These offer a range of consultancy services complementary to the group’s mainstream legal and IP advisory services, brought together under one roof for the first time.
Principal amongst these is an innovative Intellectual Property valuation service which offers valuations of intellectual property rights of all types, including patents, trade marks and designs, as well as other intangible assets such as goodwill and customer lists.
It is the first time in Europe that IP valuation services are being offered by a group of intellectual property professionals of complementary skills under one trade mark; a development that anticipates the growing demand of businesses for a ‘one-stop-shop’ consultancy on all things IP.
Marks & Clerk Consulting provides all the due diligence, documenting, portfolio assessments, validity and scope research needed to support credible valuations. The new firm also offers strategic advice on how best to monetise IP portfolios and maximise their commercial value, providing budget and cash flow forecasts and assessing licensing options and structures.
There are a myriad of potential uses for a robust IP valuation and/or royalty rates, including:
- The purchase and sale of IP
- Tax planning, especially for IP off-shoring, R&D tax credits and Patent Box
- Pension fund deficit reduction
- Due diligence for mergers & acquisitions and accounting
- Securitising IP to raise finance or attract investment
- Creating evidence for use in negotiation, IPO and insolvency procedures etc.
- Identifying drivers for growth and areas of the portfolio for pruning; budget management
- Developing and negotiating licensing agreements and transfer pricing
- Litigation and expert witness
Marks & Clerk Consulting is also offering financial analysis for IP royalty audits; licensing negotiations (such as FRAND terms) and mediation; and assistance to accountants and tax advisers in presenting cases for R&D tax credits, Patent Box revenue assessments and eligibility of IP for Patent Box relief.
Marks & Clerk Consulting SNC also offers patent scoring services – whereby patents are assigned values relative to other patents rather than an objective monetary value – using the Ocean Tomo licensed system, expertise, and proprietary tools. Clients using these services will be able to define their strategy to create value from IP. Also, MCC SNC will directly invest in the monetisation of some of its clients’ patents, when the case makes business sense.
Keith Hodkinson, Managing Partner of Marks & Clerk Consulting in the UK comments:
“There is increasing recognition of the potential commercial uses of IP as an asset class, whether that be using it as a means to provide security for loans, using it as leverage during acquisitions and licensing negotiations, or tax planning. The problem is valuation; whilst the valuation of tangible assets is very well understood by financial markets, the valuation of IP and other intangibles is not, and often requires a specialist eye. It is estimated that about eighty per cent of all company value these days lies in intangible assets, and yet this asset class lags far behind others in terms of its commercial exploitation.
“What sets us apart from the crowd is that, for the first time, these services are being offered through a single multidisciplinary outlet with all of the necessary expertise in one coherent unit. The new consultancy business combines the IP valuation skills from experienced practitioners with Marks & Clerk patent and trade mark attorneys’ experience in the field of IP and specialist expertise in technical fields from biotechnology to civil engineering and more, sitting alongside the Marks & Clerk Solicitor’s business with its legal and commercial negotiation expertise.
“Large companies with significant IP portfolios have been using their intangible assets in less conventional ways for some time now, but the trend has largely bypassed mid to small sized companies who nonetheless still hold IP portfolios of considerable value which are often neglected. We are particularly cost-effective for these lower end markets.”
Christian Nguyen Managing Partner of Marks & Clerk Consulting in France adds:
“Quite apart from external transactions, there are increasingly sophisticated tools to help internal management decisions on strategy, investment priorities and exploitation policies; as well as opportunities to exploit IPR in more creative ways. The new consulting businesses provide clients with the opportunity to explore these options with a fully integrated multidisciplinary team.”
