At Apex, our goal is to help exciting technology companies uncover the full potential of their cutting-edge intellectual property. How to best protect your IP is a complex problem that has unique solutions for each company. Through our holistic and intensive approach, we create robust patent portfolios that will serve as a tangible asset and revenue generator within your business.
There’s a flaw in the traditional intellectual property model. Typically, the burden is on you, the client, to identify and describe to an attorney what you believe to be your business’s most crucial intellectual property. That’s like going to the doctor to request a specific prescription based on your own self-diagnosis. Without further analysis, the attorney then typically goes to work drafting and filing patent applications directed to the concepts you’ve identified while you pay them an hourly rate or some pre-negotiated flat fee (usually getting what you pay for). From there, you’re more or less on your own to figure out how to make use of your newly-filed IP.
That’s not who we are. At Apex, we’re interested in significantly deeper relationships with a full IP diagnosis, through which we assess not only your technology but that of your peers, develop a roadmap for building a large-scale patent portfolio, and set to work building a tangible asset inside your company that will serve as an additional value vertical, competitive advantage, and source of revenue for years to come. This helps our own investors and will attract additional investment to your company.
Our process typically starts with a freedom to operate analysis and industry landscape study (performed by our law firm, CMB). One of the first things we confirm is that you aren’t stepping on any IP “landmines,” i.e., the patent protection of others. Through this analysis, we gain an appreciation for the innovations of others in your industry and the intellectual property that has facilitated exits and/or large royalty streams. We are also able to identify fertile ground on which to pursue patent protection.
Armed with this knowledge, and working closely with your tech team and engineers, we mine your company for all potentially-valuable innovations and create a roadmap outlining a strategy for large-scale patent portfolio development. Whereas in a typical arrangement, you might approach an attorney or patent agent about filing patent applications on one or two self-identified inventions, we set out to file one or two dozen applications on concepts that we know to be valuable and worth pursuing.
We continue to diagnose and capture potential IP as your company grows. This includes patents on potential new products and features, as well as broadly protecting your brand with aggressive trademark portfolio building and enforcement.
The end result is a formidable IP portfolio that can be utilized in a variety of ways, including: generating royalty revenue; catching the eye of big fish with an appetite for acquiring IP; fencing out competitors who could otherwise interfere with your current or future market aspirations; and deterring others in your industry who might consider asserting their own IP rights against you.
In this way, our approach to IP development will maximize your company’s IP value potential and realization.