Over the last several decades the market value of S&P 500 companies has been increasingly attributable to intangible assets, including intellectual property. Today, intangible assets, as compared to book value, can account for well over 80% of the market value for many technology based companies. While some companies have sufficient capital to police and enforce their intellectual property, many companies lacking capital are unable to do so and, therefore, fail to realize the full value of their intellectual property portfolio. Investment companies in the U.S. and abroad are seeing this untapped potential as a profitable investment opportunity in which the investment company assumes some or all of the financial risk by providing legal finance in exchange for a share of any proceeds obtained from enforcing the intellectual property. With the possibility of litigation financing, companies will have the means to monetize their IP portfolios without incurring financial risks. The panel will discuss the nuts and bolts of funded patent litigation, as well as some important strategies companies might adopt when considering such opportunities.

Sughrue is an Intellectual Property Law Firm. Exclusively.
From our inception in 1957 to the present, we have focused solely on intellectual property law. We handle every aspect of IP law, and we have kept this area as our exclusive focus as a way to ensure that we provide the highest possible expertise to our clients. We have obtained more U.S. patents than any other law firm in the world, and we have successfully litigated IP disputes in every popular forum, including U.S. District Courts across the country, the United States International Trade Commission, (USITC), the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).

With nearly 100 patent attorneys that have science or engineering degrees, many at the post-graduate level, we can provide in-depth coverage of any technology area. The size of our technology teams allows us to help clients efficiently develop large patent portfolios and litigate complex technology disputes. We are steeped in Post Grant Review proceedings under the America Invents Act, including Inter Partes Review (IPR), Post-Grant Review (PGR), Covered Business Method (CBM), reexamination, reissue, and interference proceedings for which we are uniquely qualified due to our deep prosecution and inter partes experience before the PTO.

Each of our trademark attorneys has decades of experience in all aspects of trademark and unfair competition practice, from searching, prosecution and registration at the U.S. PTO and abroad, to internet issues, to federal court litigation; and we literally wrote the book on TTAB procedure and law. Our trademark clients include some of the most well-known brands in the marketplace, and our trademark attorneys are consistently recognized, internationally and domestically, as some of the best trademark attorneys in the world.

Sughrue is an international firm in every sense of the word. We are experienced in handling worldwide patent and trademark portfolios, and have major clients throughout the world, for example, in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, India and Europe. Our attorneys speak many languages, and travel the world on a regular basis to meet with clients and speak at international conferences as authorities on Intellectual Property issues.