Brunel Solar Team

The Brunel Solar Team is participating in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, a race with solar cars in Australia.

No less than seven times this TU Delft student team won the world title with their self-built solar car. V.O. has sponsored the team since 2015 and assists them with legal advice around intellectual property protection.

Innovate to win

In the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, student teams from universities around the world race from Darwin to Adelaide. They must design and hand-build the fastest solar-powered car. The team pushes the limits of what is currently feasible and works with the latest techniques and materials. Lennart Hessels, team leader of the Brunel Solar Team: “We are a high performance team and innovate continuously. We do this together with our partners. We are thus taking a pioneering role in the development of the passenger cars of the future.”

‘They understand the dynamics of our team very well: they think with us and are flexible. This allows us to fully focus on the competition.’

Lennart Hessels – Team Captain, Brunel Solar Team

Activate your ideas

V.O. makes students aware of the importance of protecting their innovations. “The enthusiasm and challenge they bring to every race aligns very well with our slogan ‘Activate your ideas!’. They are full of good ideas and know how to turn them into new innovations that help win the race. And for a better world of course!” said Annelies de Bosch Kemper.

“For the Brunel Solar Team, the secrecy of their innovations is essential. We help by scrutinizing the agreements the team enters into with their partners, for example, and based on those findings we assist them in further steps of negotiation or renegotiation.”

Lennart Hessels: “It’s nice that V.O. assists us legally. We don’t have that expertise in the team. They understand the dynamics of our team very well: they think along with us and are flexible. It really is a cooperation based on mutual trust. We can really rely on V.O. That way we can concentrate on the competition.”

Legal Quick Scan

The service to the Brunel Solar Team is similar to the Legal Quick Scan offered by V.O.: the attorneys-at-law of V.O. check whether various IP issues are contractually well organized. The Quick Scan thus reveals whether there are documents that need extra attention.