-fees ↩↩↩↩
GOV.UK, "How to register a trade mark". https://www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark ↩
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Intellectual Property Office, "Design forms and fees" (from 1 April 2026). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/design-forms-and-fees/design-forms-and-fees ↩
GOV.UK, "Register a design: apply". https://www.gov.uk/register-a-design/apply ↩↩
GOV.UK, "Unregistered designs". https://www.gov.uk/unregistered-designs ↩
GOV.UK, "Copyright" and "How long copyright lasts". https://www.gov.uk/copyright ↩↩
Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018, regulation 2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/597/regulation/2/made ↩↩↩
UKRI, "Terms and conditions of an Innovate UK grant award", October 2025 edition (clauses 4.3, 5.7, 17.1 to 17.3, 19.1 to 19.3). https://www.ukri.org/publications/terms-and-conditions-of-an-innovate-uk-grant-award/ ↩↩↩↩
Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997, Part III (regulations 13 to 17). https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/3032/part/III/made ↩↩↩
European Patent Office, "Fee reductions and compensation" (micro-entity scheme from April 2024). https://www.epo.org/en/applying/fees/fee-reductions-and-compensation ↩
Albright IP (patent attorneys), "Patent costs" (a law firm's figures, not official). https://www.albright-ip.co.uk/patents/costs/ ↩
WIPO, PCT Fee Tables 2026 (amounts at 1 September 2026; PDF). https://www.wipo.int/documents/d/pct-system/docs-en-fees.pdf ↩
WIPO, "PCT FAQs" (fees at 1 July 2026; 30-month national phase). https://www.wipo.int/pct/en/faqs/faqs.html ↩↩
GOV.UK, "Request UK processing of an international patent application" (31 months). https://www.gov.uk/request-uk-processing-of-international-patent-application ↩↩
Innovate UK Business Connect, "Good Application Guide", 2024 (PDF). https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Business-Connect-Good-Application-Guide_2024.pdf ↩
UKRI, "Costs guidance for non-academic organisations", section 7 Other costs, updated 28 August 2026. https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/guidance-for-applicants/costs-we-fund/costs-guidance-for-non-academic-organisations/ ↩↩↩
Innovation Funding Service, competition 2560, "Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation: CR&D Round 2", questions 9 and 12, closes 2 December 2026. https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/2560/overview/45acacd5-746b-46ee-8051-d764f929cca3 ↩
UKRI, "What happens if you receive a funding offer", last updated 8 September 2026 (read 18 October 2026: "Within 30 days" lists both the exploitation plan and, if collaborative, the signed collaboration agreement). https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/guidance-for-applicants/general-guidance/what-happens-if-you-receive-a-funding-offer/ ↩↩↩
UKRI, "Terms and conditions of fEC grants", RGC 12.1 to 12.4, terms updated 1 October 2026. https://www.ukri.org/publications/terms-and-conditions-for-research-grants/ukri-terms-and-conditions-of-fec-grants ↩
University of Manchester, Intellectual Property Policy, effective 1 April 2025 (DocID 24420, PDF). https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=24420 ↩
University of Liverpool, Enterprise: best-practice adoption statement (equity share from 50% to 20%, effective 11 April 2024). https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/collaborate/enterprise/adoption-statement/ ↩
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European Innovation Council, "EIC Accelerator" (Step 2 full application requirements; 2026 cut-offs). https://eic.ec.europa.eu/eic-funding-opportunities/eic-accelerator_en ↩↩
European Commission, Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement, version 1.2, 1 June 2026, Article 16 and Annex 5 (PDF). https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/agr-contr/general-mga_horizon-euratom_en.pdf ↩
DESCA, Horizon Europe model consortium agreement, version 2.1, February 2026. https://www.desca-agreement.eu/ ↩
UKRI, "Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) / Contracts for Innovation". https://www.ukri.org/what-we-offer/browse-our-areas-of-investment-and-support/small-business-research-initiative-sbri/ ↩
GOV.UK, "University and business collaboration agreements: Lambert toolkit", page last updated 5 January 2022. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/university-and-business-collaboration-agreements-lambert-toolkit ↩
Innovate UK Business Connect, "Who owns IP? Safeguarding IP in business partnerships", 2016. https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/perspectives/who-owns-ip-safeguarding-ip-business-partnerships/ ↩
UK Business Angels Association, "The due diligence process", 2020 (PDF). https://ukbaa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The-due-diligence-process.pdf ↩
UK Business Angels Association, "The main legal documents", 2020 (PDF). https://ukbaa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The-main-legal-documents.pdf ↩
Intellectual Property Office, "Ownership of copyright works". https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ownership-of-copyright-works ↩↩↩
High Court (Chancery Division), Sprint Electric Ltd v Buyer's Dream Ltd [2018] EWHC 1924 (Ch), paragraphs 31, 186, 189, 191 to 202, 413. https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2018/1924 ↩↩
High Court (Patents Court), Oxford University Innovation Ltd v Oxford Nanoimaging Ltd [2022] EWHC 3200 (Pat), paragraphs 1, 37, 622, 640 to 644. https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/pat/2022/3200 ↩↩
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Intellectual Property Office, "Intellectual property insurance", updated 1 October 2026 (insurance costs; Patent Opinions at £200). https://www.gov.uk/guidance/intellectual-property-insurance ↩↩↩
GNU General Public License version 3, sections 5(c) and 6 (Open Source Initiative text). https://opensource.org/license/gpl-3-0 ↩
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Written for businesses, founders and researchers in the North West of England and checked against the sources listed above on 18 October 2026. Funders change their rules, so always read the current call before you apply. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.

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