Patents shape what your company can build, what it can charge for, and who can stop it from selling. Our patent services help you make those decisions with clear information: whether a competitor's patent is a real threat, whether your own patents would survive a challenge, what a license should cost, and which patents in a portfolio are worth the maintenance fees. We approach patents as engineers and litigators. Casey Scott McKay wrote software before he practiced law, and we read claims against actual products, code, and schematics. The same firm that advises on patents also litigates them, so the advice reflects how claims hold up in federal court and at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
What Our Patent Services Cover
Our patent work is counseling, opinions, transactions, and disputes. We analyze patents for infringement and for validity under 35 U.S.C. Sections 101, 102, 103, and 112, prepare written opinions, run freedom-to-operate studies, negotiate and draft licenses, assess and organize portfolios, and conduct patent diligence in financings and acquisitions. We do not prepare, file, or prosecute patent applications, and we do not respond to USPTO office actions. When you need new applications filed, we work alongside your prosecution counsel, and our portfolio and licensing advice can inform what they file. That division keeps our attention on the questions that decide a patent's commercial and legal value once it issues: what it covers, whether it is valid, who practices it, and what it is worth.
The Patent Services We Offer
Strategic patent counseling and opinions covers patentability and validity assessments, infringement and non-infringement opinions, and advice on design-arounds, each tied to a business decision such as a launch or an investment. Patent licensing handles exclusive and non-exclusive licenses, cross-licenses, settlement licenses, and patent pool participation, with royalty structures, field-of-use limits, and audit rights drafted precisely. Portfolio strategy evaluates the patents you own against your product roadmap and your competitors, identifying which assets to enforce, license, maintain, or let lapse, and where coverage is thin. Freedom to operate analyzes third-party patents against a planned product or market before you commit capital, and it lays out options such as design changes, licenses, or validity challenges. Each service has its own page with more detail.
When A Patent Becomes A Dispute
Patent litigation is its own service group at the firm, covering infringement actions in federal district court, Section 337 investigations at the International Trade Commission, inter partes and post-grant review at the PTAB, and appeals to the Federal Circuit. The counseling work described here connects directly to it. A well-supported opinion of counsel can help answer a charge of willful infringement and the enhanced damages available under 35 U.S.C. Section 284. A freedom-to-operate study often turns up the prior art that later supports an IPR petition. Licensing negotiations frequently happen in the shadow of a lawsuit, and a portfolio review tells you which patents are strong enough to assert. Because one firm handles both, the positions taken in an opinion or a license are built to hold up if the matter is litigated.
Opinions, Licenses, And Deal Diligence
On the transactional side, we draft and negotiate patent licenses, assignments, covenants not to sue, and the patent provisions in development, supply, and joint venture agreements. We confirm chain of title, check the assignments recorded at the USPTO, and make sure employees and contractors assigned their inventions. In financings and acquisitions, we review the target's patents and licenses, flag encumbrances such as exclusive licenses, government rights under the Bayh-Dole Act, or commitments to license standard essential patents on FRAND terms, and report the issues that affect price or deal terms. For opinions, we deliver a written analysis that walks through claim construction, the accused product or the prior art, and our conclusion, in a form your board, your investors, or a court can follow.
How A Patent Engagement Runs
We start by defining the decision you need to make, whether to launch, license, invest, or assert, because that determines the scope of the work. You send product documentation, code or specifications, and any patents or correspondence in hand, and we confirm scope, deliverable, and timing in writing. For opinions and freedom-to-operate work, we search where needed, construe the relevant claims, and compare them element by element against the product or the prior art. The deliverable is a written opinion or report with a summary for decision-makers and the detailed analysis behind it. A focused opinion on a single patent often takes a few weeks; broad freedom-to-operate studies and portfolio reviews take longer. Licensing runs on the deal's timeline, with term sheets, drafts, and redlines turned quickly.
Engineering Fluency In Patent Work
Patent questions are technical questions with legal consequences, and the answer depends on what the product actually does. Our technical background lets us work directly with your engineers, read the code or circuit behind an accused feature, and see where a claim limitation is or is not met. This is where IP, technology, and business disputes meet: a patent position affects product design, pricing, fundraising, and acquisition value, and a weak position can stall all four. We serve software and SaaS companies, AI and machine learning developers, semiconductor and electronics businesses, medical device and life sciences companies, robotics and automation firms, fintech and blockchain ventures, and manufacturers. Many are growing companies facing their first assertion letter or their first serious licensing negotiation.
Fees And When To Call Us
Defined patent work, such as a single-patent infringement or validity opinion with a stated scope, can often be handled at a flat fee with a fixed price and turnaround. Broader projects, including multi-patent freedom-to-operate studies, portfolio reviews, and complex license negotiations, are scoped and estimated in writing before we begin. Call us when you receive a patent assertion or a licensing demand, before you launch a product into a market where competitors hold patents, before you sign a license or acquisition agreement that involves patents, and when you want to know whether your own patents are worth enforcing. An early call costs less than a late one, because design changes and license terms are easiest to adjust before a product ships or a deal closes.
