SERVICES
IP AUDIT & DUE DILIGENCE
WHAT ?
The intellectual property rights are important assets in a firm and have their own intrinsic value. Every company possesses its own intellectual property rights and every right is subject to specific rules, frequently with implications on various levels (national, Benelux, European, international). The correspondence between the rights that a company believes it possesses and the rights which it holds in reality is often assessed incorrectly, certainly in cases where the company has passed through changes, mergers, and the like.
An audit and/or due diligence process can assist your company to identify and evaluate the intellectual property rights to which she holds title or which she aspires taking over from third parties, as well as establish an Intellectual Property (IP) strategy that has been adapted to the company’s general strategy, to work out this strategy further, and eliminate unnecessary costs.
WHY ?
An administrative audit offers the possibility:
- To identify and evaluate the core and the internal cohesion of an intellectual property rights portfolio;
- To recommend and implement measures to restore the cohesion (eliminating double protection, remedying “oversights”, changing names and addresses of right holders, registering licences, and so forth);
The strategic audit offers the possibility:
- To evaluate differences between the existing portfolio and the desired portfolio with respect to support of the company’s general strategy, to establish a strategy on intellectual property rights which is in line with the general strategy and which relates to both the geographical protection of the rights and the « routes of protection » and to the targeted markets in function of the national-specific features or the management and ownership of the rights;
- To fill in the lacunas in a portfolio of intellectual property rights to have it meet the requirements of the above-mentioned strategy;
The due diligence offers the possibility:
- To check the status and the real content of the intellectual property rights that have been developed within a company;
- To determine the risks of claims by third parties upon these intellectual property rights;
- To evaluate the worth and the potential of the IP portfolio;
- To lay down a basis for negotiations about the price in function of the results realized thanks to the above-mentioned activities;
WHAT SERVICES CAN KIRKPATRICK PROVIDE FOR YOU ?
Administrative audit: to conduct searches in the official registers and private databases in order to check upon the current status of the rights; to verify the use of these rights; to review publicity materials, Internet sites as well as documents, licensing contracts, assignment agreements or other agreements; to gather and analyse the data; to draw up a report with recommendations that comb through all aspects of the overview of the company’s intellectual property rights, to identify the inconsistencies and propose actions.
Strategic audit: to propose a strategy for the intellectual property rights that is in line with the company’s 5-year global strategy; to analyse the existing portfolio of intellectual property rights and identify discrepancies between the actual and the desired situation; to draw up a report with recommendation for actions (additional filings, withdrawals, changing of owner, central management, licensing systems, user guidelines for licensees, renewals, geographic expansions, and so forth).
Due Diligence: to examine the documents and data that are accessible in the « Data Room »; to check out contracts, applications and official certificates; conduct searches in the official registers and private databases to verify the current status of the rights; conduct user verification searches; draw up a report with recommendations concerning the potential and the risks attendant upon the company’s portfolio (proprietorship and the extent of the rights, risks of contestations, validity of the rights, licences, pledging, non-competition requirements, and so forth).