Patent Law Professionals P.C. | Patent Attorneys | IP Due Diligence | Silicon Valley

Services // IP Due Diligence

Intellectual property (IP) due diligence is a legal process performed by trained and experienced patent attorneys to identify IP-related merits and risks involved in acquiring or investing in a target company. IP due diligence is an extremely important task that is performed in various types of business transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, asset purchases, public offerings, and private equity investments.

Performing IP due diligence involves examining the target company's patents, trademarks copyrights, and trade secrets, to both highlight potentially valuable IP and identify IP having possible validity, ownership, and enforceability concerns. Depending on the circumstances, the scope of the due diligence may be extended beyond an evaluation of the target company's IP to an investigation of whether the target company might have potential liability for infringing the IP rights of others.

The attorneys at PLP are experienced at performing IP due diligence in all of these various contexts. We represent:

  • purchasers and acquirers contemplating purchasing or acquiring target companies or IP assets of target companies
  • venture capitalists and other investors in need of IP-related risk information associated with potential investees
  • banks and brokers contemplating underwriting the issuance of securities of a company (e.g., to comply with statutory and regulatory disclosure obligations of federal securities law)
  • target companies desiring to obtain a valuation of their own IP portfolios or an independent audit verifying proper ownership

In conducting IP due diligence for our clients, we further prepare and provide, if deemed necessary or beneficial, detailed validity, infringement, and/or freedom-to-operate legal opinions. (See description of our Legal Opinions services.)

Finally, we perform our IP due diligence services directly on behalf of our clients, or indirectly and in cooperation with the client's corporate counsel in circumstances where corporate counsel is charged with leading the overall due diligence.