When John O’Dea went to see Hewlett-Packard last year to discuss whether there might be any patents he could license, he came away with an agreement to use the core technologies behind one of the US company’s best known products – its thermal inkjet printer.

At first sight, the collaboration between HP and Crospon, a small medical devices company in the west of Ireland, is not unusual. All big technology companies are combing their patent portfolios to see whether they can license inventions and recover some of the vast investments they make in research and development.