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Patents

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Overview

Harness IP believes that the most useful patents do more than protect technology ­— they improve our clients' positions in the market. Our patent attorneys work tirelessly to develop strategies that use intellectual property to improve revenue and boost market share. In the process, we gain a deep understanding of our clients' business objectives and earn their confidence as a trusted business advisor.

With more than 100 patent attorneys and IP professionals representing every technical discipline imaginable, our attorneys actually write an average of 1,800+ original patent applications per year. While many firms simply file what has been written by others, Harness IP knows how to take your invention disclosure, from the back of a napkin if necessary, and turn it into an issued patent.

We enjoy the details of patenting an invention as much as your inventors do. But how will patents make you money, protect your market share, deter your competitors and protect your investment? We strive to work with you to ensure that they do by concentrating on the end game as much as on the details.

Harness IP truly delivers a full service patent practice. Our extensive capabilities and real world experience in creating, managing, protecting, licensing and enforcing our client's patents is second to none. We offer tangible success in all phases of U.S. and international patent prosecution, including appeals and interference proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Court of Appeals, and before foreign intellectual property offices.

We know how to prosecute patent applications based on previously filed foreign applications. Our international clients, for whom we file and prosecute an additional 2,500+ applications per year, appreciate our unique expertise and multidimensional perspective. We understand technology, and use it to help our international clients build the same kind of top-quality patent portfolios that our U.S. clients enjoy.

We also work closely with our clients on the myriad of business transactions that involve patent issues. As a result, we are regularly retained to perform patent related patent clearance and/or due diligence evaluations associated with such transactions.

Focus Areas

Patent Prosecution

Our lawyers are end game driven. Our big picture view of patent prosecution is grounded in extraordinary patent expertise, and enhanced by our commitment to understanding each client's target audience and commercial objectives. We work diligently to design and execute patent portfolio programs that meet and often exceed immediate client goals and budgetary requirements, while taking into consideration the longer term business objectives for patent monetization.

We are the law firm you can depend on for superior quality patent prosecution. Our patent prosecution counsel is extensive, and includes:

  • Analyzing invention disclosures from inception
  • Preparing and filing patent applications
  • Developing an immediate and durable global patent strategy
  • Coordinating worldwide patent prosecution
  • Conducting administrative appeals, petitions and protests
  • Advocating our client's position in post grant reviews, reexaminations and reissues
  • Delivering continuous and worldwide portfolio management and infringement protection

Simply, we write our patents so that they can be licensed and enforced. High quality patent preparation and prosecution, portfolio management and opinion of counsel abilities typically allow our clients to stay out of court. However, when court intervention is necessary, our clients can have confidence in the patents we obtain on their behalf. Our total quality approach to patent prosecution means that we do the patent right, the first time around. As a result, we are not daunted at the prospect of enforcing our work.

Harness IP offers both quality patent attorneys and the critical mass needed to leverage institutional synergies resulting in unparalleled practical know how. We do not reinvent the wheel when a client comes to us with a complicated or sophisticated invention, as it is very likely that one of our attorneys has already encountered a similar procedural situation. Our unprecedented breadth of experience and deep bench of expertise in patent preparation and prosecution has benefitted entrepreneurs and start-up companies, industry leaders and thought innovators, early stage ventures and research institutions, and large conglomerates for almost a century.

We are collaborators and our clients choose to stay with our Firm… for decades. This is because we consistently deliver pragmatic advice, good return on investment and distinctively excellent work.

Patent Litigation

We get results in patent litigation for the world's most innovative and prestigious companies. When it comes to patent litigation, we are aggressive advocates, persuasive negotiators and effective trial and appellate attorneys who consistently deliver victories for our clients both inside and outside of the courtroom. Our patent litigation clients include some of the most innovative and prestigious companies in the world. They come to us when they need the highest level of legal representation at a fair cost, whether it involves the plaintiff or the defense side.

Our litigators have navigated clients beyond even the most precarious and intricate patent disputes. We are known to create advantage when the stakes are at their highest and complicated technologies and seemingly insurmountable obstacles hit one after the next. Not only do we deliver the legal prowess, exceptional advocacy and persuasion skills required to transcend both acrimony and complexity, but we also offer proven trial and appellate teams known for reinforcing that Harness IP means business when the case goes to trial.

Our patent litigators are creative, and devise resolution strategies that most law firms could never think of. As an intellectual property boutique, our patent litigators can draw on the support of our world class patent prosecutors. We understand the subtleties of Patent Office procedure and the nuanced technological distinctions of patented inventions from a wide range of complex prior art that sometimes can mean all of the difference in a case.

Our litigation and dispute resolution experience includes trials in Federal District Courts in every major patent jurisdiction in the country and before the International Trade Commission. Our experience also includes appeals before the Federal Circuit and Post-Grant challenges to patents before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. We have successfully prosecuted and defended a diverse selection of patent disputes in a wide range of technologies across the country and around the world.

FTO Opinions

Harness IP offers a century of experience in performing Freedom to Operate (FTO) analysis, ensuring that your new product launches are handled smartly. Since our inception nearly a century ago, we have been helping our clients make intelligent decisions about potential infringement issues that exist every time a new product or technology is brought to market. After the idea for a new product or technology is conceived, the cost to develop products and bring those products to market is almost always sizable, and can sometimes reach seven figures or more.

With this kind of investment at risk, it is essential to thoroughly analyze the potential for infringement issues at the front end. This is proactive lawyering at its finest. If problems are identified early, a number of viable options may be available. For example, you may decide to:

  • Focus on redesign efforts that eliminate or substantially reduce your risk of infringement
  • Test and possibly challenge the integrity of the patent and other IP rights identified as potential obstacles
  • Approach the owner of the patent in order to obtain a license or purchase the patent before getting too far down the track with your development effort, well prior to the time when the patent owner realizes your vulnerability and can exploit that in negotiations
  • Assess the risks before committing the capital investment

We are committed to avoiding conflict and to helping our clients to stay out of court. We are not solely focused on theoretical legal distinctions, but rather on rendering useful and functional advice that minimizes costs. We see the big picture and focus on maximizing the investment of our client, sometimes working with them to change their design to further avoid a future problem with its associated costs and risk. We are your long term partner and therefore consider your long term objectives and goals. We are not going to say yes because it is easier.

We are consistently able to match the technological backgrounds of our patent lawyers that are relevant to your company. Our lawyers prosecute patents, litigate and handle Patent Office inter partes reviews – thus we consider FTO projects from many different and practical viewpoints. We also focus on providing a final opinion that is well organized, concise and easy to read and understand to facilitate your business decision, rather than a report mired in legalese and hedging.