Intellectual Property Professionals

Our nationally recognized intellectual property (IP) practice helps clients create and defend IP assets in furtherance of their key business goals. These goals can range from maintaining exclusivity, to building the next iconic brand, to attracting investment. We understand how a company’s IP assets can drive and support those goals.

Who We Represent

We work with innovative start-ups, multinational corporations, universities, public and private companies, and other IP-driven organizations. These clients come in all sizes and span a myriad of industries, including chemistry, biosciences, nanotechnology, electrical engineering, food and beverage, medical device, software, artificial intelligence, blockchain, universities and more. Our clients are domestic, foreign and global.

Our 360-Degree Approach

IP can be among the most valuable assets a business owns. Nevertheless, a company’s IP can be undermined by internal misappropriation of resources, scattershot efforts for protection and protection strategies that do not support the business’s goals. Our team has developed an integrated approach, supported with objective proprietary data analysis and Six Sigma tools, to help our clients run and maintain a proactive IP strategy. This proactive strategy helps our clients obtain and support IP assets that can be leveraged for business advantages and offers optimized handling and spend management. The insights gathered from our comprehensive analysis educate our approach to litigation and transactions involving IP, such as licensing, venture capital investments and acquisitions, which in turn educate our approach to securing IP protection, resulting in a comprehensive 360-degree approach to IP.

Leveraging part or all of an IP portfolio can generate revenue streams, open new markets or shut down competitors. We have advised small entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 corporations in virtually every type of IP-related transaction. Our team recognizes that well-crafted transactions require a familiarity with the unique issues that technology introduces into a deal. Our legal and technical experience and our background in the business of utilizing technology and IP assets bring our clients a strategic advantage. This experience also allows us to deliver thoughtful counsel to our clients to help them anticipate and mitigate risks and build successful relationships.

IP Due Diligence: Our deep understanding of varied technologies and IP law allow us to help companies react quickly to any issue that emerges during an IP transaction, to provide thoughtful and accurate answers to investors’ questions, and to craft contract terms that properly allocate risks that can help drive an equitable deal.
IP Licensing: Our attorneys have represented both licensors and licensees in licensing transactions involving a wide variety of subject matters, including technology, patents, proprietary and open source software, internet applications, brands, trade secrets and media and publications. We have successfully negotiated multi-million dollar licenses for nationally and internationally known brands in industries as diverse as clothing, food, pet accessories, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Our attorneys have extensive experience in trademark license quality control and have helped brand-owners establish suitable testing and review procedures. We also assist clients in identifying and profiting from their patent and other IP assets through the development of appropriate licensing strategies and royalty structures.
Partnering Agreements: We assist clients in developing and reviewing all types of partnering agreements, including distribution and marketing, franchising, co-branding, computer software and networks, joint ventures, outsourcing, technology transfers, publishing and entertainment contracts, among others.
Software and Big Data Transactions: Our attorneys regularly assist clients in a variety of software and big data transactions, from software development and customization to transfer of software or data by license or sale. We regularly advise on issues relating to open-source software, inner source software, Software-as-a-Service and privacy laws.
Agreements: We often negotiate and draft agreements implicating IP rights for clients large and small. Our team delivers the necessary agreements, including licenses, transfer agreements, non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, research and development agreements, joint partnership and venture agreements, manufacturing, supply and distribution agreements, funding agreements, and more to help protect the growth and success of our clients’ ventures.
Government Contracts: We help clients protect their proprietary information in the context of government-funded projects. Our attorneys are familiar with the complexities of creating, using and delivering technical data and computer software to government agencies. We assist clients with strategies for planning for and controlling the creation and preservation of the records needed to demonstrate proprietary rights in data, with the development of "subject inventions," and with compliance with regulations governing the ownership of patent rights in subject inventions.

Our attorneys also advise clients to protect ownership of, and the rights to use, data and information first developed during performance of a procurement contract, cooperative agreement, cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA), and more. In addition, our attorneys represent clients in disputes arising out of the assertion of limited or restricted rights in technical data, including product designs, drawings and diagrams, test data and methodologies, manufacturing processes and computer software.

The Vorys IP team includes an impressive roster of professionals with advanced degrees and/or technical backgrounds in today’s relevant technologies. Our technical backgrounds, together with our experience advising domestic and international clients with respect to managing global portfolios, enables us to craft individualized strategies for each client’s business purposes. We work with clients of all sizes across a myriad of industries, including:

The Vorys Scientific Advisor and Patent Agent (SAPA) Initiative identifies talented candidates and provides them with an introduction to and training for becoming a scientific advisor or patent agent.

On the Vorys Intellectual Property Updates LinkedIn page, we share important IP-related news, fund notable facts about inventors and inventions, information about our team and upcoming IP events that make be of interest.

Intellectual Property

Overview

Who We Represent

Our 360-Degree Approach

Industry Experience

News & Insights

News

Events

Publications

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