IP audit before fundraising or M&A

Updated: 2026-08-28

Builds the inventory of what IP the company holds, who actually owns it, and the gaps an investor will ask about.

The common gap is not a missing registration but ownership sitting in the wrong place: code written by a freelancer with no assignment clause, a logo designed by an agency under a contract silent on copyright, a trademark registered to a founder rather than the company.

• Who may perform this: Corporate lawyer working with an industrial property representative
• Timeline: Typically 2–4 weeks depending on portfolio size
• How pricing works: Quoted by the number of assets reviewed and contracts to be read.

Deliverables

• An IP inventory with the legal status of each item
• An ownership map showing breaks in the chain of title
• A remediation list ranked by impact on the transaction

What you provide

• The list of products, brands and materials in use
• Employment, contractor and partner contracts

Contents

• The author and the copyright owner are not always the same person
• Startups and IP — the cheapest steps, most often skipped
• Assignment and licensing