Your Strategic
IP Partner

Your Strategy First®

Our Purpose

The world judges us based on what they can see and touch. However, at Metayage, we believe in the true value and power of Intangible assets. The entrepreneurial journey of an innovative startup founder can be extremely challenging, especially when very few believe in your inventive ideas, and most people tell you that your ideas are worthless. At Metayage, we act as a friend, well-wisher, mentor, and a strategic IP partner to nurture your idea and protect it by getting you patents that certify that your invention is unique and inventive, and give you exclusivity. We partner with you at each stage of your journey, right from idea, prototyping and launch, fundraising, scaling up to exit.

Our Services


Metayage acts as an extended in-house IP department and also doubles up as an external IP firm

Our services encompass the entire IP life cycle right from IP Identification to Monetization

International Patent Protection

We get speedy patent grants in all major markets around the world seamlessly.

IP Due Diligence

We provide clarity on patent portfolio quality, and identify red flags and provide recommendations on reducing risks due to infringement of third-party IP rights.

Patent Intelligence

We provide actionable intelligence based on patent data for Competitive Intelligence, Freedom to Operate, and Invalidating patents of competitors.

International Trademark Protection

We enhance your brand value by registering your valuable brand names, logos, and product names as trademarks in key markets.

International Design Protection

We give you an edge over your competitors by protecting your product's unique aesthetic features in major markets worldwide.

Strategic IP Partner

We act as your extended IP department and conduct IP Audits, prepare patent intelligence reports and update your IP Strategy periodically.

Why Metayage

IntellectualProperty.

Case Studies

PI Ventures

Conducted patent due diligence on Freedom to Operate and Patentability prior to Venture Capital Investment in deep tech startup.

Saankhya Labs

Prosecuted and conducted patent valuation that includes 25 granted US patents, and patents in India, Europe, Japan, and South Korea.

Niramai

International patent portfolio in the US, EPO, India, Japan, Canada, China etc. 9 US patents granted.

Numerify

17 US patents granted, related to AI driven data warehousing and analytics for Business Intelligence.

Kernel LABS

Acted as an in-house patent counsel for their portfolio companies such as Omnivor and Trusted Key (acquired by Workday, Inc).

What Our Clients Say About Metayage

Frequently Asked
Questions

Patents have an impact on the R & D, Finance, Marketing, HR and Legal departments of a company. For R&D, it protects their investment and maximizes ROI. For Finance, it increases the valuation, generates royalties and increases profits. For Marketing, it strengthens the branding, differentiation, and competitive advantage. For HR, it enables a culture of innovation, and helps to retain top technical talent. For Legal, it mitigates IP infringement risks and secures the company's valuable assets.

Since patents are territorial/country-specific, the selection of countries/jurisdictions to apply for a patent should be based on which countries are major markets, and which countries the product is likely to be made or used in. Other considerations include, the country of incorporation, likelihood of success in securing patents, ability to enforce successfully, timelines, and costs.

An IP Strategy is a systematic roadmap to align a company's business goals with Intellectual Property related initiatives. The IP strategy depends on what stage the company is in, its short and long term goals, its competitive position within the industry, etc. IP initiatives such as IP Audits. Patent intelligence, Freedom to Operate, IP protection, IPR enforcement, IP licensing and IP valuation are conducted at different stages depending on the company's IP Strategy.

The extent and scope of disclosure in a patent application should be sufficient to successfully obtain patent protection while also preserving key trade secrets to the extent possible. To obtain a patent grant, a patent application must satisfy novelty, non-obviousness, subject matter eligibility requirements, and enablement. For enablement, every element of every patent claim should be described in sufficient detail to enable a person of average skill in the technical field that the invention relates to, to make and use the invention without undue experimentation.

Especially before launching a product in new markets, but preferably even during the R&D stage, conduct a Freedom To Operate (FTO) search in those countries where you intend to launch your product. This helps to identify patents owned by third parties that your product might potentially infringe. Once these patents are identified, analyze the claims of these patents based on the specification to determine their scope of coverage. Then you can reverse engineer your product to avoid infringement, or even look at opposing or invalidating third party patents that pose a significant threat to your business.

Typically the relationship with an IP firm starts fairly early in the journey, during R&D and product development. At this stage, your company will typically not have an in-house IP department or even an in-house IP counsel. Hence, the right guidance on an IP strategy that aligns your company's requirements with IP initiatives is crucial. Transparency and clarity in communication will help you make informed decisions. Expertise and track record in successfully obtaining IP protection is another key metric to consider. Last but not least, expertise in multiple jurisdictions is critical if you want to build an international patent portfolio

Latest Blog & Articles

View All Blogs

04/Aug/2022

5 lies you’ve been telling yourself to delay patent protection

I am too busy – The truth is that if it is important and valuable enough everyone finds time for it.

24/Jan/2021

What are the patent trends in China as compared with India?

Over the past decade, the volume of patent filing in China has seen a dramatic rise.

01/Apr/2023

What are the challenges in obtaining patent protection for software-related inventions?

Software inventions are increasingly important today because they enable automation, speed, connectivity, innovation, and effective data management. Businesses who innovate using software gain competitive advantage

Metayage
Patent Intelligence Services | Metayage

Patent applications are typically published in the patent office database within 18 months (about one and a half years) of filing. Hence patent applications can be accessed online by searching patent databases. These patent applications are fantastic sources of information for different purposes including research, due diligence, and competitive intelligence. However, there are several challenges to using the information from patent applications. Firstly, patent applications are written for a predominantly legal audience.

Hence, they are difficult to read for those who are not accustomed to or trained to read them (e.g. such as patent attorneys). Secondly, searching and retrieving relevant patent documents from patent databases requires specialized skills. The Metayage team uses deep expertise in searching patent databases and transforms information contained in patent documents into actionable intelligence for our clients.


Service Offerings

Metayage provides services right from the stage of R&D Optimization by helping you to fine- tune your invention to commercialization of international patent portfolios. Once an invention has been identified and a decision has been taken to file a patent, we assist you with the following services:

  • Patentability search

    A Patentability search is conducted to check if your invention can get a patent and what kind of protection it might get. This helps us write a patent application that has a good chance of being approved. Our search looks at patents and other documents from around the world to identify if anything similar already exists. We focus on each unique part of your invention to make sure we cover everything. What you get from us is a document with a list of relevant documents, a quick review of them, some basic info about each, a list of relevant categories, a summary from our researcher, and a comparison table comparing the features of your invention with what's already out there. Our team knows patents inside and out. We're experts at finding the special features of your invention that could be patented. Our report even includes a comparison table that helps you see how your invention compares to others, making it easier to decide if you should go ahead with the patent process.

  • State-of-the-art search

    A state-of-the-art search gives you a big picture of what's happening in your area of technology. It's very useful for optimizing research and building new products. We search patent databases based on technology categories to retrieve lots of patents, each tackling a different problem. You also get to see which companies filed these patents and how they're approaching solving the problems. Maybe their method has some good points, but also some downsides. Then, you gather teams to tackle those problems head-on. Solving these problems can give you the best return on your investment in research. If you can find better solutions than what the big companies have patented or tried to patent, they could become your partners, and customers, or even buy your company someday. This sets you up nicely for success down the road.

  • Freedom to Operate search

    Before you start selling your new tech product or process, it's smart to do a freedom-to-operate search. This helps you avoid getting into legal trouble for infringing on existing patents in the country where you want to do business. Even if your invention could get its patent, it might still overlap with someone else's patent. If that happens, you have a few options

    • You could tweak your product, so it doesn't match the patented parts, and then get a legal opinion saying you're in the clear.

    • You could talk to the patent owner and work out a deal to use their technology.

    • If you have patents of your own that the other company might want, you could do a trade.

    But if you skip the search and launch your product anyway, you're taking a big risk. You might end up in a legal battle that's hard to win. Usually, a freedom-to-operate search just gives you a long report. But at Metayage, analyze the results and give you clear advice so you know what to do next.

  • Invalidity search

    If someone challenges your patent, or before you make big deals like partnerships or mergers, you might need a validity search. It's also useful if you're accused of infringing on someone else's patent, to check if their patent is good. Our validity search report goes through patents and other info to see if a patent is solid or not. We look at everything that could affect its validity, going back to before the patent was even filed.


Metayage