• Determining whether a target product falls within the scope of patent claims. This analysis may include a review of patent file histories, specifications, and claims, an assessment of how certain claim terms could or should be interpreted in a patent proceeding, and an application of the patent claims to a target product. The results of this analysis are commonly used to determine the patent infringement risk associated with an existing or planned business activity.
• Determining whether the patent is valid and/or enforceable. This analysis evaluates one or more factors concerning the validity of a patent, such as whether the patent claims are novel over the prior art, whether the patent sufficiently describes the invention, and whether the patent claims are directed to patentable subject matter or a patent-ineligible “abstract idea.” This analysis may also include evaluating any challenges to patent validity that were brought by a third-party in a previous litigation or patent proceeding.
• Determining whether there are potential ownership, chain of title or maintenance fee issues. This analysis includes assessing the ownership, chain of title and early expiration issues. Ownership of a patent initially vests in the named inventors and can progress via patent assignment agreements to others. Defects in the chain of a title may substantially devalue the patent and make it more difficult to assert in litigation. Also, generally speaking and subject to certain exceptions, a United States utility patent will expire about 20 years after the earliest application for the patent was filed with the Patent Office. Patent maintenance fees are due to the Patent Office periodically over the course of a patent’s lifespan, and if those are not timely paid, a patent can lapse, or expire earlier.

• After you receive a Notice Letter or Cease and Desist Letter. Generally speaking, Notice and Cease-and-Desist Letters are often designed to alert and warn accused infringers about the existence of the patent rights, initiate licensing discussions, maintain patent enforcement rights, and secure (and sometimes initiate) the opportunity to collect damages. Cease-and-Desist Letters are more aggressive than Notice Letters in that they also demand that the accused infringer immediately stop its potentially-infringing conduct. If you receive such letters you should consider a strategy for responding and mitigating risk as appropriate, including any risk of willful patent infringement. Important considerations here may include the depth and clarity of the infringement analysis, if any, provided by the patent holder, when the patents will expire, applicable state statutes governing bad faith assertions of patent infringement, and whether the patents would likely be found valid, enforceable and infringed by the accused company technology.
• During a merger and acquisition. Patent due diligence considerations during an M&A transaction can include, among other things, assessing whether the parties’ patent portfolios cover critical company technology, and confirming that all fees have been paid and no ownership issues or chain of title defects exist. Taking these steps may then permit the parties to the transaction to assign monetary values to these portfolios. The analysis can also include assessing patent infringement risks posed by third-party patents on the to-be-acquired technology and identifying risk mitigation techniques.
• Developing a set of “On the Shelf” patents. Even if your company is not looking to initiate a patent infringement lawsuit, you may still want to have a set of patents “on the shelf” to offensively assert against competitors that may bring a lawsuit against you. Here, patent due diligence allows you to create a cache of “on the shelf” patents that could be asserted against target products of the company’s competitors, and in addition to identifying potential areas for additional patent prosecution efforts. A weak portfolio may hinder effective enforcement, whereas a robust portfolio may dissuade others from suing you or your customers.
• Monetization in the form of divestment or licensing. As alluded to earlier, divestment and licensing strategies allow you to determine how your patents will be utilized, especially considering your company’s bottom-line. Here, a strong patent portfolio that affords broad patent protection is likely to enhance the value of the technology. Patent valuation can be conducted in a variety of manners, including by using a qualitative and/or quantitative analyses. A qualitative analysis can aid in determining the scope and strength of your patent rights while a quantitative analysis uses those findings to help assign monetary value to those rights. Qualified IP counsel can help ensure that the scope and strength of those patent rights are properly accounted for and monetized.

Google翻譯：

專利盡職調(diào)查簡介

• 確定目標產(chǎn)品是否屬于專利權(quán)利要求的范圍。該分析可能包括對專利文件歷史，說明書和權(quán)利要求的審查，對某些權(quán)利要求條款在專利程序中如何解釋的評估以及將專利權(quán)利要求應(yīng)用于目標產(chǎn)品的評估。該分析的結(jié)果通常用于確定與現(xiàn)有或計劃中的業(yè)務(wù)活動相關(guān)的專利侵權(quán)風險。
• 確定專利是否有效和/或可執(zhí)行。這項分析評估了一個或多個與專利有效性有關(guān)的因素，例如專利權(quán)利要求是否比現(xiàn)有技術(shù)新穎，專利是否充分描述了本發(fā)明以及專利權(quán)利要求是否針對可取得專利的主題或?qū)＠?，不符合條件的“抽象概念”。該分析還可能包括評估第三方在先前的訴訟或?qū)＠绦蛑袑＠行蕴岢龅娜魏翁魬?zhàn)。
• 確定是否存在潛在的所有權(quán)，所有權(quán)鏈條或維護費問題。該分析包括評估所有權(quán)，所有權(quán)鏈和早期到期問題。專利的所有權(quán)最初歸屬于指定的發(fā)明人，并且可以通過與他人的專利轉(zhuǎn)讓協(xié)議來發(fā)展。所有權(quán)鏈中的瑕疵可能會大大降低專利的價值，并使其在訴訟中的主張更加困難。同樣，一般而言，除某些例外情況外，美國實用新型專利將在最早向?qū)＠痔峤粚＠暾埡蠹s20年到期。專利維護費是在專利使用期內(nèi)定期向?qū)＠质杖〉?，如果未及時繳納專利，則專利可能會過期或更早失效。

• 收到通知書或終止和終止書之后。一般而言，通知書和停書通知書通常旨在警告和警告被侵權(quán)人有關(guān)專利權(quán)的存在，啟動許可討論，維護專利執(zhí)行權(quán)以及確保（有時啟動）收取損害賠償?shù)臋C會。停止與終止函比通知函更具進攻性，因為它們還要求被告侵權(quán)者立即停止其潛在侵權(quán)行為。如果收到此類信函，則應(yīng)考慮采取適當?shù)膽?yīng)對和緩解風險的策略，包括任何故意侵犯專利的風險。這里的重要考慮因素可能包括專利持有人提供的侵權(quán)分析的深度和清晰度（如果有），專利何時到期，
• 在并購過程中。并購交易中專利盡職調(diào)查的考慮因素包括：評估雙方的專利組合是否涵蓋關(guān)鍵的公司技術(shù)，并確認已支付所有費用，并且不存在所有權(quán)問題或授權(quán)鏈條缺陷。然后采取這些步驟可以允許交易的各方將貨幣價值分配給這些投資組合。分析還可以包括評估第三方專利對將要獲得的技術(shù)造成的專利侵權(quán)風險，以及確定風險緩解技術(shù)。
• 開發(fā)一套“現(xiàn)成的”專利。即使您的公司不打算提起專利侵權(quán)訴訟，您仍可能希望“架上”擁有一套專利，以進攻性地對可能對您提起訴訟的競爭對手提出主張。在這里，專利盡職調(diào)查使您可以創(chuàng)建“現(xiàn)成”專利的緩存，可以針對公司競爭對手的目標產(chǎn)品主張這些專利，此外還可以確定可能需要進行其他專利起訴的領(lǐng)域。薄弱的投資組合可能會阻礙有效的執(zhí)法，而穩(wěn)健的投資組合可能會阻止其他人起訴您或您的客戶。
• 以轉(zhuǎn)讓或許可形式貨幣化。如前所述，轉(zhuǎn)讓和許可策略使您可以確定如何利用專利，尤其是考慮到公司的底線。在這里，強大的專利組合可提供廣泛的專利保護，很可能會提高該技術(shù)的價值?？梢圆捎枚喾N方式進行專利評估，包括使用定性和/或定量分析。定性分析可以幫助確定專利權(quán)的范圍和強度，而定量分析則可以利用這些發(fā)現(xiàn)幫助為這些權(quán)利分配貨幣價值。合格的知識產(chǎn)權(quán)顧問可以幫助確保正確說明這些專利權(quán)的范圍和強度并從中獲利。

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Source:https://www./fish-litigation/intro-patent-due-diligence/

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