“There was no playbook. No product to benchmark against. We had to educate the market from day one.” Julian Jagtenberg, Founder and CEO of Somnox
When the prototype for the first Somnox sleep companion was developed, scepticism from a market of insomniacs, who had tried everything available to them to help them sleep at night, meant that Somnox needed more than just a great product. It needed trust. 
Early on in the prototyping process, Julian Jagtenberg, Founder and CEO of Somnox, knew that protecting intellectual property was a priority: “We knew that if we wanted to attract investors and scale manufacturing, we had to secure what made our technology unique.”
Somnox’s sleep companion, developed to primarily help those with insomnia, isn’t a medical device or a simple consumer gadget. It’s not a pillow, or a toy and it’s not a speaker. It does however combine all of these elements.
So, how do you patent a life-changing product that doesn’t fit into an existing category for patenting? You invent a new category.
Turning to EP&C for help to develop a patent strategy that built the trust and credibility that Somnox needed with both investors and customers was key.
Working closely with Somnox’s engineers, EP&C’s patent attorneys helped identify and protect the essential elements of the product and the design features that made the device feel human rather than mechanical.
As well as filing patents, EP&C also supported Somnox in monitoring global competitors and flagging any potential infringements (including one from Phillips) with advice on how to adjust protection as the product evolved.
By developing a strong IP strategy that turned an empathy-driven invention into a trusted, scalable, and profitable business, patents gave Somnox the credibility to attract investors, the confidence to grow internationally and the protection to keep control of its ideas.
