Some of the most valuable assets of companies or individuals are intellectual property (IP) rights. IP assets represent over 80% of the average business' value. When it comes to startups and most technology companies, the percentage is even higher. That IP asset value is the number that is then used to raise money, sell the business, or attract financing.
With offices in Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia, Ice Miller's IP Group helps clients acquire, protect, and defend their IP rights worldwide. Those IP rights enable our clients to obtain and defend market share in the sectors in which they operate (or into which they desire to expand).
Ice Miller IP attorneys have a background in technology (with many of them holding undergraduate and/or graduate degrees in technical fields), experienced in the various facets of IP law, and pragmatic in working with business owners to chart the best possible business solution for the client’s IP issues. We offer a full range of IP legal services, including preparation, filing, and prosecution of patent, trademark, and copyright applications in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in numerous foreign countries. We also prepare and negotiate licenses and other contracts for protection of IP assets here and abroad and litigate patent, trademark, copyright, antitrust, trade secret, right of publicity, and unfair competition issues in state, federal, and administrative courts of the United States of America. We assist clients with litigation needs in foreign countries through our global network of tested and trusted foreign counsel.
Ice Miller also assists clients in obtaining, protecting, enforcing and defending computer-related technology assets, including software, domain names and website content. We also draft, negotiate, enforce and defend, license, distribution, employment and asset transfer agreements specific to these rights as well as the overall rights of companies and individuals.
Ice Miller also offers audit programs designed to identify risks associated with a company's IP and with the use of the IP of others. It addresses practices and policies designed to avoid the loss or risk of loss of existing IP and addresses practices and policies that help the company capture and maximize the value of its IP.
Our IP attorneys have assisted clients to create and execute strategies designed to build a portfolio of IP assets that serves the clients’ goals and interests. These strategies include policies and systems designed to capture and protect the creative work product of the client’s employees and make strategic decisions on how best to protect a client’s IP assets, as well as how to protect the company from competitors’ IP. We routinely negotiate complex IP licenses on behalf of our clients. These licenses include both licensing-in critical technology and licensing-out technology to monetize our clients’ patent portfolios. Ice Miller’s IP Practice focuses on meeting clients’ business goals by understanding the IP assets at issue, understanding the value of those assets to the clients’ businesses, and working to minimize the business risks associated with litigation.
IP is critical to your company’s success, and so is your choice of IP attorneys. Ice Miller can help you get to where you want to be.