IP strategy

IP strategy is the body of planned measures a business adopts, in order to use intellectual property to secure business advantage over its competitors.

To have a good IP strategy is to be active, and have the opportunity to leverage good IP outcomes. To have a weak IP strategy, or no IP strategy, can leave a business as the passive victim of events.

An IP strategy has to fit your business. It must take account of the market you work in, your competitors, your budget, and your overall corporate strategy. A young company working to develop a portfolio of patents or trade marks cost-effectively needs a completely different IP strategy from a market leader using IP to retain its position, or a university looking to develop a licensing income from its innovations.

We have an exceptionally strong team of IP professions – IP solicitors, patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys and design and copyright experts. Whatever your business we have the legal expertise and the business skills to understand it and to help you develop an IP strategy which fits your people, resources and overall corporate strategy:

Analysis

Working with you to understand your business sector and competitive challenges
Understanding your own objectives and business plan
Developing an IP strategy to support your objectives and work in your sector
Explaining the IP strategy clearly and obtaining informed senior-level buy-in

Competitor activities

Creating and implementing national/global IP filing programmes in accordance with the IP strategy
Taking steps to minimising business risks as agreed in the strategy
Controlling the IP budget in accordance with the strategy
Providing management information to assess compliance with the IP strategy, and its effectiveness

Mergers and Acquisitions (M & A)

Our specialist intellectual property solicitors, trade mark and patent attorneys are highly experienced in transaction work, including corporate mergers, acquisitions, licensing deals, divestitures, insolvency and restructuring. We carry out transaction work for quoted blue-chip companies but are equally at home working with start-up businesses and academic institutions. Excellent work in this field goes beyond handling negotiations and agreement drafting efficiently. It includes doing thorough groundwork in anticipation of the transaction, to support informed decisions. This may entail, for example conducting a financial valuation of a target business; “landscaping” the entire business area or making an assessment of the strength of patents or trade marks underlying an acquisition, merger or licensing deal. Our solicitors and attorneys are strong in the negotiation and agreement drafting phase of transaction work but also in the preparation phase – often the key to a really satisfactory outcome.

Due Diligence

This is an all-encompassing term used to describe the process of ensuring that information regarding your portfolio (or a competitor’s) is complete and up to date, so that risks and opportunities can be assessed. Due diligence can involve e.g. matching your patents to your products for licensing or Patent Box purposes, providing status information on a competitor’s trade mark portfolio across many countries or mapping patents/applications to a technical standard.

Freedom to Operate (FTO)

FTO is carried out to identify risks associated with the launch of a new product or process and see if they can be reduced or worked around. The risks can come from competitors’ patents, designs and/or trade marks. However FTO is frequently inadequate, and sometimes non-existent. The downsides of going ahead without giving adequate thought to FTO can be high. For example a new product may have to be withdrawn from market; or a financial investment in new technology may fail. Our attorneys are highly experienced in conducting FTO work which is efficient, business-focussed and proportionate to the risk being assessed.

Searching

We find that the best business decisions in relation to intellectual property (IP) are usually taken by our clients who have the best information. To gather the best information we have many different types of searches at our disposal. Examples include searches to determine whether patents, trade mark or designs have been kept in force, searches to assess whether an invention, trade mark or design is protectable, infringement clearance searches to determine whether new products or brand names can be safely launched, and competitor searches to assess the direction your competitors are taking; and many more. If inadequate searching is carried out and a problem emerges the cost of escaping from it may be far higher than the cost of any search. We carry out high quality searching which will give our clients reliable results. However as experienced attorneys we understand that searching can go too far and be wasteful – there is a law of diminishing returns at work. We always discuss the requirements with our clients and aim for an optimum of confidence level and cost.

Competitor analysis

Keeping a careful eye on the IP activities of your competitors not only gives you an early warning if they are moving into new commercial or technical areas, it can give you a chance, in some cases, to challenge trade mark or patent applications before they pose a risk to your business. We can provide a range of reports detailing activities of certain key competitors or all companies within a defined commercial sector or technology, so that you can take early action to prepare your business accordingly. Such reports can be prepared on an ad-hoc basis, perhaps if you are considering branching out and want to know what the IP landscape is like in the new area, or we can provide regular watches according to your specification.

IP Valuation

Valuing IP, for the purposes of disposal, acquisition, licensing or for Patent Box purposes can be a complex procedure. We have experts in this area who can work with you to value your IP using rigorous industry-standard models.

IP strategy specialist team

Paul Brandon

Partner

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Richard Bray

Partner

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David Clark

Partner

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Robert Cumming

Partner

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Barbara Fleck

Partner

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Julia Gwilt

Partner

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Chris Hoole

Partner

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Graham Johnson

Partner

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Bill Lister

Consultant

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David Moy

Partner

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Beverley Robinson

Head of Designs, Partner

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Bobby Smithson

Managing Partner

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Adam Tindall

Partner

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Dick Waddington

Partner

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David Walsh

Partner

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Our services

Patents

All our patent attorneys have high level technical skills, knowledge and experience. Together they cover all areas of technology and form one large resource of expert technical and legal capability.

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Trade marks

Protecting brand assets with trade marks allows businesses of all sizes to invest in their brand with confidence, build brand equity and leverage that equity for growth.

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Designs

Design rights are a monopoly right that protect the visual appearance of products, which can include shape, colour, materials and texture. This includes logos, characters and other two-dimensional shapes and forms.

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Transactional IP

We have extensive experience in drafting, reviewing, negotiating, and advising on commercial transactions that are driven by IP assets.

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Copyright

We have an outstanding team of copyright experts. Our team includes registered design attorneys, solicitors and paralegals so that we can deal effectively with any situation that may arise.

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