Sterne Kessler Goldstein Fox

Product Lifecycle Management is a progressive, multi-discipline process to enhance total franchise revenue on a given product or product line.  Lifecycle strategies are very dynamic due to rapidly changing markets, new competitor products and offerings, advancing technologies, and new or changing regulations and laws.  We help companies assess new opportunities to maximize franchise value.  Intellectual property (IP) is only one factor in a product lifecycle management review; however, it is most frequently a critical, if not the most important, component of such a review.  Done right, this process guides (without limiting or otherwise impairing) product-focused strategic planning.

Lifecycle strategies, while most typically viewed as relevant to consumer products, apply to all industries.  Such strategies help determine how to drive products to market and protect intellectual property.  Lifecycle management can also be used to drive innovation and business development.  The plan should address research and development (e.g., development or acquisition of new products or extensions of existing product lines), obtaining new IP protection, and collecting and analyzing post-launch sales and marketing metrics that can drive next generation planning.

It is expected that success will breed competition.  That said, smart companies are taking their patent procurement one step further by using the lifecycle management planning process to prepare for the litigation that may ultimately follow.

Click here to review a list of the six main considerations when developing a Product Lifecycle Management strategy.

Recent Matters

• We advised a small pharmaceutical company on a licensing and marketing campaign to maximize franchise value for a product based on existing IP.
• We advised a major medical device company on whether to license-in third party IP rights as a way to bolster the IP position surrounding one of its products.
• We advised a start-up biotechnology company about how to maintain the franchise value of its first product.