IP Due Diligence
Walk into diligence with confidence instead of last-minute renegotiation.
Why IP Due Diligence Matters
IP due diligence is one of the few workstreams in a financing or acquisition where preparation directly changes outcomes. Buy-side counsel typically asks the same categories of questions: what does the company own, how was it created, who else might have a claim to it, and what happens to it if key people leave. Companies that can answer those questions quickly and consistently tend to move through diligence with fewer holdbacks and less friction on deal terms. Companies that cannot often spend weeks reconstructing assignment chains, chasing contractor agreements, and explaining inconsistencies under time pressure. The work involved is largely knowable in advance, which is precisely why doing it before a process starts is worth the effort.
Our Development Approach
A structured methodology informed by prior IP development engagements.
Asset Inventory
We build a consolidated inventory of your patents, applications, trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, software, and data assets, with owner, status, and jurisdiction captured for each item.
Chain of Title Review
We trace how each asset came to be owned by the company, flagging missing assignments, unclear contractor arrangements, and prior-employer exposure that commonly surface during buy-side review.
Coverage Gap Analysis
We compare what your product actually does against what your filings cover, identifying material features that carry no protection and filings that no longer match the shipping product.
Risk Flag Register
We document open items that a diligence team is likely to raise, along with a practical view of what can be remediated before a process and what is better disclosed and explained.
Diligence-Ready Data Room
We help organize the resulting materials into a structure a diligence team can navigate without a guided tour, which tends to reduce follow-up cycles.
Industry Landscape
Intellectual property review has become a standard component of technology diligence at growth stage and beyond. Investors and strategic acquirers routinely engage outside counsel to review ownership records, employee and contractor agreements, open source usage, and the relationship between filed claims and shipped functionality. Findings rarely stop a deal outright. More often they produce escrow adjustments, representation and warranty changes, closing conditions, or simply a slower timeline. Because remediation such as executing missing assignments or filing on unprotected features generally takes time that a live process does not allow, the practical window for improving an IP position is well before a term sheet exists.
Key Coverage Areas & Applications
Pre-Round Preparation
Companies preparing for a Series A, B, or C round that want their IP materials organized and their known gaps addressed before investor counsel begins review.
Sell-Side Readiness
Founders and operators anticipating an acquisition conversation who want to understand how their IP position will read to a strategic buyer.
Buy-Side Support
Acquirers evaluating a target's technology claims who want an independent read on what the target actually owns and what remains exposed.
Post-Acquisition Integration
Companies that have acquired teams or assets and need to reconcile inherited filings, agreements, and ownership records into a single coherent portfolio.
Contractor and Offshore Development
Organizations that built significant portions of their product through agencies or contractors and need to confirm the resulting work is actually owned by the company.
Open Source and Third-Party Code
Teams that want visibility into license obligations attached to dependencies embedded in a commercial product.
IP Due Diligence: 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 supported companies preparing their intellectual property materials ahead of institutional financing and acquisition conversations.
Ready to Get Started with IP Due Diligence?
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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