How relevant is intellectual property for your MedTech company?

Collaboration is no longer optional in MedTech – it’s crucial for the successful adoption and spread of your innovation. However, partnerships work best if your intellectual property (IP) is managed strategically, your data is treated as a core asset, and your regulatory and NHS procurement pathways are watertight. Recent updates from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England offer pragmatic guidance to help innovators and NHS organisations move faster – without compromising patient safety or public value. Athina Lockyer, Innovation Manager at Health Innovation KSS, breaks down the guidance and shares insights for MedTech innovators…

The NHS is a multi‑layered marketplace with local and national routes to product adoption. Concurrent shifts in policies, digital, data and AI usage, and competing system pressures have created a window for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and scale‑ups to collaborate, protect IP, and accelerate adoption across health and social care.

Policy is evolving to support innovators continuing to develop their ideas into the next impactful product for the benefits of the health and social care system. The DHSC’s updated NHS IP guidance (2025) replaces the 2002 framework and provides practical steps, case studies, and templates to speed agreements and reduce stalled collaborations and contracts. It emphasises market‑appropriate ownership (licensing or assignment), fair market value, transparency, and governance structures – including an IP Senior Responsible Officer and published local policies.

Upon the release of the guidance in November, in a press release, Health Innovation and Safety Minister, Dr Zubir Ahmed MP, said:

“For too long, innovators have faced unnecessary barriers when trying to bring life-changing ideas to patients through the NHS. This updated guidance removes the red tape and provides the clarity needed to accelerate innovation across our health service.

 

By getting the fundamentals right, we can drive transformation, commercialise ideas both domestically and internationally, and strengthen the UK’s position as a global leader in health and life sciences research and innovation.

 

Most importantly, it will ensure that the benefits of innovation – from improved patient care and more efficient services to fair commercial returns – flow directly back to patients, staff and the NHS, strengthening its role.”

What is IP?

IP refers to something you create with your mind, such as written works, inventions, or products you design or create. Organisations providing or commissioning NHS services and their staff generate, use, and manage IP daily through research, innovation, and service delivery. Examples include:

• NHS staff expertise and know-how
• Training materials
• Innovations developed with NHS resources
• NHS-generated data, databases, and methodologies

IP can be owned, assigned, licensed, or shared under various arrangements to support income generation and onwards transference or sale.

Why is IP important for MedTech startups?

Startups are gifted with the ability to remain agile and learn quickly. Entering partnerships with IP clarity from day one, i.e. who owns what, when assignment vs. licensing makes sense, and what a “fair return” looks like supports your conversations and helps ensure everyone is in agreement at an early stage. The updated DHSC IP guidance reframes NHS‑generated IP as a strategic asset and encourages proportionate, transparent arrangements that allow the best‑placed party to commercialise while ensuring fair public benefit (e.g., royalties, revenue share, open licensing where appropriate). Securing meaningful outcomes requires multi‑party collaboration with providers, commissioners, and technology partners. Using the models and templates which have been published alongside the guidance allows negotiations to be enhanced. Further resources and information can be accessed via the DHSC webinar series.

IP also enables the timely pursuit of regulatory compliance, supporting your product development roadmap and growth. MedTech products engaging with the health and social care system need to navigate Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) classification, meet DTAC (Digital Technology Assessment Criteria) and conformity requirements (UKCA/CE). Importantly, CE‑marked devices are still accepted in the UK under transitional arrangements, while the government and MHRA work together to explore long term solutions to reduce regulatory duplication and accelerate market access.  Ensuring IP protection is in place gives you the security to pursue the necessary regulatory approvals and accommodate the time required for these processes.

Professor Ben Bridgewater, Executive Chair of the Health Innovation Network, added:

“The refreshed intellectual property guidance is a welcome step towards unlocking the full potential of innovation, particularly digital innovation, in the NHS.

 

Innovation is central to delivering on the ambitions set out in the 10 Year Health Plan and Life Sciences Sector Plan, but to meet the needs of patients, health systems and the requirement of economic growth, we must better enable the implementation and spread of innovation.

 

This new guidance aims to support this by removing some of the complexity and barriers, particularly around ownership and commercialisation. We look forward to working with partners to help ensure the new guidance translates into progress on the ground.”

What can you do to take action now?

MedTech innovators who collaborate confidently, protect their IP, and use their data to prove the value of their products will be best placed to scale within the NHS. Utilisation of the DHSC guidance supports clearer IP management and by staying close to maturing digital evidence standards, technologies that deliver measurable improvements for patients, staff and the wider system are primed for adoption into the NHS.

For further IP guidance, you can access the DHSC guidance here, and complete an Innovator Engagement Form to work with the Innovation and Enterprise team at Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex.

Sign up for an upcoming webinar on the Importance of IP and Commercialisation on 22 January here.