A critical step in your Investment qualification due diligence: The preliminary audit of prospect utility patents assets
When you are in the early stage of any investment prospect qualification that claims to have an IP advantage in their space, a critical step in your due diligence must hinge on at least the preliminary audit of the prospect's utility patents assets.Not all VC or Angel teams have investors that are qualified to conduct the due diligence audit.
For individuals or firms that have this capability, The Schwartz Method (TSM) and his Big Bang Theory of IP Qualification (BBT) can serve to provide a uniform framework for your internal actor and the prospect company's IP liaison to ensure you are on the same page about the process. When both you and the prospect understand the questions being asked in the same language and with the same meaning, the respect for each other will grow along with the trust needed to get that prospect thru due diligence and open to your potential investment.
On the other hand, and in particular with smaller angel or VC teams, the IP professional that can represent your point of view as the "outside interrogator" may not readily be at your disposal. Of course you could hire a patent counsel to conduct the portfolio audit and that might be your best approach. At the same time, if you could read and understand the true merits of the patent elements portrayed in the pitch deck and value proposition presentation they make, it could be a simpler first step, and if taken forward using TSM and BBT as your "grammar and semantics" for conducting a preliminary audit, that might start a less invasive and more friendly initial evaluation. In other words, if you simply know the right set of initial questions to ask after seeing and hearing their pitch, you could get to first base quicker and if fruitful, be in a post position to get to a favorable investment step.
The posts in this group offer insight into using Schwartz's IP SAVVY tools for this "reverse engineering" effort to get transparency and clarity in the patent portfolio of your investment prospects business.
