Are Your Corporate Transactional Attorneys Harming Your Future IP Strategy?
Entering into a corporate transaction without a careful review of the intellectual property (IP) involved can have negative consequences on an enterprise’s future IP strategy. This is especially true when IP owners do not adequately supervise the corporate attorneys who are preparing the “customary” documents for a merger, acquisition, joint venture formation, equity investment, bridge loan or any other type of corporate transaction. Such adequate supervision involves a careful review of the “deal docs” for IP issues. Why? Because the corporate attorneys may often not appreciate or be aware of the unintended consequences of the language typically employed in such corporate transactional agreements, an IP-focused review is prudent to avoid such unintended consequences. Invariably, a part of drafting (and negotiating) the deal docs involves preparing one or more IP-related schedules. That is, the specific patents, trademarks, cop...