The Sonnenschein Venture Technology Group is offering to its clients a market driven initiative which offers venture-backed technology companies an assessment of the risks relating to a company’s intellectual property and remedial actions that can be taken to reduce the risk.  This IP Assessment and Strategy Offering, which to date has been extremely well-received by the venture community and technology companies alike, is unique in its robustness, nominal cost and efficacy.  We are most excited about the response to this offering and the fact that the press has recently recognized this program as one of the leading efforts in this space.  We are confident that you will continue to find our Preliminary Intellectual Property Audit component of this offering to be a great value-add and critical element of your decision making process as you develop business and investment strategies.  Based on the feedback of the venture community we have further refined and expanded this offering to be even more robust and laser focused in identifying the most high risk, relevant issues in a nimble and cost effective manner. We thank many of our friends in the venture technology community who have worked with us to enhance this service. 

As you well know, all companies own and utilize intellectual property.  The IP can range from patents covering critical technology, including pharmaceutical compounds, formulations and methods of use, nanostructures, and system architecture to the software that the company spent years developing, and even more basic items such as marketing materials developed for the company and the names of the products that it sells or services that it provides.  While all companies must allocate scarce resources toward activities that will provide the greatest long term value, a company’s IP could well be among those assets having the greatest value to a company in the long term.  Closing any gaps in ownership and/or protection before the IP has become irretrievably lost or the company is competitively disadvantaged and compelled to expend significant amounts in rectifying a detrimental IP situation is viewed as critical by many.

We understand, however, that each company and its investors tend to prioritize the need for protecting intellectual property differently. No one size fits all.  Each management team and set of investors has differing sensibilities depending on a particular set of strategic goals, business model, competition, cost constraints, stage of development and other factors.  For some, securing the IP is the sine qua non of moving forward with an investment or implementation of a business plan while for others the time to market and sensitivity to costs is paramount. 

The Preliminary Intellectual Property Audit component provides companies with a window to get a glimpse into their IP world.  This component of our offering seeks to balance the costs and diversion of management attention from the business against the benefits.  It identifies a company’s key intellectual property, the risks to such intellectual property and the recommended next steps to follow to close the gaps and protect the intellectual property.  Protective measures can be implemented over time or, where the risks are greatest, immediately.  The Preliminary IP Audit provides a road map to follow, with execution of the recommendations at the discretion and direction of the company.  Even if you are not inclined to go forward with a full implementation of remedial actions you will most certainly be fully informed of the risks associated with the implementation of a business or investment strategy, at a nominal cost.

Upon completion of the Preliminary IP Audit, the IP Strategy component is where the company and counsel determine what activities are appropriate and make financial sense and structure an implementation plan for incorporating one or more of those particular risk avoidance strategies deemed necessary by the company taking into account its unique IP sensitivities and risk profile working hand in hand with the management team and its investors.  These Strategies can range from implementation of IP protection programs and freedom to practice reviews, to structuring licensing and enforcement programs.

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