Benjamin Morris:Global Startup
WeCrest Ltd. with Yongsan
Please introduce yourself briefly.
My name is Benjamin Morris. I am the CEO of WeCrest Ltd, which is an IP tech company based in Seoul. I am originally from Germany and my parents are from South Korea and the United Kingdom. I have lived in Germany, England and South Korea.
Could you tell us about your current job?
I've been in Seoul for 18 years, and for most of that time, for about 16 years, I've been working in the intellectual property industry and working for IP law firms. Currently, I am the CEO of WeCrest Ltd, which is a software company that makes business development software for IP law firms. They can use our software to find new clients.
Before we go any further, could you please give us definitions of the terms “IP” and “IP law firms”?
IP stands for intellectual property. Intellectual property refers to the creations of the human mind or human intellect. Examples would be technical innovations or works of art or literature or symbols or names which are used in commerce. The two main categories of intellectual property are patents and trademarks. They are all around us every day. These days, technology is all around us, and a lot of the technology is patented technology.
IP law firms are very different from regular law firms because IP law firms specialize in protecting intellectual property for their clients. So in practice, what this means is that the biggest job that IP law firms do is to help clients to register patents and trademarks. For example, if you have a great business idea or some technical idea, you can go to an IP law firm and they can help you to get a patent for your technology. Then, once you have a patent, only you can use this technology for 20 years exclusively.
Let’s talk about your career history.
In both of the IP law firms that I worked for, I had two main jobs. One main job was advising foreign clients on Korean IP law and the second job was business development, which basically means finding new clients. We did a lot of travelling abroad to visit clients or participate in networking events like conferences, where we would introduce our law firm to potential clients. This process takes a long time because one meeting is usually not enough to gain the trust of a potential client. Sometimes it can take 5 years or even longer.
After your professional career in IP private practice, you started your own company. I guess it wasn’t an easy decision to do this. What made you choose this path?
My path may have been a little bit different from the way most entrepreneurs start their companies because WeCrest Ltd started as a little side project. I started the company in 2017 while I was still working for the law firm, where I worked from 2015 to 2020. I wanted to see if we could make software that automates the work that we were already doing. We were doing manual work which involved a lot of data processing, using Excel files and the like. We wanted to automate this.
It started as a small project and then kept on growing. It grew and grew. In 2020, WeCrest had become too big for me to continue doing both jobs, and it was an easy decision for me to leave the law firm and focus on my company. Also, by that time the risk was not so high because we had already grown and had some customers and a bit of revenue. Very often, when entrepreneurs start a company, they take huge risks like quitting their job and investing all their money into the company. It can be a very difficult decision for them. However, because WeCrest Ltd grew organically from the very beginning, it wasn't a difficult decision for me.
Did you have any ‘aha’ moment when you were thinking about solving these problems?
Not an aha moment, but more like an aha period. I said that in the last law firm where I worked, there was an intern who had to do all this work manually for one year. After a while, we had more urgent work to do. Getting new clients is important but it's not urgent. Because our firm was growing, we got too busy with a lot of urgent work and we had to make the intern stop doing this work and tell them to do something else. As a result, we didn't get many new clients. I realized that the only reason why we could not keep up our fast growth was that our intern was too busy. And that’s how I got the idea of automating the whole process by writing a program.
What is the level of development of the Korean IP sector?
South Korea is a global leader in IP. There are many ways to substantiate this claim, but I will just give you a few examples. There's an organisation called the IP5. It’s kind of like the G8 or G20 of IP and consists of the five most important IP offices in the world. The IP offices of those countries collaborate and have meetings to discuss IP policy issues. Those five offices are the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, the Japan Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and the China National Intellectual Property Administration. Another example - if you look at statistics of the numbers of patents and trademarks filed or registered in each country every year, the South Korean IP office is ranked in the top three or five or so. It's a global leader in IP.
Another example that I can give you is the story of the patent office of the United Arab Emirates. They wanted to create an online IP system and they didn't know how to do it, so they outsourced it to KIPO, the Korean Intellectual Property Office. KIPO sent a bunch of people to Abu Dhabi or wherever the UAE patent office is located, and they set up the whole system for the office and trained the local employees. Now they have an excellent system thanks to Korean technology and IP expertise.
I’d like to ask you about your perspective on the global IP market in the near future.
For over 100 years, governments have been trying to unify the world’s IP systems. Historically, IP rights are granted by each individual country, and there is no such thing as a global trademark or a global patent. You still have to get your patent or trademark registered in every single country. For a trademark, for example, the cost of registration can vary depending on the country or on the details of the trademark. Typically, the cost of one trademark can start from around $1,000, and in extreme cases can go up to $200,000 or even more for one trademark, if a trademark application runs into complications or legal challenges. It's very difficult to get proper protection around the world for any business.
For these reasons, there have been several attempts to unify the systems and there were several treaties like the Paris Convention for the protection of industrial property, which was signed in 1883. But until now, it has been impossible for the governments of the world to agree to one unified system, because every country wants to maintain its independence and autonomy. However, what they have done is create systems, like the Madrid system or PCT system, which make it easier to file a patent and get it registered in many countries. Although It's not a perfect system, it's already a big improvement and can save many costs for applicants. Despite these efforts, I don’t think the global unification of IP will happen in my lifetime.
You are currently running a startup in Yongsan. Why did you choose this location?
The reason why we chose Yongsan is that the Seoul Global Startup centre (SGSC) is here. That is the one and only reason. The program of the SGSC is so good. When we found out about it, we absolutely wanted to become a resident here.
The SGSC is funded by the Seoul metropolitan government and provides support for startup companies that are run by foreigners. In other words, the basic requirement for a startup company to become a resident of this centre is that the CEO of the company is a foreigner. What we get here is a free office, which is the most important thing for most startups. We also get a certain amount of seed money every year. Furthermore, we get a great support network of mentors from various professions. Personally, what I like about the centre is the diversity. There are 49 companies here and people from over 30 countries including Uzbekistan, Cameroon, Nigeria etc. Because Korea has a homogeneous ethnic society, it’s difficult to meet people from all over the world. But I can meet them all in one building at this centre. Because there are so many people here, even though we are a small company, the atmosphere feels like that of a big company.
There is another reason. Before I worked here, I was working in Gangnam for 5 years. In the end, it was getting a bit depressing for me. If I compare Yongsan with Gangnam, it's like a different world. I don't want to sound judgmental, but Gangnam is like a fake world to me and Yongsan is a real one. People here deal with real problems. People in Gangnam also have many problems, I’m sure, but it has a different vibe from Yongsan. Yongsan is rawer and rougher. So I much prefer Yongsan personally.
Then, what image do you have about Seoul more generally?
Seoul is a super modern city and so much more modern compared to Berlin where I grew up. Obviously, there are some drawbacks though. When you grow up in a European city like Berlin, you have a feeling that you're surrounded by history everywhere you go. Another example is England - pretty much every little village in England has a church that dates back 1,000 years. Korea also has a long history, but you don't see it. You can see little bits like palaces, of course, but those few historical sites are surrounded by modern high-rise buildings. Both the modern development model and preservation of history are nice. It’s just a trade-off between one and the other.
Let’s move on to the startup culture of Korea. What do you think of the Korean startup atmosphere and infrastructure based on your experience?
I haven't experienced the startup culture in any other country, so I can't compare it with other cultures directly. But I can observe that a lot of money is being invested into the startup scene in Korea. The SGSC is one example of this.
There are many startup incubators funded by the government and a lot of funding available for startups too. The reason for this is that the Korean economy has historically been over-reliant on big conglomerates, and these companies make up a big part of the Korean GDP. The Korean government is attempting to reduce Korea’s reliance on them, and one way of doing this is to support small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). We receive great support from the SGSC and the Seoul and Korean government, so I think Korea’s a very good environment to start a company.
If you were to move your office to another place, where would you like to go?
It's a very appropriate question because this is something I’m thinking about right now. The reason is that we have to leave the centre this summer because our residency is ending. Maybe there will be a possibility to come back in the future. In the mid-term, however, we're actually thinking of moving away from Seoul, but not overseas. The candidate locations are Jeju Island and the East coast. The reason is that it's cheaper there, and it’s easy for us to relocate the office because we're still relatively small and very streamlined. It’s not going to be permanent though. I've already discussed it with our employees and in general, the feeling is that it would be nice. We are very mobile because we are a software company and we don't have any big hardware or factories. Basically, if we want to move somewhere, we just need our laptops. And there is another reason for wanting to move to Jeju Island or the East coast, which is that I've been living in Seoul for 18 years. I need a change. Being in Seoul is wonderful but it can be very stressful and a very high-pressure environment.
Let’s talk about multiculturalism. I think your multicultural background must have been a great help in your professional life.
I'm mixed-race and I sometimes hear mixed-race people say that being mixed-race is a disadvantage and that they are discriminated against. Personally, however, I think there is a big advantage in being multicultural and multi-ethnic. It does help me to understand different cultures, and this is very useful because the IP industry is a very international business. Even small IP law firms have a lot of cross-border IP work. It means that if you're working in the IP industry, you have to work with people from all over the world. For WeCrest, this is definitely the case too, as we have clients from about 40 different countries including China, India, Mexico, Colombia, Bulgaria, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Qatar, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and the list goes on and on. If you understand how your clients think, it can be a big advantage.
What do you think is the most needed skill for an IP professional?
If you want to be an IP attorney or an IP paralegal or a patent engineer, I think probably the most important skill is attention to detail. Because patents and trademarks aren’t difficult, but very complex. When you’re listing items of goods or services that you want to cover by trademark registration, for example, you are going to be in big trouble afterwards if you forget even one item. Someone may end up suing your client for IP infringement if you mess up just one small detail in a patent or trademark application. If you want to have a strong trademark or patent, you have to pay great attention to all the little details to make sure that you've done everything exactly the right way.
Would you recommend some materials for those who want to learn more about the IP?
I can recommend a good first place to look for IP-related information. The WIPO website is excellent. They have a big education section on the website and they offer some courses, and most of them are for free and anybody can take them because they are a non-profit organization. Their goal is to educate the world about IP, so they offer these courses not only to IP professionals but also to other people like business owners, R&D engineers, etc.
Do you have any advice for those who want to start their own startup company?
Yes, I have some IP-related advice. I think everybody should consider IP as soon as they start planning their business. IP is one of the first things that they should start thinking about. Over the years, when I was working as a trademark attorney, I had so many clients, especially small companies, that came to me and said that they had been doing business for a number of years and somebody had recently started copying their brand. The problem was that they hadn’t registered their trademark until then. They didn't think about IP at the beginning. Although it’s never too late, it will always cost a lot more if you do it only once you have a problem. It’s more difficult and there may be no chance to recover your losses and no guarantee of success. If you deal with your IP properly from the beginning then you can avoid all sorts of problems.
What value do you think you are giving to society through what you are doing now?
Like I told you before, the IP industry is very old fashioned. A lot of work is done manually and very inefficiently. So broadly speaking, our mission is to improve the IP industry through automation. And what that does for society is that it will reduce the cost of IP. I'm not saying that only we can achieve this goal, or that we can achieve it alone, but can certainly contribute to it.
This is our final question. What is your ultimate goal?
The main reason why I started WeCrest Ltd is that I wanted to be free. I wanted to escape the rat race. I had been in the rat race for over 14 years and had had enough. I read a quote once that said that even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat. Basically, building a corporate career is devoting your life to making other people rich. I value my freedom a lot and the natural solution was to start a company. I want this company to be a vehicle that gives this kind of freedom not only to the founders but also to our employees.
