Due Diligence

Intellectual Property (IP) rights are commonly bought, sold or licensed as part of a corporate deal or transaction, and often represent a key element of a due diligence process.

Our team of specialist solicitors, patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys are able to provide a commercially valuable assessment of an IP portfolio, either as part of deal process or as a stand-alone ‘health-check’. This assessment can include a basic search, status check and a ‘red flag’ report, or a detailed review of the scope of protection, filing strategies, freedom to operate and ownership. In this way, we are able to stress test a portfolio to identify key strengths and weaknesses.

IP due diligence work may also involve reviewing IP-related licenses and agreements, assessing encumbrances on a company’s IP, checking ownership of IP rights, reviewing employment contracts for IP provisions, and assessing compliance with Open Source Software (OSS) license requirements.

Our team provides direct support to the CMS Corporate team, to ensure a seamless due diligence process.