IP due diligence is a structured review of the rights that create or protect value in a target: patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, domain names, data rights, and the licenses that let the business use third-party IP — or let others use its IP.
For PE, corp dev, lenders, and search funds, IP diligence answers: Will we own what we think we are buying? Can competitors block us? Are there hidden royalty stacks or open-source bombs? What remediation belongs in the SPA?
Without clean assignment and chain of title, the company may not own the code, inventions, or brand that power revenue.
Pending suits, demand letters, and crowded patent landscapes reprice deals or kill financing.
Change-of-control clauses, exclusivity, and royalty stacks can break the investment case overnight.
Copyleft contamination and weak trade-secret hygiene destroy exclusivity assumptions post-close.
Owned and licensed patents, status, jurisdictions, maintenance, and link to products and competitive moat.
Registered marks, common-law use, domain portfolio, brand clearance for expansion markets.
Software, content libraries, creative works, work-for-hire status, and third-party content licenses.
What is secret vs public, NDAs, access controls, employee and contractor agreements, leakage history.
In-licenses required to ship, out-licenses that limit exclusivity, royalties, exclusivity, and CoC clauses.
Suits, oppositions, PTAB, cease-and-desist, and public freedom-to-operate red flags for core products.
| Stage | IP focus | Depth |
|---|---|---|
| Target screening | Public patent/trademark hits, litigation headlines, brand ownership signals | Light, hours per name |
| Pre-LOI | Portfolio inventory, assignment red flags, key license CoC risk | Public-info pack + management Qs |
| Confirmatory | Assignment chain audit, license review, OSS audit, FTO deep dive | IP counsel + tech specialists |
| SPA / closing | IP reps, schedules, escrow for remediation, post-close registration transfers | Legal + ops integration |
| Approach | Typical cost | Turnaround | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| IP counsel + landscape / FTO | $15,000–$100,000+ | 2–8 weeks | Tech, biotech, brand-heavy deals |
| Internal counsel + outside specialist | Loaded team cost | 1–4 weeks | Teams with IP capacity |
| dodilligence first-pass report | $49 | 3–24s (median 15s · 4 real orders) | Public-info triage before counsel spend |
Use a cheap first pass to decide whether a name deserves a full IP portfolio audit — not to pretend claim charts and validity opinions are optional on patent-dependent products.
Traditional IP diligence often runs $15K–$100K. A structured public-info first pass is $49 — enough to kill broken ownership chains early and sharpen questions for the survivors.
Order a report — $49 See sample report| Area | Red flag | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Founders/contractors never assigned inventions or code | Deal-Killer |
| Ownership | Critical patents or trademarks held by a third party | Deal-Killer |
| Patents | Core product depends on abandoned or lapsed patents | High |
| Licenses | Exclusive in-license with change-of-control termination | Deal-Killer |
| Licenses | Royalty stack that destroys unit economics post-close | Deal-Killer |
| Litigation | Active patent infringement suit on core product | Deal-Killer |
| OSS | Copyleft contamination in proprietary core | Deal-Killer |
| Trade secrets | No NDAs / weak access controls on secret sauce | High |
| Brands | Confusingly similar marks or opposition risk in expansion markets | Watch |
Use this interactive checklist as a deal-team scorecard. Severity tags: Deal-Killer High Watch
List the 5–10 IP assets or rights that must be true for the investment case. Everything else is secondary.
Patent and trademark databases, litigation dockets, news, OSS signals, domain ownership, and published licenses.
Ask for assignment schedules, license lists, OSS inventory, and pending claims. Demand evidence, not slogans.
Trigger IP counsel for ownership chain audit, material license review, FTO, and litigation risk where residual risk is high.
Translate findings into price chips, indemnities, escrow, re-assignment covenants, or walk-away.
Recordation, gap assignments, portfolio pruning, license renegotiation, and brand protection owners before close.
See also: what is in a due diligence report, legal due diligence, technology due diligence, and the free sample report.
Get a structured, citation-backed diligence PDF on your target — including public IP and litigation signals — from $49.
Order report — $49 View sample PDF3–24s delivery (median 15s · 4 real orders) · 16+ sections · no subscription
Public-info pack with financials, risk register, and IC workplan. Code DI20-WELCOME → $39.20. Not legal or financial advice.
Order $39.20 → See sample