Overview
Our due diligence expertise, which includes clearance investigations, spans virtually all industries—combining deep technical knowledge and proven litigation experience. Our team can quickly provide a comprehensive overview of all applicable IP assets and their pertinence to a wide variety of strategic issues, including determining the scope of protection and potential value of an IP portfolio acquisition. Our guidance assists in avoiding infringement issues with planned product and brand development, determining applicability of a client’s portfolio to products of one or more other companies, and identifying those assets that may be best licensed.
In addition, we assist in determining which client IP assets can be asserted against litigation targets, and competitive assets that in turn may be used against our clients. We also identify existing IP assets that may impede or improve a client’s ability to enter markets or introduce new technologies or products, and manage all aspects of IP as they relate to obtaining financing or preparing for an initial or secondary public offering.
When our clients express an interest in acquiring another company, we immediately and thoroughly identify IP risks which could result in undue exposure. In addition to the primary areas of IP ownership, protectability of IP, and risk of IP infringement, we can provide further assessments. These can include potential copyright claims for unauthorized use or modification of software by the target company, verification of proper IP assignation, potential claims of misappropriation of employee IP by the target company, and risks related to the use of open-source code.
Representative Experience
Acquisition of Ziptronix, Inc. by client Tessera Technologies, Inc.
Tessera Technologies, Inc., a company focused on technology development and licensing in the fields of image sensing and semiconductor packaging, acquired Ziptronix, Inc. in a transaction valued at $39 million. Ziptronix’s technology is directed to low-temperature wafer bonding processes used to manufacture different types of 3D integrated devices (chip stacking and packaging). The Knobbe team assisted in-house teams in analyzing Ziptronix’s large patent portfolio, which included many thousands of claims across numerous patent portfolios in the U.S. and abroad. Tessera expects the annual market addressed by the acquired technologies will exceed $15 billion by 2019. Knobbe Martens attorneys Adeel Akhtar and Paul Stellman aided Tessera in-house attorneys in conducting extensive due diligence on Ziptronix’s portfolio.
Portfolio Evaluation
Our attorneys assisted a venture capital entity in determining the value of a sought-after company’s portfolio to be less than 20% of the asking amount.
We counseled a European client about the ability to exploit a sought-after large portfolio of film and television rights in the U.S.
Preparing for Potential Litigation
Knobbe attorneys provided a client with information to build a strong defensive shield in the event they become a defendant in litigation that could result in millions of dollars in damages.