RehiveTech, spol. s r. o. is a technological company established in 2013 and draws on more than 15 years of experience with research and development in the field of embedded systems. It deals with support for developing applications based on FPGA reconfigurable technology and processors of the ARM family. Owing to its expertise in hardware, software and co-design, the company also offers the adaptation of platforms according to customer needs and custom-made development for such platforms. In addition, it provides technical training for its own technologies as well for those of other companies.

What does the term spin-off company mean? A spin-off company is an entrepreneurial entity founded for the purpose of commercializing intellectual property developed in the research institution. The founding is mostly initiated by the researchers themselves, who want to become engaged in the commercialization of their research activities. Spin-offs established within the university come in two types:

• Spin-off with ownership interest. The precondition for ownership interest is the investment of property (in the form of financial investment or the investment of evaluated intellectual property) in the registered capital of the newly established company. The university acts in the role of partner to the spin-off company.
• Spin-off without ownership interest. The association between the company and university is regulated by contract, namely the license agreement to the intellectual property of the university.

The Brno Institute of Technology and RehiveTech concluded a contract on advertising the cooperation, in which the university grants the company consent to world-wide use of the name “Spin-off company of BUT”, the right to declare the cooperation using the words “based on the technology of BUT”, and confers the right to use the University logo.

The relationship between RehiveTech spol. s r. o. and BUT has a contractual basis, without any ownership interest from the University, i.e. the company has been granted a licence to the intellectual property of BUT.

The advantage of establishing a spin-off company, as implied by the title of the contract on cooperation, lies in advertising the technologies being developed at the university and in supporting a young, economically competitive company which will represent one aspect of BUT’s research and development. Nonetheless, RehiveTech acts as an independent entrepreneurial entity offering products and services under its own trade name.

The founding of spin-off companies in BUT is governed by Rector Regulation No. 12/2007. The objective of the regulation is to support the commercialization of the institution’s intellectual property and transfer science and research results into practice, so that benefits flow to both industry and the university. The process of founding spin-off companies occurs under the auspices of the Technology Transfer Office, which helps companies throughout the whole process.

Source of Photo: Roman Vrána, 2014.