Is your intellectual property boosting your business valuation, or giving buyers an excuse to cut your sale price?

When selling a business, buyers and private equity funds look past balance sheets to examine proprietary assets. Unclear IP ownership is one of the most common reasons deals stall, warranties expand, and purchase prices get chipped away during legal due diligence.

Before taking your business to market, review these four essentials:

·         Contractor IP Assignments: Under Australian law, contractors own the work they create unless transferred via an express written deed of assignment.

·         Moral Rights Consents: Moral rights cannot generally be assigned; buyers may require written consents from authors, software coders, and designers.

·         Registered Trade Marks: Business name and domain registrations offer no statutory monopoly. Registered trade marks in the correct registration classes, turn brand reputation into an enforceable asset.

·         Change of Control Clauses: In share sales, check whether key commercial software and partner licences require prior counterparty consent.

Clean legal title removes buyer leverage, speeds up settlement, and protects your final payout.

Connect with our commercial business law team to arrange a confidential pre-sale IP audit for your business  to protect your value and get you sale ready.

In the dynamic world of branding and intellectual property, securing the right trademark is paramount for businesses seeking to distinguish themselves in the marketplace. However, navigating the fine line between distinctiveness and descriptiveness can be a daunting challenge, and getting it wrong can prove to be a costly mistake.

You may be in for a nasty surprise!

Given one of the essential assets of many businesses, even more, so those in the franchising or licensing industry, is their business’s trade name and logo/s, it cannot be underestimated how important it is to ensure the relevant name/s and logo/s have been sufficiently legally protected