Intellectual Property (IP) is licensed and transferred in many ways. Because of the intangible nature of IP, drafting these licenses can be fraught with problems in defining the IP itself, the rights granted, and royalty triggers, to name a few. Similarly, different types of IP licenses require different protections, like quality control provisions for trademark licenses. As a result of these complexities, IP agreements often result in litigation for breach of contract. These claims include:
- breach of employment agreements, often including claims of trade secret theft;
- breach of software licenses, often including claims of copyright infringement; and
- breach of patent or other license agreements, often including claims of patent infringement.
While the underlying claim may be a breach of a contract, understanding IP value is critical to a proper quantification of the resulting damages. Ocean Tomo’s deep understanding of IP value and breach of contract damages makes us uniquely qualified to quantify damages in any breach of contract case that even tangentially involves underlying IP.
Justin Lewis, CPA, CVA, CFF is an experienced expert who has testified in both federal and state court. He is a Managing Director in Ocean Tomo’s Intellectual Property Disputes Financial Expert Testimony practice and leads the firm’s San Francisco office, Risk Management and License Compliance practices. Mr. Lewis’ over 20 years of consulting experience includes the analysis and quantification of economic damages arising from patent, trademark, trade secrets, copyright infringement, and breach of contract in over one hundred matters. He has a vast knowledge base of the financial issues and theories related to intellectual property and breach of contract litigation from discovery to trial.
To explore this topic and how it could influence your case, please contact Justin Lewis, CPA, CVA, CFF at jlewis@oceantomo.com or +1 (415) 946-2610.