Marco Coolen brings intellectual property out of the ivory tower

Anyone who thinks patents and intellectual property (IP) belong only in dusty legal files has clearly not yet read Marco Coolen’s Sunday contributions to IO+. Today, he publishes his hundredth column in the series The world of patents. A perfect opportunity to question the columnist himself: what drives a patent attorney to write for a general audience every week?

For almost two years, Coolen has been guiding IO+ readers through the maze of patents, trademarks, licences and claims. Not with bone-dry jargon, but through everyday objects, current tech disputes and viral internet memes.

Keeping knowledge here

Being a patent attorney is a demanding profession. So why voluntarily impose the discipline of publishing articles and LinkedIn posts every week? For Coolen, it stems from a strong sense of social responsibility.

“It is simply good for the Dutch economy if entrepreneurs and inventors better understand how IP works,” Coolen explains. “It means they are less likely to run into problems. But more importantly, it allows us to protect and retain the innovations we develop here. If we fail to do that, our knowledge will immediately disappear across the border. My social life, my family and my children are here. I have a personal interest in ensuring that the Netherlands remains a prosperous and innovative society in the future. Look at all the tensions surrounding ASML technology leaking abroad; that illustrates exactly how crucial it is to maintain control over your IP.”

Open innovation does not rule out protection

In high-tech and startup circles, the mantra of “open innovation” is often heard: sharing is the new multiplying, and intellectual property supposedly only gets in the way of collaboration. Coolen considers that a persistent misconception.

“The two are absolutely not mutually exclusive,” he stresses. “Open innovation means collaborating and being able to stand on each other’s shoulders. But that does not prevent you from making agreements about the intellectual property created jointly within such a community. Five parties can build an innovation platform, develop IP together and present a united front against outside parties that want to run off with your invention. In fact, IP allows you to steer the direction in which open innovation develops much more precisely.”

According to Coolen, this is even more important during the early stages of product development: “If you are there at the birth of a fundamental technology, you want to protect that foundation. By doing so, you not only determine your economic position but also retain an ethical steering wheel. If an invention could be used in a harmful way in society, your patent position gives you the power to impose conditions or prevent that use.”

From struggle to daily routine

Although writing now appears to come naturally to him, Coolen says he was anything but a writer by nature. “At first, I resisted it enormously. People kept saying, ‘You need to create a heartbeat on social media—start writing!’ When I finally tried, it was a terrible struggle. It sometimes took me half a day or even an entire day to produce one decent post.”

That tension has since disappeared. He no longer draws his topics from a contrived Excel spreadsheet, but directly from everyday practice: a casual remark during drinks, a question from a client at an edition of Demos Pitches & Drinks, or an idea that pops into his head while cycling home.

“Writing has made me look at my own profession from a completely different perspective,” Coolen says. “For a column like this, I always do a little extra research. As a result, I can now improvise much more sharply and freely during conversations with clients. It has genuinely freed me from the daily office routine.”

The Bic pen and toilet paper

With more than 13,000 LinkedIn followers and a loyal readership on IO+, Coolen has proved that intellectual property can indeed capture the imagination—provided it is packaged well. His most popular articles have often tapped into viral trends.

“The posts about everyday icons such as the Bic pen or the patent on toilet paper performed incredibly well,” Coolen recalls. “You often see the same memes about patents circulating online, but they usually miss the mark to some extent. I love taking a familiar subject like that and uncovering the real story with a sharp twist. Of course, in-depth legal analyses do not always achieve the multimillion reach of a light-hearted meme. IP remains a niche subject. But if readers can smile and learn something about the value of their own ideas at the same time, then my mission has succeeded.”

Here’s to the next hundred!

Read all of Marco Coolen’s columns here in the series ‘The world of patents’.