Clean Technology

Home / Industries / Clean Technology
All industries
Energy · Sustainable Technology

Clean technology legal counsel across the innovation lifecycle, covering patent strategy for renewable energy and storage inventions, proprietary process protection, project finance and power purchase agreements, and the structures behind sustainable energy projects.

Clean technology lives at the intersection of hard engineering and complicated deals, and you want counsel who is fluent in both. Our attorneys have technical backgrounds, so we can engage with the substance of your renewable energy, storage, or carbon-reduction technology and then translate it into IP protection and transaction terms that hold. We support clean tech companies from the first invention disclosure through financing and deployment.

Patents and Process Protection

Clean energy advances often live in manufacturing know-how as much as in the device itself. We build patent strategies for your renewable energy, storage, and efficiency inventions, and decide alongside you what to patent versus protect as a trade secret, especially for proprietary production processes that are hard to reverse-engineer. We advise on technology licensing arrangements, run IP due diligence for acquisitions, and represent you when clean tech patents end up in dispute.

Project Development and Finance

Renewable projects rise or fall on how carefully they are structured. We advise on project finance arrangements, negotiate power purchase agreements that anchor a project's revenue, and structure the tax equity that often makes the economics work. We draft the development agreements and the construction and EPC contracts that govern how a project gets built, allocating risk among developers, financiers, and contractors before ground is broken.

Technology Licensing and Deals

Scaling a clean technology usually means licensing it, partnering on it, or selling it, and each path carries its own traps. We structure licensing and technology transfer arrangements that protect your underlying IP while letting partners commercialize at scale. When you raise capital or pursue an acquisition, we handle the diligence and deal terms so investors understand what they are buying and your innovations stay clearly owned and protected throughout.

Frequently asked questions

File early on your core innovations, then layer continuations and follow-on filings as the technology matures, and prioritize markets where you'll manufacture or sell. Cleantech often competes on incremental efficiency gains, so protect the specific improvements that move the needle rather than chasing broad, hard-to-enforce claims. Coordinate filings with your product roadmap so protection lands before public disclosures or funding milestones reset your options.

If competitors can't reverse-engineer the process from your product, a trade secret can protect it indefinitely without disclosure, which patents require. If the process is likely to be independently developed or you need it on record for financing and partnerships, a patent may serve you better. Many cleantech companies do both: patent the device and protect the process recipe as a trade secret with strong confidentiality controls.

Watch pricing and escalation, term length, performance guarantees, curtailment risk, credit support, and what happens if the project underperforms or regulations change. A PPA is the revenue backbone lenders rely on, so its terms drive whether your project is financeable. Align the PPA's obligations with your interconnection, supply, and financing agreements so a gap in one doesn't blow up the others.

Incentives often dictate ownership structures, the timing of construction, and who can monetize the credits, which is why tax-equity and similar arrangements are common in cleantech finance. The wrong structure can forfeit credits or create unexpected recapture liability if the project changes hands. Decide the structure before you break ground, because retrofitting it after construction starts is difficult and can cost you the benefit.

Our team

Attorneys for this industry

Document products

Related document products

Order attorney-drafted documents related to this industry.

Browse all products

Protecting innovation in clean technology.

Get in touch