The Law Firm in this particular case study is a reputable boutique Law Firm specializing in the area of small and mid-market M&A deals as well as PE deals. It is headquartered in London but has offices in a number of other key jurisdictions. It has clients across a diverse range of industry sectors including in the financial services area. This Law Firm has received a number of awards and accolades over the years.
This Law Firm conducts due diligence exercises on a regular basis. Such exercises naturally include intellectual property due diligence.
IP due diligence is essentially an audit to assess the quantity and the quality of intellectual property assets owned by, or licensed to, a company. It should also include an assessment of the intellectual property related risks facing the relevant company plus details of if and how these intellectual property related risks are being mitigated.
The Law Firm first embraced the Alder IP Risk Management Tool in mid-2015as it greatly improved the manner in which they gathered data on IP related risks, categorized these IP related risks, determined the probability and impact of these different IP risks, and linked IP risks to IP mitigating actions. The Alder IP Risk Management Tool reporting functionalityalso enhanced the manner in which IP related risks were included in the deliverable from the IP due diligence exercise, and articulated to their client.
Prior to taking the Alder IP Risk Management Tool into use, such IP due diligence exercises had been very much a pen and paper exerciseand the Law Firm was concerned that they were not conducted such IP due diligence exercises thoroughly enough and that some intellectual property related risks were being missed. They had some issues with the manner in which they were gathering data on IP related risks and on the actions being taken to mitigate such risks. They also faced some challenges articulating IP related risks to their clients in a professional manner.
Author: Donal O’Connel
Managing Director, Chawton Innovation Services Limited
