Huskee uses coffee husks, a waste product of the coffee industry, to create a reusable coffee cup. The result is an aesthetically pleasing, innovative coffee cup with unique thermal properties.
Hear about their journey to commercialisation and IP protection.
Huskee: Design and reusing waste materials
Saxon:
Huskee was originally founded as an idea. What we really wanted to do was solve the issue of takeaway cups and create a system that actually enabled people to move away from single use into a more sustainable way of having their daily cup of coffee.
We're a 'design first' company and by that, I mean design is critical. People buy first off design, not off sustainability.
We took a lot of our design intent from all stakeholders at a cafe level. We looked at the baristas – the users. So, we've brought them in, we asked baristas what works for you what makes the cafe environment works.
And then industrial designers - we had some guys that came on to really help facilitate the production side of it, ensuring that the manufacturing of the final product would work well.
It's really a collaborative effort - I mean there's a lot of people involved in coming up with a final solution, and I think the success of what we've come up with is because we've involved many voices into the process.
Protecting the process is difficult - that was something we were aware of pretty early on, and we did actually think about the IP process. We thought about how do we take care of that. People have had cups for years so what are those key elements that we're adding value to that we can latch on to – to say okay that's critical, that's ours, we came up with that and we need to protect that.
Adrian:
So we had to consider materiality, and how we address IP around that. We had to consider how we protect our design and then also how we then protect our brand.
The design registrations that we had - because the cups actually are three different sizes. They're actually three slightly different shapes. The actual contours and the draft angles - they vary slightly. Design registration is a lot more precise in that you've got a very particular and specific detail.
Saxon:
We're manufactured in China, we're designed in Australia, but we're selling I think to over 70 countries now so we're we've gone global really quickly.
There's a nuance to our product in the sense that it's using a coffee husk which is waste material to manufacture. That only happens in certain countries. So we tried to protect ourselves in key markets to protect where other people could easily replicate it - that that was one end at the at the production end. And then on the other end of the spectrum we wanted to protect at the consumer end.
Adrian:
So we actually have put into place trade marks for all the different brand names that we do use – from Huskee to Huskee Cup to Huskee Swap and our logos.
We've got an IP lawyer that we use. It's been invaluable having an IP specialist, it's just taken a massive load off, and just made the process a lot more streamlined.
We had a case in Europe where somebody actually copied the cup and made some slight modifications. We were made aware of this and then we were able to enforce our design after a process. We took the products off their website and yeah recalled it from the market so that was great.
Saxon:
We have a two-stranded approach. We want to protect ourselves through the legal mechanisms and IP. But at the same time, we need to get to market quickly and we need to build out our presence and our brand and become the market leader in the space so that it's clear that we are who we are, and any counterfeits to that are obvious.
We're definitely going to continue investing in IP - we need to, it's our business - and as a design driven company, if we don't protect what we do then the shelf life of our ideas is much shorter.
Huskee was originally founded as an idea. What we really wanted to do was solve the issue of takeaway cups and create a system that actually enabled people to move away from single use into a more sustainable way of having their daily cup of coffee.
We're a 'design first' company and by that, I mean design is critical. People buy first off design, not off sustainability.
We took a lot of our design intent from all stakeholders at a cafe level. We looked at the baristas – the users. So, we've brought them in, we asked baristas what works for you what makes the cafe environment works.
And then industrial designers - we had some guys that came on to really help facilitate the production side of it, ensuring that the manufacturing of the final product would work well.
It's really a collaborative effort - I mean there's a lot of people involved in coming up with a final solution, and I think the success of what we've come up with is because we've involved many voices into the process.
Protecting the process is difficult - that was something we were aware of pretty early on, and we did actually think about the IP process. We thought about how do we take care of that. People have had cups for years so what are those key elements that we're adding value to that we can latch on to – to say okay that's critical, that's ours, we came up with that and we need to protect that.
Adrian:
So we had to consider materiality, and how we address IP around that. We had to consider how we protect our design and then also how we then protect our brand.
The design registrations that we had - because the cups actually are three different sizes. They're actually three slightly different shapes. The actual contours and the draft angles - they vary slightly. Design registration is a lot more precise in that you've got a very particular and specific detail.
Saxon:
We're manufactured in China, we're designed in Australia, but we're selling I think to over 70 countries now so we're we've gone global really quickly.
There's a nuance to our product in the sense that it's using a coffee husk which is waste material to manufacture. That only happens in certain countries. So we tried to protect ourselves in key markets to protect where other people could easily replicate it - that that was one end at the at the production end. And then on the other end of the spectrum we wanted to protect at the consumer end.
Adrian:
So we actually have put into place trade marks for all the different brand names that we do use – from Huskee to Huskee Cup to Huskee Swap and our logos.
We've got an IP lawyer that we use. It's been invaluable having an IP specialist, it's just taken a massive load off, and just made the process a lot more streamlined.
We had a case in Europe where somebody actually copied the cup and made some slight modifications. We were made aware of this and then we were able to enforce our design after a process. We took the products off their website and yeah recalled it from the market so that was great.
Saxon:
We have a two-stranded approach. We want to protect ourselves through the legal mechanisms and IP. But at the same time, we need to get to market quickly and we need to build out our presence and our brand and become the market leader in the space so that it's clear that we are who we are, and any counterfeits to that are obvious.
We're definitely going to continue investing in IP - we need to, it's our business - and as a design driven company, if we don't protect what we do then the shelf life of our ideas is much shorter.
Please note: case studies are examples of the way some organisations have chosen to manage their IP. These studies don't provide advice and your experience may be different.