IP Due Diligence in Life Science Companies: Tackling the Intangibles
Picture this: you're an investor looking to fund or acquire a promising life sciences project, but how do you know if it's worth the risk? While tangible assets and commercial potential are important factors, in the world of life sciences, intangible assets such as intellectual property (IP) patents can make all the difference.
A strong patent estate for a life sciences project can open up a world of opportunities, allowing for licensing, transferring, selling, or even using patents as collateral for funding. The potential for profit generation is huge, but so are the risks. The lengthy product development cycles and uncertainties of regulatory approval mean investing in life sciences projects can be daunting.
This is where IP due diligence comes in. Thoroughly investigating a company's patent portfolio can provide valuable insights into the value and risks associated with the company's IP assets. By evaluating the strength and potential of a company's patents, potential investors or acquirers can make informed decisions about the potential for profit generation and the level of risk involved.
Why is it Important to Perform IP Due Diligence
Patents are extremely important to life science companies given the fact that they allow the holder to prohibit others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the claimed invention during the patent term.
The need to perform IP due diligence can occur in many different circumstances, including:
- Merger and Acquisition
- Initial Public Offering (IPO)
- Raising External Investment Capital
- In-licensing and Out-licensing technology
- Freedom to Operate (FTO)
How Can CRIF Help?
CRIF’s Patent due diligence provides up-to-date patent asset status and precise evaluation of the firm’s patents from WIPO, EPO, and key patent offices in the US, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, India, and many others.
The report brings answers to all the critical questions such as:
- How many patent assets does the company have?
- For how many years will these patent assets remain?
- What is the value of these patent assets?
Below is the list of the content covered by the report:
- Patent Asset Overview
- Geographical Coverage- Whether the patents cover the company's major regional markets will impact the value of the patent assets.
- Remaining Life of Active Patent Assets- The remaining life of the patent assets reflects the sustainability of the patent assets in each regional market.
- High-Value Patent Assets
- Technology and Patent Deployment
- Technical Fields- An overview of the technical fields of the patent filings, which indicates the recent R&D focus of the company.
- Technology Timeline- An overview of the trajectory of the technical fields over time to understand the emergence or decline of R&D activities in each field.
- Peer Comparison- Reflecting the competitive position based on the patents and the value of the patents.
- Key Inventors- The key inventors contribute to the competitiveness of R&D.
Know more about how CRIF's due diligence solutions can help safeguard your interests.
