Why IP Audit Matters
Intellectual property accumulates as a byproduct of building. Engineering solves hard problems, teams develop internal methods that competitors cannot easily copy, and none of it is recorded anywhere as an asset. The result at many mid-market companies is a portfolio that exists in practice but not on paper: valuable know-how with no trade secret controls, shipped features with no filings, and filings from four years ago that no longer describe the product. An audit produces a single view of what exists, who owns it, how it is protected today, and where the meaningful gaps are. That view is useful on its own for management and board reporting, and it is what makes any later filing strategy, licensing conversation, or diligence process substantially faster.
Our Development Approach
A structured methodology informed by prior IP development engagements.
Discovery Sessions
We work with engineering, product, and leadership to surface the technical work that has real competitive weight, including methods that were never treated as inventions internally.
Asset Inventory
We compile patents, applications, trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, proprietary datasets, and internal methods into a single structured register with status and ownership.
Ownership and Agreement Review
We check that employee, contractor, and partner arrangements actually assign the relevant work to the company, and flag records that appear incomplete.
Protection Gap Assessment
We compare what you have against how it is currently protected, identifying material assets carrying no protection and areas where trade secret handling may not match the value at stake.
Prioritized Action Plan
We deliver a ranked set of recommendations covering what to file on, what to formalize as a trade secret, what to document, and what to leave alone.
Industry Landscape
Companies typically commission an IP audit at one of a few moments: after a funding round when the board starts asking about defensibility, before a fundraise or sale, after an acquisition that brought in inherited assets, or after a competitor launched something uncomfortably similar. The common thread is a gap between the technology a company has built and the documentation of what it owns. Audits are also increasingly driven by trade secret considerations, since protection generally depends on being able to show reasonable measures were taken to maintain secrecy, and that argument is far easier to make when classification and access controls were established beforehand rather than reconstructed afterward. An audit is an assessment and planning exercise; legal determinations should be made with qualified counsel.
Key Coverage Areas & Applications
Post-Funding Portfolio Review
Recently funded companies whose boards have begun asking what the company owns and how defensible the technology position actually is.
First Formal IP Review
Profitable mid-market companies with substantial engineering output that have never systematically documented their intellectual property.
Pre-Transaction Preparation
Organizations heading into a financing, sale, or major partnership who want their position mapped before external counsel reviews it.
Post-Merger Consolidation
Companies reconciling inherited filings, agreements, and undocumented know-how from an acquisition into one coherent register.
Trade Secret Program Foundation
Teams that need a classification baseline before implementing access controls, handling procedures, and internal documentation practices.
Competitive Response
Companies that have watched a competitor ship similar functionality and want to understand what position they hold and what remains available to protect.
IP Audit: Common Questions
Our Credentials
Founded by James Borzilleri, named inventor and technology founder
James Borzilleri built this practice around a problem he met personally. He is a named inventor on an issued U.S. patent and on multiple pending U.S. patent applications, and working through that first filing himself showed him where the process tends to break: inventions that were never written down, records that arrive too thin for counsel to work from, and valuable work that leaves with the engineer who created it.
Rather than accept those gaps, he designed the technology and the working method behind Idea Partnership himself, then refined them across years of founding and advising technology companies in fintech and adjacent fields. The result is a repeatable way to turn what your team already builds, and what your roadmap still needs, into a documented invention record that patent counsel can file from.
Idea Partnership is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice, opinions, or patent filing or prosecution services. We work alongside each client's qualified patent counsel, who is responsible for all legal advice, opinions, drafting, filing, and prosecution.
We have run structured IP audits for companies with significant engineering output and limited prior documentation of what they own.
Ready to Get Started with IP Audit?
Book a free 15-minute strategy call to discuss your IP needs and learn how we can help build your patent portfolio.
Book Your Free 15-Min Call*Consultations are for informational and discussion purposes only. Idea Partnership makes no guarantees regarding patentability, commercial viability, market success, profitability, or fitness for any particular purpose. This does not constitute legal advice.
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