Most companies understand that their intellectual property is critically important, but at the same time are mystified by the various forms of intellectual property.  Plumsea’s approach is to first understand our client’s business, their current and emerging IP assets, and their competitors.  We then design an IP program that aligns and compliments our client’s business objectives, keeping in mind our client’s stage of development and the resources that the client has allocated to IP.  We explain our IP strategy in clear layman’s terms that are easy to understand, and we make sure our clients understand our approach, our strategy and costs involved.

We offer a broad range of creative, state of the art solutions for both extracting value from IP assets and managing IP risk.  In addition to the services discussed in the CREATING VALUE section of our website, we also assist our clients in leveraging additional value from their IP assets.  One approach is to team with economic experts to actually determine the commercial value of our client’s IP assets.  When this is done, our clients are able to restate the value of their company, and they are also able to borrow against the value of their IP assets.  This is particularly important for developing companies that would rather assume debt than loose equity to finance further growth.

In terms of risk, we take a proactive approach.  We understand that patents are generally offensive weapons and therefore provide little if any defensive protection.  The key to protecting our clients from IP liability is knowledge:  knowledge of the prior art and knowledge of the white space available in the patent landscape.  We use this knowledge and work with our clients to develop commercially significant, innovative products within the prior art white space that are both patentable and avoids the competitor’s patents.

For some highly litigious industries, like mobile devices, it makes sense to manage the risk with insurance products.  Through our experience, we can introduce our clients to insurance companies of appropriate size that offer coverage for patent infringement liability.  We work closely with our clients and underwriters to accurately portray the patent landscape, and we advocate on behalf of our clients to secure the lowest possible insurance premiums and rates.  Often the underwriters agree with our assessment of patent infringement liability, and offer our clients exceptionally favorable terms for comprehensive insurance coverage.

Even with careful planning, disputes can occur.  We employ a number of creative strategies to dispose of patent cases quickly and at minimal expense to our client.  We provide our clients the full array of post-grant proceedings at the Patent Office, and we offer creative fee arrangements in defensive cases that minimize our client’s costs.  For example, we offer a capped fee patent defense program that is discussed in detail in the CREATING VALUE section.