Importance of Intellectual property and the procedure of due diligence

Intellectual property is something that refers to the creative things like, new inventions, literary and artistic work, designs, symbols, names, and images used in commerce. In short, IP is something that has commercial as well as moral values attached to it. Intellectual property is something that protects the law with the help of patents, copyrights, and trademarks, and people can use it for financial protection or for something that they have created or invented. If you are someone, who has created or invented something, then you need an intellectualproperty lawyer in Los Angeles, who will help you throughout the process  

Due to ruthless competition in the business world, businesses came to know the importance of financial gain. When they want to expand the business or to raise sales, companies now take intellectual property assets very seriously. So, companies take intellectual property audits to know the value and rights they possess. IP due diligence is something that offers persuasive knowledge about the company's risks as well as the value of its intangible assets.

Importance of due diligence-

·        Helps in making the checklist of IP assets of the company-

It will help the company to recognize the IP assets of the company and this list may vary depending upon the nature of the business, which will include the patents or patentable subject matter, trademark, copyrights, domain names, authorships, and its works, inventions. Some of the IP assets require close evaluation due to some necessary factors.

·        Maximizes the value of intangible assets-

IP due diligence will help in increasing the value of intangible assets. This will result in boosting the value of the company's balance sheet.

·        Helps in getting the right value-

One of the most important reasons for conducting the due diligence is that you can evaluate the proper value of the asset and if you ignore this, your assets that can be acquired would be over-valued or devalued.

·        Detects the risks-

Due diligence detects the risks so that the acquirer can tackle the same at the initial stage in order to avoid the consequences in the future.

Process of Due diligence-

The process of due diligence needs professionals' skills and requires a lot of attention for the same. Every business might need the different requirements of due diligence procedure according to the nature of business transactions. Some of the general requirements are listed below-

•       Identify and make a list of IP assets-

Patents, domain names, trademarks, business names, are the intangible assets that are important to be identified for the further procedure of due diligence.

•          Make sure about the ownership and existence of the asset-

Ownership is the primary thing about the IP asset, which will be investigated in this procedure. A set of questions will be asked to know about the ownership of the targeted company when it comes to these assets. If the owner is not in the name of the targeted company, then an evaluation will be done to check whether all the steps were taken properly to get the asset from the actual owner. 

•          Check the territory and terms of assets-

Some of the IP assets are allowed to some extent of the particular territory to make sure about the validity of these assets and territories. Most of the companies operate around the world, and if these companies do not have IP rights protected, then there might be few consequences that the company has to face.

Patents and copyrights have limited validity while copyrights can also be protected perpetually. And these laws change according to the territory, which should be scrutinized properly.

•          Evaluate third party claims and potential IP infringements-

Make sure you check the third-party claims of the asset, so as some other person might have shown interest in the same. Also, check if the third-party is infringing the company's IP right or the company has infringed the IP right of other companies.

Both of these things are very important to consider. Ask your intellectual property lawyer in LosAngeles to not miss a single point from this procedure.

Every aforementioned point proves that IP due diligence is very essential for the company to protect their intangible assets and to stay away from the risks. Make sure you hire the best intellectual property lawyer in California to get the perfect results from the due diligence.