Patent Procurement and Management

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP's patent procurement and management team provides a full range of patent services, including preparation and prosecution of patent applications, patent portfolio management, monetization of patent assets, assertion assessment, analysis of patent-related properties, and licensing services and counseling. All of our services are undertaken with an understanding of your unique business, legal and technical challenges.

Protecting your intellectual property assets is one of the most important tasks that our clients face. The outstanding counselors and lawyers who make up our patent procurement and management team understand your business, strategies and goals, and will consistently work with your management and research/technical teams to provide strategic counseling to develop patent portfolios that help increase the value of your businesses. Our patent attorneys serve in these roles for our clients.

At Hunton Andrews Kurth, lawyers and patent professionals working across our geographically diverse offices provide informed and comprehensive solutions tailored to a variety of clients, such as Fortune 100 and other technology/science companies drawn from diverse industries, including financial services providers, automobile and parts manufacturers, global electronics providers and suppliers, oil and gas, consumer products, software developers, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, venture capitalists, colleges and universities, and telecommunications providers, among others. We also work with smaller companies and start-ups. We actively partner with clients to develop portfolios and applications that help achieve strategic goals, taking into account the company type, market intricacies and industry standards.

Technical Experience

Our patent procurement and management team includes a number of former examiners at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), as well as a number of patent lawyers with PhDs and/or master’s degrees in areas relevant to client technologies and products. In addition, our lawyers have held in-house counsel positions and worked as engineers, chemists, programmers, computer scientists and researchers for leading companies and institutions. This extensive real-world and science/technical experience fosters skillful representation in a wide range of technical disciplines and allows our lawyers to respond quickly and knowledgeably to clients’ needs.

Prosecution

Our patent lawyers and professionals have successfully prepared, prosecuted and secured issuances of many thousands of utility and design patent applications in the United States and throughout the world across a full spectrum of technologies, with unparalleled results. We prepare and prosecute patent applications that secure the strongest claims possible, and obtain high-valued and defensible patents and portfolios. In addition to carefully preparing patent applications and procuring patent rights for our clients, the team’s broad patent assertion, defense and licensing experience are invaluable in obtaining patents that can be effectively licensed or enforced against potential infringers.

All patent prosecution is handled by lawyers and professionals registered to practice before the USPTO. Such lawyers and professionals coordinate international patent filings through the team’s foreign filing specialists, international offices in Europe and Asia, and the firm’s network of foreign associates. We are careful to distinguish between numerous technologies and scientific discoveries to ensure that the appropriate team member is handling each specific application, developing an understanding of the technology/science of the issuing patents, as well as managing the concerns and challenges facing our client’s management, in-house legal counsel and research/technical professionals.

Portfolio Management and Counseling

Hunton Andrews Kurth’s lawyers and professionals continuously engage with our clients’ technical/science teams, legal professionals and management across all levels to develop and oversee worldwide procurement and maintenance programs and manage patent portfolios, excelling in establishing an in-depth understanding of the existing portfolios, identifying areas of opportunity, developing plans to strengthen intellectual property assets and obtaining maximum protection for those assets. We are currently responsible for the management of more than 23,000 patent matters, ranging from providing advice on single patents to the management of multinational corporate portfolios, and our management of our client portfolios has been significantly increasing.

International IP and Prosecution and Portfolio Management

We have filed numerous patent applications in virtually every country in the world on behalf of our clients. To that end, we developed longstanding and collaborative relationships with foreign associates across the world, facilitating Hunton Andrews Kurth’s ability to act swiftly and appropriately to address any situation.

To further augment our international patent practice, we have on staff a number of professional who handle International (PCT) and foreign filing, prosecution and docketing. Our team also includes an annuity department that ensures all foreign patent matters are maintained in good standing by coordinating payment of annuities and sending timely annuity reminders to the client, should clients choose to take advantage of the service.

A number of lawyers in our group have substantial experience in foreign opposition and cancellation practice, and have (in association with foreign counsel) defended oppositions and cancellations initiated by third parties,  Our lawyers are also very knowledgeable in  submitted oppositions and cancellations against competitors’ patents across a number of international jurisdictions. We closely monitor Opposition due dates for client patent matters we prosecute, and for some clients, closely monitor the prosecution of competitor patents in different jurisdictions that have the potential to be opposed. Our lawyers have also been involved in other post-grant procedures such as invalidation proceedings internationally, and have filed Third Party Observations on behalf of clients in competitor patent applications.

Patent Investigations

Many “bet the company” decisions turn on the strength of patents, and our clients have stressed that providing an effective analysis of their patents or the patents of their competitors is paramount to their business. Our attorneys consistently fulfill such important service by providing opinions on patentability, validity and infringement, risk analysis, landscape and freedom to operate studies, and the validity of patents through prior art analyses. We have handled numerous patent investigations and prior art analyses.

We meet each client’s needs and support their internal and external objectives at various stages and levels, establishing a team of lawyers with the most appropriate technical/scientific experience to best perform the project in view of our clients’ needs. Moreover, we coordinate our efforts with foreign associates in different jurisdictions when the analyses requires the review of patents internationally.

Rankings and Honors

Our successful approach to serving client needs in this area has garnered noticed by numerous ranking organizations. We have been recognized as a leading patent prosecution practice by Intellectual Asset Management, Managing Intellectual Property, The Legal 500 United States, the Chambers USA Guide, and Super Lawyers.