Research & innovation

Research and innovation are the main driving forces behind economic growth and progress in the information society. Sometimes they are the result of a single innovator’s hard work. Increasingly however, innovation is driven by the collective efforts of international groups, consortia, networks of excellence, and research labs, who build on each other’s findings and work together to achieve new breakthroughs.

Timelex is at the crest of innovative research projects, and has provided assistance on topics such as blockchain, electronic payments, big data analytics, digital health, Internet of Things, smart cities, robotics, AI and deep learning, to name but a few. In each instance, for these projects to realise their full potential, legal challenges needed to be addressed as well. Timelex, with its mix of legal knowledge and insight into current day technological innovations, was able to address these in a pragmatic way.

ENABLING INNOVATION BY UNTYING LEGAL KNOTS

Innovation does not come easily, and beyond the practical and technical challenges, there are also legal knots to be untied. Timelex has extensive experience in providing legal assistance to innovators, ranging from SMEs to multinationals, international consortia and academic institutions, allowing them to focus on getting the work done.

Issues which are commonly addressed include:

• Data ownership, including access and usage rights restrictions
• Personal data protection (GDPR)
• Allocation of intellectual property rights (including carve-outs of prior background knowledge)
• Licensing rights and sustainability planning
• Joint ventures, consortia agreements and subcontracting
• Protection of confidentiality and know-how
• Liability and liability limitations
• Technology transfers and exploitation of new developments
• Software development
• Crowdsourced development, and the resulting ownership / licensing challenges

Due to its strong background in policy and legislation, Timelex is also familiar with more niche topics, such as open data and public sector information (PSI), which strongly affect available reuse rights and restrictions. Similarly, Timelex has a long history in providing legal support to open source software development initiatives, and is familiar with all principal license models such as GPL, AGPL, LGPL, EUPL, Apache, BSD and MIT.

HORIZON EUROPE AND EU INNOVATION PROJECTS

Further strengthening its awareness of the legal challenges behind research and innovation in the EU, Timelex is involved in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research and innovation actions, large scale pilots and similar research initiatives in Europe since its establishment. It regularly acts as a legal WP or task leader and ensures that the research and/or innovation project complies with all relevant legal provisions, for example in the field of privacy and personal data protection.

Additionally, Timelex team is familiar with all key phases and challenges in such projects, including:

• Bid preparation and tendering
• Conclusion of consortia agreements, subcontracts, and grant agreements
• Legal aspects of sustainability planning, including exploitation plans
• Ethics compliance and ethical assessment
• Risk and societal impact assessments