Avoiding costly IP missteps: insights for high-quality due diligence searches

As chemical and life science companies seeking to monetise their IP portfolios emerge from the challenges of COVID-19, organisations continue to increase product licensing, acquisitions and partnerships.

Well-executed due diligence searches are critical for reducing risks and optimising opportunities within these high-stakes transactions. Missing critical information during a landscape, freedom-to-operate or validity search can put years of product development at risk and lead to future legal conflicts.

Effective due diligence searches are highly complex projects with multiple critical success factors. They are best performed iteratively, with many stages, reviews and refinements along the way to ensure a comprehensive view of the landscape. These searches are also highly collaborative, requiring a team of patent, business, IP and search experts to align their responsibilities and processes with clearly defined goals and objectives.

Poor communication, incomplete or inaccurate search protocols or disjointed project management can lead to missteps with disastrous business consequences.

The good news is that most missteps in due diligence can be avoided by clearly defining responsibilities and establishing collaborative processes that ensure iterative checks and balances.

“Intellectual property has always been a partnership,” said Matthew McBride, director of IP Search Services at CAS. “Everyone has a part to play, and those parts are not necessarily equal. You may have to give control to someone who has larger ownership or deeper expertise, so a lot of trust goes into this work and it's why the best team relationships are built over years.”

Read on for key strategies from CAS to skip the stress and head straight to opportunities

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