Trademark to Term Sheet

How to Protect Your Brand Before You Fundraise

with Christine Whiteside, Melanie Schultz, Stephanie Curcio and Arielle Land

In partnership with ElevateIP Alberta 

Protecting your brand isn’t a box to tick, it’s a strategic move that can shape your fundraising journey. In this founder-first fireside chat, we’ll explore how trademarks and IP can become one of your most valuable assets when you step into investor conversations. 

You’ll hear directly from legal experts and founders who’ve navigated these waters, what worked, what they wish they’d done earlier, and how a thoughtful IP strategy can boost credibility, attract capital, and safeguard long-term growth. 

This session will help you: 

  • Understand why early brand protection builds investor confidence and future-proofs your business. 

  • Identify which aspects of your brand are protectable (name, logo, design, brand promise, etc.) and how to take the first steps. 

  • Learn how IP strategy strengthens your negotiating power and positions you for growth. 

  • Walk away with a founder-ready framework and resources you can act on immediately. 

Register Now

January 14, 2026
12:00PM MST / 2:00PM EST

Sign Up

Who this
Session is For

This session is perfect for:

  • early-stage founders

  • brand builders, and

  • anyone raising capital who wants to build a stronger foundation before the money comes in. 

About the Speakers

Arielle Land, Moderator

Director of Operations, Movement51

Arielle is the Swiss army knife of enablement, with a strategic marketing background, a knack for understanding people’s motivations, and a proven track record in building programs and systems to scale for greater impact in B2B tech, SaaS, and B2C environments.

As a high-impact, innovative, and energetic community builder, Arielle leads operations including influential experience programs at Movement51 that reflect business needs, enable internal teams, and unlock customer potential.

Connect with Arielle on LinkedIn.

Christine Whiteside

Sr. Executive, Growth at VoxCell, Consultant at Perigon Labs

Christine Whiteside is the Senior Executive, Growth at VoxCell, where she previously served as Chief Operating Officer from the company’s inception through its successful pre-seed fundraise in 2022. She also leads Perigon Labs where she supports deep-tech founders in their early stages. Christine brings extensive experience supporting life sciences startups with fundraising, IP strategy, commercialization planning, business development, and scalable operations—expertise that directly aligns with VoxCell’s current growth priorities. Her previous roles include Interim Director of Business Development at the Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub, Investment Program Manager at Spring Activator (with a focus on MedTech), and work with the Product Development team at StarFish Medical. Across these roles, she has built a strong track record of strategic planning with successful implementation. Christine has been an early-stage IP advisor through AccelerateIP, supporting founders with IP strategy to best protect their assets and set themselves up for success. She is passionate about founders understanding the implications of their decisions so they can make the right call for their business. 

Connect with Christine on LinkedIn.

Melanie Schultz

Co-Founder at Altitude IP, IP and Patent Agent

Melanie Schultz is a Canadian patent and trademark agent and co-founder of Altitude IP, where she helps founders and companies develop smart IP strategies to protect their innovations and strengthen their businesses. She guides clients through patent, design, and trademark protection in Canada and abroad, focusing on helping them avoid common pitfalls and using IP as a strategic asset. Her technical areas of expertise span clean technology, energy, medical devices, sports equipment, instrumentation and software. She is an active member of international IP organizations including the Association of Intellectual Property Firms and the American Intellectual Property Association.  A former member of Canada’s National Biathlon Team, Melanie brings that same focus on excellence and continuous improvement to her work with entrepreneurs.

Connect with Melanie on LinkedIn.

Stephanie Curcio

CEO and Co-Founder, NLPatent, IP Lawyer

Stephanie Curcio is a The51 Portfolio Founder and a trailblazer in AI and patent law, serving as CEO and Co-Founder of NLPatent - a leading AI-native patent research & intelligence platform described as a 'total game changer' by clients. Her team has developed a proprietary system Large Language Models for searching, monitoring, and visualizing patent documents that has gained the trust of top law firms, innovative companies, and universities worldwide. By providing patent and R&D professionals with an intuitive workflow, NLPatent generates conceptually relevant results instantly, making traditionally challenging patent research tasks more efficient and accurate, consistently identifying key references that legacy systems miss. Its real-time AI analysis, and flexible explainability, gives IP and R&D teams confidence and clarity in their results.

Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn.

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