Designing tactics for IP negotiation

Client is a global industry actor experiencing an urgent need to strengthen their capabilities in a range of disruptive areas (e.g. connectivity, autonomy & electrification).
To cope with the investments needed to establish these capabilities, the Client aimed to pursue a partnership-based approach to technology development.
In preparation of the negotiations with the prospective partners, most of which were a new breed to the automotive industry, the Client approached Konsert for designing IP negotiation tactics to secure contractual IP provisions that aligned with the overall business objectives.

Konsert mobilized technology area-specific task forces consisting of legal counsels, business strategists and technical experts, to identify the client's business needs and wanted outcomes in each of the planned partnerships.
The Konsert team translated these business needs and wanted outcomes into a negotiation strategy for the respective task force, which outlined desired IP positions and corresponding IP provisions. The negotiation strategy was packaged in a tiered basis as best possible terms, acceptable terms and no-deal terms.

The client adopted the strategies to successfully negotiate the scope and terms of the collaborative R&D projects in a manner that secured control over their key differentiating capabilities, maintained the freedom of selecting different collaboration partners in the future, and ensured liberty to pursue independent development in parallel.
The project also provided hands-on tools, guidelines and processes specifically adapted for an agile project set-up, enabling the teams to operationally manage background, foreground and sideground IP.