Intellectual Property Licensing and Transactional Due Diligence
Intellectual Property licensing not only helps protect valuable IP rights, but can be used to generate income, increase brand values, and resolve disputes.
Trademarks and copyrighted works often are protected through various forms of licensing agreements. Our team has broad experience in drafting license agreements, ranging from intra-company licenses and merchandising and distributor agreements to simple permission agreements for non-commercial uses. Our IP team has relationships with valuation experts who also can assist in assessment of values and appropriate royalty rates.
Licenses can also be used to resolve infringement disputes whereby the offending party is granted a license and acknowledges the licensor’s rights – thus preventing diminution of the value of the owner’s rights, and at the same time providing a stream of revenue to the owner while providing quality protection.
Our attorneys team with our transactional attorneys to provide IP counseling in connection with the incorporation of new businesses or in corporate transactions. Our IP team has experience in conducting U.S. and worldwide due diligence reviews in merger and acquisition negotiations, both in transactions our firm is handling and as secondary counsel to M&A firms who delegate to other counsel the intellectual property aspect of a transaction. This work involves analysis of the scope of the ownership rights held by the acquired company and pending litigation and administrative proceedings.
Finally, our staff has vast experience in the final phase of transactions by attending to the documentation and recordation of assignments of trademarks, copyrights, and patents, as well as security interests, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, international trademark offices, and the U.S. Copyright Office.