The portfolio you built for the company you used to be
Most deep tech companies start with one market and find a bigger one later. The business pivots. The patent portfolio doesn't follow. Years later you are still paying maintenance fees on families that protect products you no longer sell, while the inventions behind your new products sit unfiled.
The context needed to fix this is scattered. Engineering holds the technical detail. Management holds the business plan. Your patents sit with an attorney, often in a separate inbox. Pulling it together is the work. This session shows how to do it in weeks rather than quarters.
In this session, Ola Wassvik, Lightbringer's co-founder and CCO, and Jonas Åström, founder and CEO of Freya Industries and investor at Longswan Ventures, take one scenario from both sides of the table: a deep tech company that moved, and a portfolio that stayed behind. Ola covers the IP. Jonas covers the company.
What you'll walk away with
- How to run a patent portfolio review against a new business direction. Every family mapped to a current or planned product, scored on business relevance rather than technical elegance.
- Which patent families to drop, let lapse, or keep, and how to decide. The triage, with a worked example shown in Lightbringer.
- How to free patent budget and redirect it to the inventions that now matter. Maintenance fees you stop paying become filings you can afford.
- What a pivot does to a deep tech company's capital plan and investor narrative. From the founder and investor seat.
- What a board or lead investor expects to see on IP after a change of direction. And what quietly becomes a red flag in due diligence.
- How AI agents and expert patent attorneys split the work in a portfolio triage. Where the agent does the reading and where attorney judgment makes the call.
Who this is for
- Founders and CTOs of deep tech companies past their first filing, with a portfolio that no longer matches the business
- Teams raising in the next 12 months who need an IP story that holds up in due diligence
- Nordic deep tech founders heading to Slush with investors to meet and a portfolio to explain
You don't need a large portfolio. You do need one that was built for a company you are no longer running.
When and where
Date: 25 November 2026, 12-1PM
Format: Live webinar, 45 minutes plus live Q&A
Where: Online
Cost: Free
FAQ
When should a startup abandon a patent?
When the patent no longer protects a product you sell or plan to sell, has no licensing or defensive value, and its maintenance fees would fund an invention that matters more. A pivot is the most common trigger. Review each family against the new direction before the next renewal date.
How do you do a patent portfolio review after a pivot?
List every family, map each to a current or planned product, and score it on business relevance rather than technical elegance. Families with no match go on a drop or lapse list. Freed budget moves to new filings. An expert patent attorney reviews the final call.
What do investors ask about patents after a pivot?
Whether the portfolio protects the business they are being asked to fund, who owns it, what it costs to maintain, and whether the new products are filed or exposed. A portfolio that still points at the old market is a red flag in due diligence.
Does this webinar include a live demo?
The session shows a worked portfolio triage in Lightbringer as finished output, not a live tool run. The focus is the decisions, not the software.
Is the webinar free?
Yes. Register with your work email and we'll send the link and the recording.
Will there be a recording?
Yes. Everyone who registers receives it within 48 hours of the session.
Is this part of Patents for Entrepreneurs?
No. This is session three of Built to Scale, for founders actively scaling, fundraising, or entering new markets. Patents for Entrepreneurs covers the fundamentals.
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD CONTACT A PATENT ATTORNEY IF YOU NEED A FORMAL ASSESSMENT.
About the host
Ola Wassvik
Ola leads Lightbringer’s go-to-market team, bringing 20+ years in the tech industry and a strong background in engineering and innovation. A prolific inventor and former CTO of Flatfrog, he has built extensive patent portfolios and brings deep insight into protecting technology for tech-driven companies.
Read more →Guest speaker
Jonas Åström
Deep tech founder and Investor
Jonas is an engineer, entrepreneur, and investor focused on building and scaling hardtech companies in resilience, security, and defence. His background spans technology, strategy consulting, product management, marketing and monetisation, and electrical and embedded engineering, both hardware and software.
Read more →.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.webp)