Long contracts for expensive assets are the norm in energy and natural resources. A solar or storage project depends on interconnection, offtake, construction, and financing agreements that must all line up. A clean technology company's value is in process know-how and licensing deals. An agtech company combines plant genetics, farm data, and food regulation in a single product. When a contractor misses a milestone, a licensee underreports royalties, or a former partner uses your process, the dispute can freeze a project. We are a litigation and transactional firm focused on intellectual property, technology, and business disputes. For energy and natural resource companies, our work concentrates on the technology, the contracts, and the disputes, and we coordinate with permitting and rate counsel where a matter needs it.
Energy, Clean Tech, And Agriculture
This group covers three sectors. Energy covers generation, transmission, oil and gas, and storage companies building and transitioning power assets, with work on protecting energy technology, structuring projects, and regulatory and transactional matters. Clean technology covers developers of renewable generation, batteries and storage, hydrogen, carbon capture, and grid software, where the issues include patent and process protection, project development and finance, and technology licensing. Sustainable agriculture and food tech covers alternative protein and cellular agriculture companies, plant genetics and seed businesses, precision agriculture and farm data platforms, and food producers commercializing new ingredients under FDA and USDA rules. What these sectors share is a reliance on new technology deployed through long-term commercial relationships that have to hold up for years.
Regulation And Market Rules
Energy markets are heavily regulated, and the rules shape the contracts. FERC regulates wholesale power sales and interstate transmission under the Federal Power Act, including interconnection procedures reformed in Order No. 2023, and PURPA gives qualifying facilities certain rights to sell power to utilities. State public utility commissions regulate retail rates and many siting decisions. Federal tax credits under the Internal Revenue Code, including transferability under Section 6418, drive project finance, and recent legislation has changed which technologies qualify and when. Environmental review under NEPA and permits under the Clean Air Act affect timing. Agriculture and food tech companies work under USDA and FDA jurisdiction, including the joint framework for cell-cultured meat, and several states now ban the sale of cultivated meat outright.
Technology, IP, And Energy Disputes
The connection to intellectual property and technology runs deeper here than many expect. Clean technology companies compete on battery chemistry, electrolyzer design, process control software, and manufacturing methods, much of it protected as trade secrets and licensed to partners. Agriculture companies protect plant varieties through utility patents and Plant Variety Protection Act certificates, and seed licenses restrict replanting, which the Supreme Court enforced in Bowman v. Monsanto. Farm data platforms raise ownership and privacy questions their contracts often fail to answer. Disputes follow: a licensee builds a competing product from licensed know-how, a joint development partner claims ownership of improvements, or equipment underperforms its warranty. We understand the engineering behind these assets, which helps us draft for those risks and prove what happened when they occur.
Project, Construction, And Licensing Disputes
We litigate and arbitrate the disputes that stall energy and agriculture businesses. That includes claims under EPC and construction contracts for delays, defects, change orders, and liquidated damages, disputes over equipment warranties and performance guarantees for panels, turbines, inverters, and batteries, and offtake disputes under power purchase agreements, including force majeure and curtailment claims. We handle royalty and audit disputes under technology licenses, trade secret cases against former employees and partners, and patent infringement claims involving energy and agricultural technology. On the resource side, we handle contract disputes over leases, royalties, and supply agreements. Many of these contracts call for arbitration, often with international counterparties, and we handle those proceedings and the enforcement of the resulting awards under the New York Convention.
Agreements That Build Projects
On the transactional side, we draft and negotiate the agreements that move technology into the field. For energy and clean technology clients, that includes power purchase agreements, EPC and equipment supply agreements, operations and maintenance agreements, joint development agreements, technology licenses, and tax credit transfer agreements, working alongside your tax and finance advisors. For agriculture and food tech clients, that includes seed and trait licenses, co-manufacturing and offtake agreements, research collaborations with universities, and farm data agreements. We run IP due diligence on technology acquisitions and investments, and we counsel on trade secret programs for process technology. We do not prepare patent applications, but we advise on patent strategy, licensing, and freedom to operate, and we coordinate with your prosecution counsel.
How We Work On Energy Matters
Energy and agriculture projects run on financing timelines and growing seasons, so we organize our work around the milestones that matter to you: financial close, commercial operation, a planting window, or a product launch. We begin by understanding the technology and the contract stack, meaning which agreements govern the project and how risk passes between them. We confirm scope and cost in writing. In negotiations, we focus on the terms that decide outcomes, such as performance guarantees, delay damages, change in law, and termination rights. In disputes, we gather the schedules, performance data, and correspondence early and work with your engineers and independent consultants to build a clear technical account of what happened.
Flat Fees And Project Estimates
We sell defined work as flat-fee products with a fixed price, a stated scope, and a set turnaround. For energy and agriculture companies that includes NDAs with prospective partners and vendors, material transfer agreements, standard terms for equipment sales, employee confidentiality and invention assignment agreements, and trademark registration. Project negotiations, licensing deals, arbitrations, and litigation are scoped and estimated in writing before we start, often in phases tied to project milestones. The estimate explains what it covers and what would change it, and we update it when the facts change. That lets you build legal costs into a project budget, and a lender's model, with confidence.
