Patents & Emerging Technologies

Unparalleled Insight and Direction for Technology Innovators

Patents & Emerging Technologies

Unparalleled Insight and Direction for Technology Innovators

Your ideas power the growth of your business and their value deserves unsurpassed protection. Fenwick’s Patents & Emerging Technologies practice provides complete protection from day one, ensuring the optionality necessary to execute your business strategy. Pioneering tech and life sciences companies depend on our guidance to navigate the full lifecycle of their patent counseling and prosecution needs and their competitive landscape. Our team of patent attorneys partners with companies of all sizes to transform their ideas into valuable intellectual property from inception through growth and beyond.

We know patents and your ecosystem. We are an elite and recognized team of more than 60 professionals, most with advanced technical degrees and practical business experience in fields such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, computer science and software; biological science, chemistry and genetics; hardware, physics, math and statistics, and systems science, among others. Our attorneys pragmatically leverage proven industry expertise to provide tailored advice to clients on all aspects of commercialization, protection and strategic acquisition of patent rights in the U.S. and globally.

Unlike with patent boutiques, our clients benefit from the business insight provided by Fenwick’s collaborative platform of market-leading corporate, transactional, litigation and regulatory lawyers, as well as our integrated network of strategic advisors, investors and entrepreneurs that empowers startups, private and public companies to navigate the challenges they face at every stage. With the best talent and the right balance of technical expertise, sophisticated knowledge and creativity, Fenwick provides the highest-quality and commercially minded, holistic strategy and cutting-edge solutions in collaboration with groundbreaking companies driving innovation around the world.

File 3,500 – 4,000 applications every year
Work directly with our clients’ engineers and programmers to implement ongoing patent filing programs
Develop invention and innovation programs to provide incentives for engineers to identify patentable technology
Organize and participate in invention committees to strategically evaluate technology and to proactively identify areas in which to focus patent protection
Handle portfolio management—for U.S. patents and international patents—for leading technology companies in the U.S. and abroad
Strong IP audit practice that regularly performs:
- Strategic analysis of patent portfolios
- Pre-acquisition and pre-investment due diligence
- Analysis of competitors' patent portfolios for license negotiations or avoidance of infringement
- Preparation of clearance opinions where appropriate
- Unparalleled deal support due to superior knowledge of technologies, which permits a direct interface with engineers and technical experts

File 3,500 – 4,000 applications every year
Work directly with our clients’ engineers and programmers to implement ongoing patent filing programs
Develop invention and innovation programs to provide incentives for engineers to identify patentable technology
Organize and participate in invention committees to strategically evaluate technology and to proactively identify areas in which to focus patent protection
Handle portfolio management—for U.S. patents and international patents—for leading technology companies in the U.S. and abroad
Strong IP audit practice that regularly performs:
- Strategic analysis of patent portfolios
- Pre-acquisition and pre-investment due diligence
- Analysis of competitors' patent portfolios for license negotiations or avoidance of infringement
- Preparation of clearance opinions where appropriate
- Unparalleled deal support due to superior knowledge of technologies, which permits a direct interface with engineers and technical experts

Enhance efficiency and reduce costs through our innovative patent operations model, including providing routine patent services from our back office in Vermont and an entirely paperless system
Include collaboration with management on design and implementation
- Address business development, marketing, engineering and production interests in an integrated manner
- Ensure mechanisms are in place for executive-level endorsement and inspiration to ensure successful implementation
- Constant attention to cost-benefit balance of IP activity with goal that IP is seen as a profit center
- Example: Developed internal procedure for immediate and regularized processing of patent demand letters, which reduced internal cost and stress, and shifted command of the situation in the company's favor
Consider potential uses of patents
- Defensive patents
- Offensive patents
- Technology development/exchange
- Licensing
- Considers what your competitors are doing
- Strategies are two-sided: clients' and their competitors'
Include patent portfolio analysis and IP audits, which are often a part of the IP due diligence we perform in connection with our mergers and acquisitions practice

Enhance efficiency and reduce costs through our innovative patent operations model, including providing routine patent services from our back office in Vermont and an entirely paperless system
Include collaboration with management on design and implementation
- Address business development, marketing, engineering and production interests in an integrated manner
- Ensure mechanisms are in place for executive-level endorsement and inspiration to ensure successful implementation
- Constant attention to cost-benefit balance of IP activity with goal that IP is seen as a profit center
- Example: Developed internal procedure for immediate and regularized processing of patent demand letters, which reduced internal cost and stress, and shifted command of the situation in the company's favor
Consider potential uses of patents
- Defensive patents
- Offensive patents
- Technology development/exchange
- Licensing
- Considers what your competitors are doing
- Strategies are two-sided: clients' and their competitors'
Include patent portfolio analysis and IP audits, which are often a part of the IP due diligence we perform in connection with our mergers and acquisitions practice

If you were to draw a chart describing Fenwick’s patent practice, everything would be up and to the right; the Silicon Valley éminence grise is doing all the right things when it comes to patent strategy, transactions, litigation and post-grant proceedings."

IAM Patent 1000

2019 Edition

Practice members