Patents

The services provided in relation to patents include the following:

Protection of inventions

• Informing you about the various means and strategies needed to obtain protection for your intellectual property rights or inventions, both in France and abroad
• Investigating the patentability of your innovations
• Drafting and filing patent applications and carrying through the associated procedures up to grant before the French Patent Office (INPI) or the European Patent Office (EPO), or before the patent Offices of foreign countries, in all technical fields such as mechanical engineering, biomedical, agro-food and agriculture, veterinary sciences, culinary articles, aeronautics, rail, automotive, materials, renewable energies, textile, petroleum engineering, electricity and electronics, information technology and ICT, cosmetics, plastics, packaging, special machines, optics
• Keeping your intellectual property rights in force (monitoring and payment of annual fees)

Documentary searching and watching

• Carrying out documentary searches and making use of the results obtained, in particular for evaluating the suitability and the advantages of lines of research and development or in an attempt to invalidate a patent of one of your competitors
• Setting up a technology watch in your technical field, in particular of your competitors’ patents, and then enabling your business to make use of the results

Infringement / Freedom to operate

• Undertaking legal consultations or freedom-of-use searches concerning your products or methods as well as those of your competitors
• Defining your rights in the event of your patents being infringed, whether in France or abroad, or defending you if you are sued by a competitor
• Preparation and participation in the French saisie-contrefaçon measure
• Generally assisting you and advising you in any litigation concerning intellectual property whether relating to infringement (in France or in Europe) or to ownership of inventions or patents (employee inventions, claiming entitlement to an invention, …)

Opposition / Appeal

• Drafting and filing oppositions and appeals against European patents before the European Patent Office
• Representing you and carrying out procedures with that Office

Contracts

• Negotiating and drafting contracts in intellectual property law matters: trade secrets, confidentiality, granting patent licenses, assigning patents, co-ownership of patents, research, or technical co-operation

• Registering your contracts before the patent Offices

Audit / Due diligence / Value enhancement

• Undertaking of an intellectual property audit, e.g.:
  • a patent portfolio
  • an innovation policy
  • an intellectual property strategy
  • or the organization of a patent service
• Evaluating a patent portfolio administratively, legally and technically
• Enhancing the value of a patent portfolio