At Carlson Caspers, our patent counseling practice is designed to help innovative companies make confident, informed decisions about their intellectual property. We partner closely with clients to align patent strategy with business goals, ensuring that IP assets not only protect innovation but also support growth, investment, and long-term success.
We work with clients to evaluate and strengthen their patent portfolios, identifying opportunities to enhance value, eliminate inefficiencies, and better position their technologies in the marketplace. By combining legal insight with deep technical understanding, we provide practical guidance that business leaders, engineers, and in-house counsel can act on.
Understanding risk is critical in today’s competitive environment. Our team helps clients assess potential exposure related to existing and future products, offering clear, actionable recommendations to reduce uncertainty. Whether considering new product launches or expanding into new markets, we help clients move forward with clarity.
Our counseling practice also supports clients during key business moments, including mergers, acquisitions, and financing transactions. We provide thoughtful IP due diligence and strategic advice to help ensure that patent assets are fully understood and effectively leveraged as part of broader business objectives.
Above all, we take a collaborative, business-focused approach. We understand that every client’s goals are different, and we tailor our advice accordingly—delivering practical, strategic guidance that helps turn innovation into a competitive advantage.
Notable examples include:
ADC Telecommunications’ OFDM Patent Portfolio Sale: Our firm assisted ADC Telecommunications in monetizing a pending patent application related to Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology. Through strategic patent prosecution and global marketing, the firm facilitated the sale of the HTC Corporation’s portfolio for $75 million. Carlson Caspers supported HTC in enforcement strategies post-transaction, contributing to favorable outcomes in subsequent litigation.
Our firm has been fortunate to work over many years to support Boston Scientific, providing a variety of patent counseling services (including freedom to operate and landscape analyses, non-infringement and invalidity opinions, IP due diligence and strategic counseling, and IP license negotiations and drafting).
Carlson Caspers represented one of the largest agribusinesses companies in the world, DuPont Pioneer®. Although much of the firm’s work on behalf of DuPont Pioneer® involved confidential information, one public example of its representation is in its negotiation with Monsanto Company over the genetically modified trait known as Roundup Ready 2, one of the largest patent licensing agreements ever struck (valued at $1.75 billion at the time of signing). Brian Hayes and Sam Lockner of Carlson Caspers assisted DuPont Pioneer in the complex negotiations on this matter, which resulted in DuPont Pioneer gaining broad, royalty-bearing licenses to Monsanto’s new technology, and being allowed to stack multiple traits in the same product. Both companies also agreed to dismiss all existing antitrust and patent infringement actions against each other with respect to their technology for genetically modified seeds.
