Across global markets, Bodman’s Patent Group delivers strategic solutions that protect important innovations. We focus on developing comprehensive patent strategies that are attuned to our client’s business objectives.
Our patent attorneys are former engineers who provide strategic counsel and guidance on domestic and foreign patent procurement, licensing, and enforcement strategies. We manage patent portfolios in a wide range of technologies, including mechanical and electrical innovations in a variety of industries. We also advise clients on patentability, validity, and freedom-to-operate issues, as well as transactional matters involving the development, use, and ownership of intellectual property assets.
Our clients range from global manufacturers and technology-driven companies to start-ups and entrepreneurs “garage to global.” We have particular experience advising automotive suppliers in the unique aspects of implementing supplier-focused technology protection strategies and supporting related transactions. We also have significant experience managing patent and industrial design protection for medical devices, military equipment, and consumer electronics.
Organizations both public and private, from Fortune 500 to entrepreneurial start-ups, turn to Bodman for strategic counsel on the commercialization and protection of their ideas and other creative work product. Bodman’s patent attorneys work seamlessly with other members of the Firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group to protect our clients’ interests. Learn more about Bodman’s Intellectual Property practice here.
Services
Members of Bodman’s Patent Practice Group partner with clients on a broad range of activities that help them identify, procure, enforce, and license their patent assets.
Representative services include:
- Managing and developing patent portfolios in the U.S. and worldwide
- Preparing and prosecuting utility and design patent applications to optimize protection coverage, while balancing timing and cost constraints
- Evaluating patent landscapes to identify protection opportunities, competitors, and potential infringers
- Rendering legal opinions on patent validity and non-infringement
- Assisting with trade secret protection measures
- Providing clients with internal training seminars
- Advising on freedom-to-operate issues for new products and services, including collaborative design-around counseling
- Conducting due diligence reviews of patent portfolios for M&A transactions
- Drafting and counseling on joint development agreements, licensing agreements, and various other forms of commercial and technology agreements that involve intellectual property
Representative Matters
Representative matters handled by members of Bodman’s Patent Practice Group include the following:
- Advising international Tier-1 automotive suppliers on patent and trademark portfolio development and management matters, including obtaining several patents in key product technologies to strategically expand their patent portfolios
- Advising a Tier-1 automotive supplier on the development and implementation of an intellectual property policy and invention disclosure system
- Drafting and prosecuting hundreds of patent applications and managing filing, prosecution, and maintenance of international patent families
- Representing a venture-backed, medical device company through a complex patent clearance on a miniaturized surgical robot for abdominal surgical procedures
- Assisting in the defense of several oppositions to related European patents that were part of a multi-venue patent enforcement dispute
- Obtaining a patent portfolio for a start-up company that was successfully enforced and later acquired
- Conducting clearance evaluations and preparing and prosecuting patent applications for a Fortune 100 automotive company, including significant work on adjustable seating assemblies and semiautonomous vehicle navigation control systems
- Preparing and prosecuting patent applications on water filtration and ice making devices for home appliance products of a Fortune 500 company