Full Service in Patent Prosecution

We are veteran intellectual property professionals, experienced in patent prosecution and licensing, with complementary skills that reflect a range of experience, practice strengths, and technology backgrounds. The lawyers, patent agents and engineers that form our team have the scientific and engineering background to prepare, file, and prosecute patents in a wide spectrum of technologies involving technologically sophisticated products for inventors and producers located around the world. Members of our team have engineering training and experience, often combined with practical experience in computer, electrical, electro-mechanical aerospace, biochemical and other sophisticated applications. We fully understand the interaction between patent law, product technology and business needs.

Complete Practice

Wagner Blecher professionals are skilled in the full patent process, including prosecution of individual patent applications and successful interferences against competing claimants. The foundation of our success at securing patent protection for our clients is the well-planned process that we follow in counseling on each foreign or domestic patent application. Our patent lawyers assess whether an invention is distinctive enough to receive patent office approval and whether the claim is properly positioned against competing inventions. We decide on the filing's strategic position in our client's patent portfolio, advise on the use of design patents to secure additional product patent protection, determine the best application procedure to use, and employ re-examination procedures to strengthen or defeat infringement claims as needed.

Patent Prosecution

We understand that successful patent prosecution — the process of preparing and filing the patent application, then filing responses to the rejections of the patent examiner — is the foundation to effective patent law counsel. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has specific and often complex rules about the content and examination of applications, and patent disputes such as interference actions and infringement lawsuits frequently hinge on complicated points in the prosecution process. We help clients draft and prosecute patent applications that withstand the most rigorous technical examination. Our professionals consider each filing's strategic position in your patent portfolio, advise on strategies to secure additional product patent protection, determine the best application procedure to use, and employ re-examination procedures to strengthen or defeat infringement claims as needed.

Infringement and Validity Challenges

When clients encounter patent infringement and validity challenges, we can make the necessary analysis on a single patent or an entire portfolio. We draft and prosecute patent claims, dealing with notices of possible infringement, and analyze and manage portfolios that can involve numerous patents. We apply this experience to determine when and how to respond to a notice and when and if it is appropriate to initiate a study. We always draft a patent application with an eye toward any potential challenge.

Portfolio Management

Patent portfolio management is central to our counseling efforts. We implement invention disclosure and patent programs that audit and assess the current and pending core technology for you and your competitors. As a result, we can protect new technology from the moment of creation, and build a patent portfolio that is profitably leveraged and exploited in the marketplace. For example, we are able to perform complete patent searches for possible infringement conflicts attempting to patent and introduce a new product or product family, offering guidance on how to circumvent any possible conflicts and still gain innovative advantage. Our portfolio counseling has a strong transactional focus on what is required to generate the market for a patented product, so that you can grow that market and derive the most revenue from it by using our knowledge of technology, and our skill at patent law to exploit that technology.

Case Management and Facilities

We utilize the latest case management technology to maintain an electronic database of all client matters. Among its features, clients can be provided with highly-secure online access to their patent portfolio, allowing for instant status updates on all matters. Also, by maintaining offices in both Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz County, we are easily accessible to clients over a large geographic area. Our offices include conference facilities for meeting with clients, for the purpose of holding patent disclosure meetings and portfolio reviews.

Strategic Approach

We help clients actively manage their intellectual property assets through global strategies for development, valuation, licensing, and protection. We tailor our IP asset management strategies for each stage of a client's development, knowing that start-ups planning market growth and mature companies facing acquisition opportunities each have different needs that are best met through our experienced counsel. We believe that effective IP asset management requires aggressive protection of all your intellectual assets.