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Top 10 Considerations in Licensing Cleantech Innovations

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Like most expanding markets, success in the cleantech industry is closely tied to the strength of the company’s intellectual property (IP) and the terms of its licensing programs. We present here the top 10 IP and commercial contract issues in licensing cleantech innovations.



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Like most expanding markets, success in the cleantech industry is closely tied to the strength of the company’s intellectual property (IP) and the terms of its licensing programs. We present here the top 10 IP and commercial contract issues in licensing cleantech innovations.Read the <a href="https://mofotech.mofo.com/topics/top-10-considerations-in-licensing-cleantech-innovations" target="_blank">full blog post</a>.

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Matt Ferry is a partner in the San Diego office and a member of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group, advising innovative and mission-driven life sciences and technology companies.Matt has more than a decade of experience in structuring, drafting, negotiating, and executing strategic transactions where intellectual property (IP), technology, data, and information assets drive the deal. Matt is passionate about and focuses his practice on assisting innovative companies in industries where the betterment of people’s lives and the world is in view, including in the broader life sciences and technology areas, such as:<ul><li>Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (including small molecule pharmaceuticals, biologics, nanotherapeutics, drug discovery, antibodies, cell and gene therapy, CRISPR and other gene editing technologies, drug delivery, immunology, and oncology); and</li></ul><ul><li>Medtech and healthtech (including medical devices, digital health, and other forms of software and hardware in diagnostic and therapeutic applications); and</li><li>Food and agriculture (including in plants and crop sciences, agriculture and farming, alternative proteins, animal and plant production, and food products and consumer goods); and</li><li>Cleantech (including renewable energy, biofuels, plastic recycling and carbon capture).</li></ul>Outside of his life sciences practice, Matt counsels clients in a variety of industries, including Internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), wireless standards, autonomous vehicles, semiconductor devices, distributed software, open-source software, and software as a service. Matt has solid experience advising startups in all aspects of IP hygiene, including invention assignment agreements and use of open-source software, as well as complex patent transactions involving standard essential patents (SEPs). Matt leverages his previous experience in patent prosecution and IP litigation to provide a holistic perspective and overall business strategy to his client’s transactions.He advises clients in connection with:<ul><li>Commercial contracts at all stages of technology and product development, including strategic alliances and collaborations, asset sale and purchase agreements, research and development agreements, supply, manufacturing, and distribution agreements, clinical trial agreements, service agreements, and material transfer agreements.</li><li>Patent and technology license agreements in both industry-to-industry and academic-to-industry settings.</li><li>IP and commercial contract matters that arise in connection with larger corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions and venture capital investments.</li></ul>In Matt’s past experience as a patent prosecutor and IP litigator, he handled cases involving patent infringement and invalidity, copyright infringement, and trade secret misappropriation. He also draws on his technical knowledge that he developed in his undergraduate work at University of California, Berkeley, his graduate work at the California Institute of Technology, and his hobbyist scientific pursuits, including in physics, software, microwave instrumentation, and optics.Matt also maintains an active pro bono practice representing small business owners and nonprofits in their commercial agreements. Recently, he assisted a low-income entrepreneur in drafting her customer-facing service agreements.<h4>Representative Matters</h4><h5>Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology</h5><ul><li> Represent multi-national pharmaceutical company in its manufacturing agreements.</li></ul><ul><li>Represent public mRNA technology company in its patent licensing strategy and evaluation agreements.</li><li>Represented Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in connection with its asset sale of several of its branded and generic injectable products to Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories.</li><li>Represented public pharmaceutical company in its purchase of three product lines from a Fortune 500 public pharmaceutical company.</li><li>Represented public pharmaceutical company in its sale of three product lines to private equity-backed purchaser.</li><li>Represented public pharmaceutical company in numerous patent and technology asset purchases and sales, exclusive licensing arrangements, commercial alliances, and co-promotion agreements.</li><li>Represented public pharmaceutical company in several patent and technology asset purchases and sales, including its sale of three product lines focused on rare neurological diseases and associated assets to a private purchaser.</li><li>Represented venture-backed pharmaceutical company focused on treating rare diseases in China in several exclusive license and supply agreements.</li><li>Represented U.S. academic institution in numerous patent and technology exclusive licensing agreements, sponsored research agreements, option agreements, and term sheet negotiations.</li><li>Represented nanotherapeutic company in numerous research and collaboration agreements and licensing agreements.</li><li>Represented CRISPR-based company in numerous evaluation agreements, material transfer agreements, and collaboration agreements.</li><li>Represented startup company in its gene modification research agreement templates.</li></ul><h5>Medical Devices and Health Technology</h5><ul><li>Represented medical device startup in its several exclusive patent and technology license agreements with a leading academic institution and its clinical trial agreements.</li><li>Represented digital health company in its collaboration agreement with a global distributor.</li><li>Represented medical device company in its multisite clinical trial agreements.</li><li>Represented public medical device company in its exclusive license and distribution agreement with global medical device distributor.</li><li>Represented medical device incubator in its form technology and service agreements, patent license agreement from an academic institution, and sublicense agreements.</li><li>Represented public medical device company in its patent purchase from an individual physician.</li><li>Represented medical device company in its multi-country distribution agreements.</li></ul><h5>Food and AgTech</h5><ul><li>Represent an innovative plant protein startup in all forms of its commercial contracts and licensing, including its university research agreements, grower agreements, evaluation agreements, and material transfer agreements.</li><li>Represent a plant genomics and gene editing company in its strategic alliance with a leading commercial nursery.</li><li>Represent a food storage company in evaluating outbound technology licensing models and its outbound license terms.</li><li>Represent a botanical active ingredient producer in its research collaboration agreement with a botanical ingredient biotechnology company.</li><li>Represent an agtech company in its outbound license of its proprietary gene design platform to a biotechnology company.</li><li>Represent a public agency in its licensing agreements for proprietary fruit varieties.</li><li>Represent an agtech company in all forms of its commercial contracts, including university research agreements, NDAs, material transfer agreements, and evaluation agreements.</li><li>Represent novel infant formula company in its dozens of supply and manufacturing agreements with its ingredient suppliers and formula manufacturers.</li></ul><h5>Clean Technology</h5><ul><li>Represent public carbon credit investing company in its collaboration agreement with air quality monitoring company.</li></ul><ul><li>Represent venture-backed clean technology startup in its international collaboration agreements.</li><li>Represent venture-backed clean technology startup in its technology license and service agreement with international public energy company and other licensees.</li><li>Represent venture-backed clean technology startup in its international collaboration agreements.</li><li>Represent venture-backed clean technology startup in its technology license and service agreement with international public energy company and other licensees.</li></ul><h5>Complex Patent Transactions</h5><ul><li>Represented global public semiconductor company in connection with its patent purchase form agreements.</li><li>Represented global public semiconductor company in its patent license and license-on-transfer agreement with another global public semiconductor company.</li><li>Represented leading wireless technology company in its patent cross-license with another leading wireless technology company.</li><li>Represented leading wireless technology company in its form standard essential patent (SEP) licensing agreements and term sheets.</li></ul><h5>On-Premise Software and SaaS</h5><ul><li>Represented private construction lender in its acquisitions of two real estate technology platforms.</li><li>Represented machine learning and natural language processing software company in its on-premises software and hosted services agreements.</li><li>Represented SaaS company in its services agreement with leading automobile manufacturers.</li><li>Represented artificial intelligence-based warehousing software company in its template software license and services agreement.</li><li>Represented software company in its source code license and services agreement to international software company.</li></ul><h5>Interactive Entertainment</h5><ul><li>Represented publisher in several game development agreements and content licensing agreements.</li><li>Represented developer in its publishing and distribution agreements.</li><li>Advised developer in its renegotiation of its publishing and distribution agreement.</li></ul><h5>Professional Services</h5><ul><li>Represented numerous professional service providers in their template and negotiated services agreements.</li></ul><h5>Venture Capital</h5><ul><li>Represented fitness technology startup in its $5.8 million Series A financing.﻿</li></ul>

Matthew Ferry

Partner

Anita Choi has decades of experience providing strategic advice to companies and investors in the <a href="/capabilities/life-sciences-healthcare" target="_self" dir="ltr">Life Sciences</a> and <a href="/capabilities/food-agriculture" target="_self">Food + Agriculture</a> industries. She has helped start-up companies build IP portfolios around their core technologies, and counseled them on issues related to patents versus trade secrets. She has worked with larger, more established companies to manage global patent portfolios in a way that integrates IP with their business models. Combining her legal and business expertise enables her to navigate complex challenges that require complex solutions hence why she is so often called upon by clients to help with assessing, building and strengthening patent portfolios.  She has also counseled investors in IP due diligence, identifying critical issues that may affect valuation and risk assessment in deals.Anita is part of the <a href="/life-sciences-healthcare-leadership" target="_self">Life Sciences + Healthcare Leadership Team</a>, as well as the Food + Agriculture Leadership Team within the firm. She co-leads the firm’s Chemistry Subgroup within the patent practice, which covers both the Pharmaceuticals and Materials sector within the chemistry space. She also co-leads the firm’s Food + Agriculture patent practice. Anita’s clients praise her ability to quickly gain a deep understanding of their technology and business, which allows her to think critically, creatively and practically in patent portfolio management.Anita is recognized as a key lawyer by The Legal 500 US for patent prosecution. She received her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School where she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Chemistry and was named to the Order of the Coif. During law school, Anita also completed her M.B.A. at the Wharton School of Business.Anita is co-editor of our <a href="https://lifesciences.mofo.com/" target="_blank" dir="ltr">MoFo Life Sciences Blog</a>.Life SciencesAnita gained a solid technical background across disciplines during her time studying at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech), where she received her Bachelor of Science with honors. She spent several years working at Pfizer, developing small molecule compounds for use in oncology therapies. She has performed research at CalTech involving unnatural amino acids, and at MIT involving fluorescent zinc sensors, both for use in developing neuroscience applications.Anita has counseled clients in a wide variety of life science technologies, including small-molecule pharmaceuticals, cannabinoids, nutraceuticals, pharmaceutical and cosmetic uses, pharmaceutical formulations, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health.Food and AgTechAnita has advised businesses in developing IP strategies for soil and crop technologies, sustainable farming, alternative protein sources, fermentation technologies, extraction technologies, new categories of food and beverage products, and food packaging.The breadth of technologies that Anita works with also enables her to provide IP advice at the intersection of multiple technical disciplines. For example, Anita’s practice is also well positioned at the convergence of data analytics in the Life Sciences and Agriculture industries.ChemistryAnita also has technical expertise in chemistry outside of Life Sciences, such as in the Materials space, including Cleantech. She has developed IP strategies for biobased materials, polymer chemistry, composite materials, catalyst-based technologies, industrial processing, batteries, and carbon capture technologies.IP Due DiligenceAnita is skillful with investor-side and company-side patent due diligence. She supports many of the firm’s corporate deals, advising on ownership and patent portfolio risks and conducting patentability and freedom-to-operate assessments. She also supports her own clients undergoing IP due diligence by investors.IP Litigation SupportAnita also works closely with the IP Litigation Group to formulate strategies for infringement contentions, validity/invalidity contentions, and claim construction positions. She actively supports the patent litigators in pre-litigation diligence matters to evaluate the strength of patents and patent portfolios.Pro BonoAnita has an active pro bono practice and has been awarded the State Bar of California's Wiley W. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services for many consecutive years. She regularly represents families seeking legal guardianship. She also assists numerous non-profit organizations in developing and securing patent protection for their core technologies.

Anita Choi

Dr. Emily Roberts is a patent attorney focusing on patent preparation, prosecution, and counseling in the areas of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, chemistry, and materials. She advises a diverse client base, including individual inventors, startups, emerging companies, and multinational pharmaceutical organizations, on building and protecting high-value patent portfolios.Emily has extensive experience managing U.S. and international patent portfolios. She regularly conducts freedom-to-operate, patentability, and due diligence analyses. Emily is skilled in patent term extension applications and patent term analyses. She also has experience with post-grant procedures, including reissue applications, ex parte reexamination, and inter partes review proceedings.Her patent and research experience spans a wide range of technologies, including small molecule pharmaceuticals, cannabinoids, nutraceuticals, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), pharmaceutical formulations, methods of treatment, medical devices, microfluidics, nanoparticles, energy conversion catalysts, biofuels, and renewable energy materials and processes related to carbon capture and conversion.Emily received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. While in law school, Emily was a production editor for the Berkeley Technology Law Journal and president of the Patent Law Society. She also earned a Law & Technology Certificate from the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and was part of a team that received first place in the USPTO National Patent Drafting Competition.Emily holds a Ph.D. in materials chemistry from the University of Southern California, where her research focused on sustainable synthesis of nanoparticle catalysts for renewable energy applications and earned the ACS and NIST Kenneth G. Hancock Memorial Award in Green Chemistry. She has authored multiple first-author publications and presented at major scientific conferences, including the American Chemical Society and the International Materials Research Conference. She received her B.S. in chemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she conducted organic methodology research.