Most early teams either file nothing or file on whatever feels clever. We map your technology, brand and data to the right type of protection, then turn that into a filing plan you can actually afford. You leave knowing what to protect now, what can wait, and what is better kept quiet.
At a glance
- Practice
- IP
- Pricing
- Flat fee, quoted before we start
- Included
- 6 deliverables
- Process
- 3 steps, one named attorney
- Where we work
- Slack, email or a call
When founders call us
The moments that usually bring a company to us for this work.
- 01
You are preparing a seed or Series A and expect investors to ask what you own
- 02
Your engineers built something novel and nobody has decided whether to patent it
- 03
You are about to publish a paper, open-source a repo or demo at a conference
- 04
A competitor just filed patents in your space and you want to know where you stand
What you get
Scoped in writing before we start. One flat fee for all of it.
- Inventory of your core technology, brand assets, data and know-how
- Recommendation per asset: patent, trade secret, copyright, trademark or no action
- Prioritized filing roadmap with jurisdictions and a suggested sequence
- Trade secret handling checklist covering access, NDAs and documentation
- Summary of disclosure risks tied to your launch and publication calendar
- One-page IP overview you can drop into a data room
How it works
- 1
Intake call
We walk through your product, roadmap, fundraising timeline and anything already filed or published.
- 2
Asset mapping
We sort each asset by protection type and flag disclosure deadlines that could cost you rights.
- 3
Roadmap delivery
You receive the written strategy and a call to agree on what gets filed first.
Mistakes we help you avoid
The ones we see most often, and catch before they cost you.
- Avoided
Publicly disclosing an invention before filing and losing patent rights in most countries outside the US
- Avoided
Patenting a backend process that competitors cannot be seen using, when a trade secret would protect it better
- Avoided
Spending early runway on foreign filings for markets you will not enter for years
- Avoided
Leaving source code, model weights or customer data without basic secrecy controls
IP Portfolio Strategy: questions founders ask
Sometimes. Software patents are possible in the US but face eligibility challenges for claims that look like abstract ideas, so the claim has to tie to a concrete technical improvement. For many backend processes a trade secret is cheaper and lasts as long as you keep it confidential. The right answer depends on whether competitors could detect and copy what you do.
A patent gives you exclusive rights for a limited term in exchange for publishing how the invention works. A trade secret protects information for as long as it stays confidential and you take reasonable steps to keep it that way. Once a secret leaks or is reverse engineered, the protection is gone.
Before the first public disclosure of anything technical, whether that is a launch, a pitch deck sent widely, a paper or a code release. The US gives inventors a one-year grace period after their own disclosure, but most other countries do not. A short strategy session before launch keeps your options open.
Most seed investors care more that the company clearly owns its IP than about the number of filings. Clean invention assignments from founders and contractors matter at every stage. Patents can help in deep tech, hardware and life sciences, where they often matter more to the investment case.
Get a flat-fee quote for IP Portfolio Strategy.
A short call with an attorney. You leave with a written scope and one fixed price.
Book a call