Conducting an IP audit is a way for a firm to assess the nature and value of its intellectual property assets. Such assessments may be critical and more commonplace in certain industries, such as IT and pharmaceuticals.  However, in the wake of legislative changes and the current economic downturn, the potential value in conducting an […]

Patents, trade secrets and confidentiality agreements are mere words on paper to the scientist, engineer or executive intent on deception and theft. And if you have outsourced your research and development efforts overseas to countries with unenforced intellectual property laws and cultural norms that ignore individual property rights, then the intent to deceive and thieve […]

Several readers recently asked if there is a good (free) site that lists the expiration dates of pharmaceutical patents. The Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) has a chart listing Upcoming Patent Expirations for 2007-09.  One fee-based service I know of is Drug Patent Watch.  One can also do the reviewing themselves, of course, but determining if a […]

Conducting a thorough IP due diligence review is a critical aspect of successful tech deals – especially in the bioscience industry. The intellectual property at issue can make or break a deal. It is imperative that you know what you have (or are getting) is the real deal. When undertaking a due diligence review during […]

Unlike patent rights, copyright rights spring automatically upon being written (fixed in tangible form) without registration. The general rule is that copyrights are owned by the individual who created the work or copyrightable subject matter. The author of a creative work (including a software application) owns the entire copyright in that work. Ordinarily, the person […]

Assets acquired in today’s private equity and venture deals, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and joint ventures are increasingly intellectual property assets such as patents, copyrights and Internet domain names. Because of the value of these assets, intellectual property due diligence has become an important part of the legal work required for these transactions. Such […]