ThreeFive Photonics: Searching for the Holy Grail?

In 2001, the Dutch company ThreeFive Photonics was founded by telecom professional Wouter Deelman and PhD student Chretien Herben attached to Delft University of Technology. The founders set out to develop revolutionary opto-electronic chips with the potential to change the telecom industry. That year, venture capital firms invested € 7 million in the promising start-up, but additional capital was needed to develop ThreeFive’s radical “Holy Grail” technology. However, during the product development phase disaster struck: the ‘telecom bubble’ burst and the industry crashed. Desperately trying to keep the company alive, the founding team and investors turned to investigate less radical products, while trying to secure the extra funding needed. As the company’s final hour began to strike they faced an important decision: should ThreeFive try to enter new markets with new products, or look to merge with a competitor?

Written by Elco van Burg, Hans Berends and Sharon Dolmans from Eindhoven University of Technology. Download the full case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from j.c.van.burg@vu.nl.

When intellectual property rights go beyond patents

In 1999, three technical engineers invented a membrane system to clean sewage water. They filed for patent for their inventions, founded their company Watertreat GmbH, and in 2000 received financial support from different start-up support programs. The founders successfully acquired venture capital from an investor and for the next three years, the product worked well.

In December 2003, the company received its first major order; for Watertreat, the future looked bright. And then in January 2004, a lawsuit alleging multiple infringements of intellectual property rights threatened the company’s very existence. How would the founders react to this danger, and what options did they have to counter it?

Written by Malte Brettel, René Mauer and Tobias Karmann from RWTH Aachen University. Download the case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from karmann@win.rwth-aachen.de.