Are you looking for patent attorneys who can provide more effective, more comprehensive, and more commercially focused IP due diligence?
Every investment pitch you hear has been specifically designed to whet an investor’s appetite.
However, although the idea, the plan, and the numbers you’ve just heard will have been designed to impress, how can you substantiate the substance of the investment pitch and take a view on the longer-term prospects for a successful exit?
This is the point due diligence begins.
Due diligence is always a many-headed beast. While it must of course provide a thorough examination of the tangible aspects of the deal - the people, the financials, the commercial plans and of course the technology itself, it also needs to address the intangible aspects.
This is not only because the vast majority of the value of the company will lie in the intangible assets but also because it is where you’ll uncover many of the hidden risks.
Of these intangibles, IP is the most valuable.
As so much of the value in a company lies in its IP, you need to have a full and frank appraisal confirming everything is in place to ensure you achieve the highest valuation at exit. You need to make sure the IP underpinning the deal supports the company’s value, operations, and planned growth today and will continue to do so in the future.
With so much at stake your IP due diligence needs to be robust, detailed and highly focussed. You need to look far beyond the immediate horizon so that each investment decision you make is based on the key facts, facts substantiated by professionals who genuinely understand the part IP plays in a solid investment opportunity.
This is where we can help.
Our multi-disciplinary team of highly experienced patent attorneys and IP solicitors have worked alongside the investment community for many years. With their support, we have developed a unique and highly effective approach to IP and legal due diligence.
IP due diligence has historically been a somewhat predictable exercise undertaken within very narrow parameters. It can quickly become far too detailed and far too expensive and often delivers little more than a long list of IP rights that offer little insight as to how the ideas, products, people and plans you are assessing will perform in the real world.
Instead, we take a commercial view of the IP and legal framework at the heart of the investment you are considering, verifying everything is where and how it should be.
Our team will:
- Conduct a detailed review of the company’s business plan from an IP perspective (including the technology roadmap)
- Analyse the IP strategy they have in place to deliver that plan
- Assess whether the IP they have (or don’t have) will support their business plan
- Make sure that the appropriate commercial, licensing, and other legal agreements required to deliver the business plan and maintain the business’ value are in place
- Confirm the ownership of their IP
- Ask how they manage their IP within the company (is it a Board level consideration or is it managed at a lower level?)
- Uncover how they plan to work with third parties to develop and market the technology, and the impact this may have on their IP strategy
- Evaluate their attitude to IP-related risks, including freedom to operate (FTO)
In short, our patent attorneys and IP solicitors will go far beyond the pitch slide deck and IP registers to ensure you have everything you need to make the most informed investment decisions.
VerifyiP: THE EASIEST WAY TO CONDUCT COMPREHENSIVE AND COMMERCIALLY FOCUSED IP/LEGAL DUE DILIGENCE
To make the IP and legal due diligence process as easy and efficient as possible for our investor clients we have created VerifyiP, a fixed price/fixed outcome model that combines everything we’ve learned from the many years we’ve worked with both investors and start-ups.
By the end of VerifyiP the process, you will have a complete and candid assessment of your potential investment from the perspective of both a patent attorney (or attorneys if there is a crossover of technologies in your target company) and an IP solicitor.
This means you will be able to make every investment decision with a comprehensive picture of all the associated IP and legal elements delivered in a concise report.
If you would like to learn more about VerifyiP please click here or please download the VerifyiP brochure.
