Investment Readiness

Intellectual property (IP) will be an important aspect of the due diligence performed by potential investors in your business. Whether you are seeking seed finance or raising capital to expand an established business, you will need an IP strategy that withstands this scrutiny.

When pitching for investment, you will likely be presenting a vision of growth over the next several years and a business plan for achieving that. An “investment readiness” review will ensure that investors can be confident that your IP strategy effectively supports your business plan.

Our review will identify the strengths and weaknesses of your IP portfolio and any gaps in your IP strategy and management. We will provide recommendations for improvements and an action plan with timings and costs.

When we conduct an investment readiness review we will typically:

• Provide an overview of your entire portfolio of IP, including patents, trade marks, designs and copyright, and consider any know-how or trade secrets that are not protected by patents and domain and company/trading names
• Assess the overall strengths and weaknesses of your portfolio, its geographical coverage and how well it meets your needs as a business at present
• Identify the future requirements of your IP portfolio, based on your business plan, and the development that will be necessary to meet those requirements
• Consider how your IP strategy is managed, including procedures for identifying, capturing and protecting any IP which is generated in-house, and monitoring third party IP
• Advise on opportunities for further protection, such as valuable areas of research which have not so far been protected by patents and how protection for revenue generating products or services may be extended through strategic trade mark protection
• Highlight areas of potential risk that may arise from third party intellectual property rights, and suggest strategies for better understanding those risks.

At the end of the review process we will provide and discuss with you a written report containing our findings and recommendations.