Stratford Intellectual Property is a unique full-service patent and trademark agency. We understand that your company's intellectual property (IP) is one of your most valuable assets. With several decades of experience in the different areas of IP, our internationally recognized team develops and implements strategies to optimize the value of your IP portfolio an IP-minded culture within your organization.

Go beyond patents and trademarks to harness the full potential of your innovation in a way that makes sense for your organization and aligns with your business goals.

CUSTOM FIT IP STRATEGY SOLUTIONS
We offer a unique monthly Virtual IP department service. We work with your team from one to several days per month. We design a pragmatic IP strategy and proactively implement it with you over time. Acting as part of your team, we ensure that your IP strategy
meshes appropriately with the overall corporate growth strategy including M&A, exit, financing, and product release plans.
When it comes to intellectual property, we provide peace of mind to your key executives, taking away the burden of managing IP while avoiding costly mistakes.
The strategies, policies, and processes we implement to account for the best practices included in ISO56005, meaning that your IP strategy will meet or exceed the recognized industry standards for intellectual property. We go beyond the reactive, piecemeal drafting and prosecution offered by typical agencies to provide pragmatic and strategic advice. Our IP strategy covers not only patents and trademarks, but also trade secrets, copyrights, and industrial designs. Stratford’s Virtual IP Department is delivered by a team of multi-disciplinary IP experts covering Strategy, Management/Operations, IP Education, and Analytics.
Additionally, our team is qualified to draft and prosecute patent and trademark applications worldwide.

FOSTERING AN IP-MINDED CULTURE
We provide regular IP training to your employees focusing on best practices, and tips for avoiding risk or mistakes. Training can be provided in-person, by webinar or via our IP Strategy Academy. The Academy provides several videos on various aspects of IP. All employees of VIP clients have access to Foundations and Premium videos. We design an invention disclosure process and provide appropriate forms based on the type of IP involved. We perform periodic mining sessions with employees involved in product development to identify innovations that should be protected.
We can create custom IP policy documents and recommend incentive programs to encourage employees to disclose IP. We facilitate IP governance via committees consisting of your key stakeholders or with one executive that is accountable for IP. We ensure all your agreements and contracts have the appropriate IP protection clauses.

IP GROWTH STRATEGY:
As part of your IP strategy, we provide insights as to what to file, when, and where, as well as how to use programs available to accelerate and/or reduce the cost of prosecution. Using our unique framework, we develop comprehensive international filing strategies to protect inventions in important markets based on your corporate strategy and your competitive environment. We help design proper
data strategies, ownership, and licensing. We grow and strengthen your IP portfolio (including trade secrets), while you and your team are focused on the development and commercialization of these innovative solutions. We perform due diligence on IP acquisitions, and review your SRED filings to identify innovations that should be protected and/or cataloged. Our team of patent and trademark agents are highly skilled professionals with an impressive record of converting inventions into valuable IP assets.

IP PORTFOLIO OPERATIONS & MANAGEMENT:
Our team of administrators are meticulous and detailed-oriented. They docket and maintain your portfolio such that it is always ready for the scrutiny of due diligence by investors or acquirers.

We also maintain a catalog of your trade secrets to ensure maximum valuation. We provide quarterly and/or annual IP budgets and track the realization monthly. We also diligently manage deadlines, assignments, and annuities. We file and communicate directly with several patent offices, and we have partnerships around the world, saving your company unnecessary costs. We manage your patent’s entire life cycle directly, from conception to expiration.

INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE:
Our team of analytics experts are highly skilled at mining IP databases to find information to make sound business decisions. We regularly review the patents filed by competitors or perform an industry landscape search based on relevant keywords. We mine for expired patents of interest that can be used to improve your products without licensing fees. We watch the evolution of patent applications from your competitors to assess whether there is a need to intervene proactively.
We monitor your trademarks to ensure there is no misuse or misappropriation. If your products adhere to industry standards, we review bylaws and monitor patent disclosures. We can provide insight on IP created by suppliers and customers, offering valuable intelligence for your product development.

LICENSING & MONETIZATION:
Finally, our licensing experts can help monetize your IP assets, when appropriate. We identify potential target companies; build compelling licensing arguments, negotiate licensing arrangements and, if necessary, manage an offensive litigation action. We advise and assist IP litigation counsel. Our involvement in any litigation issues ensures that they are resolved efficiently with minimal disruption to your company’s operations. We are well-versed with cost-effective defensive strategies to face IP litigation threats, including attacks from Non-Practicing Entities. We advise and assist counsel in formulating validity and non-infringement arguments.