For entrepreneurs building an innovative business in the UK, securing an Innovator Founder Visa is only the beginning of the journey.

For many founders, the longer-term goal is Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). The Innovator Founder route can provide a route to settlement after three years, provided the relevant requirements are met.

Research and development (R&D) and intellectual property (IP) can potentially play an important role in reaching that point.

One of the business success criteria for Innovator Founder settlement specifically relates to businesses that have undertaken significant R&D and applied for intellectual property protection in the UK.

However, intellectual property should not simply be viewed as something to address immediately before an ILR application. For an innovative business, identifying, documenting and protecting IP can form part of its wider commercial strategy from an early stage.

In this guide, we look at the relationship between Innovator Founder Visa ILR, intellectual property, patents and R&D, and explain why founders considering this route may benefit from thinking about their IP strategy sooner rather than later.

If you’re already developing an innovative business in the UK, Panoramix IP provides dedicated Innovator Founder Visa IP support, from IP audits and patentability advice through to patent applications and R&D reports.

What Are the Innovator Founder Visa ILR Requirements?

The Innovator Founder route provides eligible applicants with a potential route to settlement after spending at least three years in the UK with permission as an Innovator Founder.

For settlement, an applicant requires a new endorsement. Among the requirements, the endorsing body must confirm that the applicant has made significant achievements against the business plan considered during their previous endorsement, that the business is active and trading and appears sustainable, and that the applicant has played an active key role in its day-to-day management and development.

The business venture must also have met at least two of seven specified success criteria. These cover areas including investment, customer growth, R&D and intellectual property, revenue, exports and job creation. The same criterion cannot simply be relied upon twice.

Panoramix IP is an intellectual property firm rather than an immigration adviser. Our role is to help Innovator Founders understand, identify and protect the intellectual property generated through their businesses and R&D. You can find out more about our dedicated Innovator Founder Visa IP services.

What Is the R&D and Intellectual Property Criterion for Innovator Founder ILR?

One of the specified settlement criteria is that the business has “engaged in significant research and development activity and has applied for intellectual property protection in the UK.”

For founders developing new technology, products or processes, this creates a potentially important relationship between the R&D being carried out within the business and the resulting intellectual property.

The key is not to view the two things in isolation.

An effective IP strategy should consider what the business has actually created, what is capable of protection and how that protection supports the wider commercial objectives of the business.

If you’re unsure what IP already exists within your company, an IP audit can be a useful starting point.

Do You Need a Patent for Innovator Founder Visa ILR?

No. There is no requirement stating that every Innovator Founder applying for settlement must hold or have applied for a patent.

The R&D and intellectual property provision is one of seven business success criteria, and the business must satisfy at least two of the specified criteria overall.

However, patents can be particularly relevant where a business is undertaking technical R&D that results in a new invention.

An innovator conducting research and innovation in electronics

A patent can protect new technical inventions, subject to the relevant requirements being satisfied. For technology-led Innovator Founder businesses, this can therefore be an important area to consider as the company’s products, processes or technology develop.

Our patent protection services can help you assess what aspects of your innovation may be patentable and develop an appropriate protection strategy.

What Counts as Intellectual Property Protection?

Intellectual property is not limited to patents.

Depending on what your business has created, its IP portfolio could potentially include:

Different IP rights protect different aspects of a business.

For example, a trade mark may protect the name or branding associated with a new product, while a patent may potentially protect the underlying technical invention. Copyright could protect original software code and creative works, while confidentiality and trade secrets may be important for valuable information that is not publicly disclosed.

This is why the starting point should not simply be “What IP can I file for?”

A better question is:

What valuable intellectual property has my business created, and what is the most appropriate way to protect it?

Panoramix IP’s IP audit service can help identify the intellectual property already present within a business and highlight potential gaps or opportunities for further protection.

Why Should Innovator Founders Think About Patent Protection Early?

If your research and development has resulted in a potentially patentable invention, timing can be extremely important.

For an invention to be patentable, it must satisfy certain requirements, including novelty and inventive step. Public disclosure before an appropriate patent application is filed can therefore affect the availability of patent protection.

An innovator founder visa consultation

For founders, this means patent protection is best considered before publicly revealing important technical details of an invention.

That could be before:

  • Launching a new product
  • Publishing detailed information on a website
  • Presenting the technology publicly
  • Exhibiting a prototype
  • Discussing the invention with third parties without appropriate confidentiality arrangements
  • Publishing research relating to the invention

Seeking advice earlier also gives you time to understand the existing patent landscape and assess whether the invention is likely to meet the requirements for protection.

Where appropriate, Panoramix IP can help with patent protection and the preparation and filing of a patent application.

What Is a Patentability Assessment?

Before committing to a patent application, it can be helpful to investigate whether similar technology already exists.

A patentability assessment can consider relevant prior art and help determine whether an invention appears to have the novelty and inventive step required for patent protection.

For an Innovator Founder, this can serve a wider commercial purpose too.

Understanding the existing patent landscape can help you identify how your technology differs from what already exists, refine your innovation strategy and make more informed decisions about where patent protection may offer genuine commercial value.

Panoramix IP provides strategic patentability advice for Innovator Founder Visa holders, including patent searching, patent drafting and prosecution, as well as pre-endorsement patentability reports where required by an endorsing body.

How Should Innovator Founders Document R&D?

If R&D forms an important part of the development of your business, maintaining clear records can help build a coherent picture of how the innovation has evolved.

Depending on the nature of your business, useful records might include:

  • The problem or technical challenge you initially identified
  • Research undertaken during development
  • Technical development milestones
  • Prototype development
  • Experiments and testing
  • Results and findings
  • Problems encountered and how they were overcome
  • Changes made during development
  • The people involved in the R&D
  • New technical developments arising from the work
  • Decisions surrounding IP and patent protection
  • The relationship between the R&D and subsequent IP applications

This should not be treated as a prescribed Home Office checklist. The appropriate evidence will depend on the individual business and its circumstances.

Rather, good documentation can help create a clear record of what research and development actually took place, what resulted from it and how that relates to the intellectual property generated by the business.

Panoramix IP can also provide R&D reports for Innovator Founders where appropriate.

Your Innovator Founder IP Journey

There is no single IP journey that will apply to every Innovator Founder. However, for an R&D-led business, the process might look something like:

Business Idea → IP Audit → R&D → Patentability Assessment → IP Protection → Continued Development → Evidence & Documentation → ILR

A graphic that depicts the innovator founder journey

The important point is that intellectual property is considered throughout the development of the business, rather than being treated as an administrative task shortly before settlement.

An initial IP audit can help establish what IP the business already has, while subsequent patentability work can assess whether particular technical developments warrant patent protection.

What If Your Innovation Isn’t Patentable?

Not every innovation is patentable, and not every valuable piece of intellectual property should be protected with a patent.

Your business may have other valuable IP assets that require different forms of protection.

Software is a good example. Software may potentially involve copyright, confidential information, trade secrets and trade marks. In certain circumstances, software-related inventions can also be patentable where the relevant requirements are satisfied. Our guide to software IP protection explains some of the different rights that may apply to software and apps.

The important thing is to identify what has actually been created before deciding how it should be protected.

What If You Haven’t Applied for IP Protection Yet?

If you already hold an Innovator Founder Visa but have not yet applied for IP protection, it may be worth reviewing what the business has created so far.

As an innovative company develops, valuable IP can arise in many different places.

For example, you might have developed:

  • A new product
  • A new technical process
  • New software
  • An algorithm
  • A prototype
  • A technical improvement
  • A new product design
  • Confidential know-how
  • A new brand
  • New research outputs

Some of those assets may be capable of formal registration, while others may require a different approach.

An IP audit can help identify what IP exists within the business and whether there are important gaps in your current protection.

If potentially patentable technology is identified, our patent team can then advise on the appropriate next steps.

Can You Apply for IP Protection Shortly Before Your ILR Application?

This is something that should be approached carefully.

The Immigration Rules refer specifically to a business having engaged in significant R&D activity and applied for intellectual property protection in the UK.

There can also be practical problems with leaving IP protection until late in the development of the business.

For example, a potentially patentable invention may already have been publicly disclosed. Important records documenting the R&D process may be harder to assemble retrospectively. Or the IP being considered may not actually be the most appropriate protection for what the business has created.

Thinking about IP earlier gives you more time to identify genuine intellectual property, assess its commercial importance and put suitable protection in place.

If you’re already approaching settlement and are unsure about your current position, speak to our Innovator Founder Visa IP team.

What If There Is More Than One Innovator Founder in the Business?

This is particularly important for co-founders.

The current Immigration Rules state that where a business has other team members who are applying for, or have already been granted, settlement as Innovator Founders, they cannot share the same means of meeting the settlement criteria.

That makes forward planning particularly important for businesses involving more than one Innovator Founder.

Your R&D, intellectual property and wider settlement strategy should be considered in the context of each founder’s individual circumstances rather than assuming that the same business achievement can automatically be relied upon by everyone.

Where there are multiple Innovator Founders within the same business, Panoramix IP can advise on the company’s intellectual property position and help identify and protect the different innovations being developed.

How Panoramix IP Supports Innovator Founders

Panoramix IP works with Innovator Founders to identify, protect and manage the intellectual property generated through their businesses.

We currently provide Innovator Founder clients with support including patentability advice, patent searches, patent drafting and prosecution, fixed-price patent application work for ILR purposes, pre-endorsement patentability reports and R&D reports. Where a founder already has endorsement, Panoramix can also work with their account manager to help manage relevant deadlines.

Depending on your business and stage of development, we can help with:

Our objective is not simply to file an IP application. We help founders build an IP strategy around what their business has genuinely created and where it is heading commercially.

Get Advice on Intellectual Property for Innovator Founder ILR

Intellectual property can be an important part of the Innovator Founder journey, particularly for businesses built around genuine technical innovation and R&D.

Planning ahead can help you identify valuable innovations, establish what protection is appropriate and build a clearer record of how your technology and intellectual property have developed alongside the business.

If you’re already on an Innovator Founder Visa and working towards ILR – or you’re at an earlier stage and want to get your IP strategy right from the outset – our specialist team can help.

Find out more about our Innovator Founder Visa IP services or contact Panoramix IP to discuss your business, R&D and intellectual property.