Cohn, de Vries, Stadler & Co. (Herzog Patents)

Partner Edith Sokol explains how Cohn, de Vries, Stadler & Co. (Herzog Patents) is helping clients unlock the full strategic value of their IP assets.   What do you see as the main points that differentiate Cohn, de Vries, Stadler & Co. (Herzog Patents) from your competitors? From its establishment, Cohn, de Vries, Stadler & Co. (Herzog Patents) has identified a need in the local market for holistic approach towards IP. We look at IP as critical value-creating assets, with different needs in different stages of development and throughout the technological life cycle. This includes strategic guidance to clients, taking product development, technological roadmap, business development needs and benchmarking into consideration. This also includes meaningful additional services beyond the filing and prosecuting practice, such as monetization, enforcement, support in various IP-driven deal structuring, assistance in fund raising, branding strategy, trademark protection and enforcement. We believe that in order to provide meaningful insights we need to be intimately familiar with our client’s business, and as a result most of our clients regard us as an integral part of their business operation and as close advisors in the business decision-taking process. Assisting us is an ecosystem of strategic partners we formed over the years, enabling us to provide out-of-the-box solutions to a plethora of scenarios, tailored to our client’s needs, such as in non-dilutive funding, licensing, tech-transfer, etc.   Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?  Inevitably, being a highly innovative country in conflict times, the past two years have seen a surge in defense technologies. We expect innovation in this technological field to further increase in the upcoming years. Quantum computing and cyber security are also on the rise recently, and will likely proceed in view of the high-pace technological advancement in these fields. Additional fields which are becoming more prominent are renewable energy, recycling and food-tech, as local market looks at increasing self-sufficiency and relying less on imported technologies and products. For the same reasoning, we see an awakening in innovation originating from traditional industry, which has been to the most part dormant in past years innovation-wise, adding innovative aspects to legacy products/technologies. We expect these trends to continue in the next few years.   What's the main change you've made in the firm that will benefit clients?  Our recently-established strategic cooperation with Herzog Fox Neeman, Israel’s leading general law firm, bases CDS as a real one-stop-shop for all our clients’ business needs, being it IP-related services or any other legal services that our client may require throughout its operation, starting from incorporation all through large investment deals, licensing, partnering, M&As, IPOs, etc.   Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?  As in most industries, AI tools are being used in the IP-sector to a larger extent in the past 1-2 years. Careful and proper utilization of these tools enables us to provide our clients with deeper insights relating to the IP field, for example carrying out more extensive landscaping and mapping of technologies, mining relevant data on trends and competitors, improving patentability and FTO searches, etc. CDS also uses in-house developed AI tools to streamline administrative processes, assisting in day-to-day management of our clients’ portfolios.   Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?  As an example, one of our clients, that has an extensive portfolio of patents, saw a decline in its business. The patents cover cutting-edge innovation, and, through a careful process, we examined the patents and found that they are infringed by a number of products with a large global market. This opened a new lucrative opportunity for the company through enforcement and licensing of their patents, something that they were unaware of. This is now being realized through a series of enforcement actions and licensing transactions from which the company can expect much larger profits than from its traditional business. As another example is a client operating for more than a decade in a technology that was in the forefront of technology when the company was founded but showed signs of diminishing in value. We have managed to identify innovations originating in an academic institute that fitted well with the company's existing technology and, following our initiative, we and the company were jointly successful in negotiating and closing a valuable licensing deal that is now the basis for the company's new line of products.   Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms - where do you see the firm in three years’ time?  Clients are becoming more sophisticated in all aspects of their business, which also radiates to their expectations from their service providers, including law firms. This includes, among others, expectations for high quality, but nonetheless cost-effective professional services, and an increased use of quality AI tools to meet these goals. The market is rapidly changing and there is a need for a service provider to be able to deliver quality products in a shorter time period and answering the rapidly evolving marketplace. To meet these challenges, we continuously increase the use of tailored AI tools including proprietary tools developed in-house. These tools aid us in preparation of work products for the client and in the complex task of managing the client's portfolio. These tools cannot work by themselves, and require highly qualified and sophisticated professionals to make effective use of such tools in servicing clients. In three years' time we expect the firm to have an increased number of highly trained and qualified professionals, working with AI tools that automate routine operations and assignments, and are an effective helper in top-end professional tasks. We also expect that CDS will continue to lead and innovate in the IP space in Israel.

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Cohn, de Vries, Stadler & Co. from your competitors? (i) We provide a holistic package for our clients. Our approach begins with our ability to develop and implement sophisticated IP strategies, ensuring their effective application not only within the intellectual property sphere but also in broader business contexts. This is supported by a professional network we have carefully built in recent years, enabling us to provide clients with insightful and practical guidance. By using this network, we support our clients in monetizing their IP assets. (ii) we provide uncompromising professionalism to our clients, assuring the quality of work of all levels of patent attorneys. The professional work comes along with a top-notch paralegal service that is not less important. Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that? I believe that we will see some sustainability-related technologies evolving over the next year as there is a significant demand for wider exploitation of the resources of our planet. Along with this, we will definitely see the continued spike in AI-driven inventions. Furthermore, given the growing instability across the world, an increase in the development and deployment of defense technologies is likely. What's the main change you've made in the firm that will benefit clients? We have established alliances with key business partners to create a robust network that helps clients maximize the commercial potential of their IP assets. This network facilitates access to industry expertise, investment opportunities, and market channels, ensuring that intellectual property is not only protected but also effectively leveraged for business growth. Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them? There is no doubt that the use of AI technology is growing also in our field, and we cannot fall behind. Hardly a week goes by without us evaluating new tools to enhance our work, improve efficiency, and reduce costs for our clients. Each tool undergoes a rigorous assessment to ensure its suitability, both in terms of functionality and its impact on our processes. Our priority is to integrate solutions that optimize our services without compromising quality or negatively affecting the client experience. Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business? Our primary objective is to create tangible value for our clients. If our IP work does not contribute to their success, we have not fulfilled our role. This commitment is reflected in practical outcomes, such as: (i) Conducting in-depth invention mining with a client ahead of a meeting with a strategic partner. Through this process, we identified a key invention requiring patent protection, filed it immediately, and as a result, the meeting concluded with a licensing request for the invention (ii) Leveraging our business network to establish connections between our clients and major technology companies, opening valuable commercial opportunities that extend beyond traditional IP protection. Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms - where do you see the firm in three years’ time? With all the AI technologies evolving around us, we insist that the “bread and butter” of our patent work (drafting and prosecution) will remain mostly the same and all the new AI tools will only be used to support our work, and not replacing it. I also expect a sharp rise in our monetization projects, as we've seen a real demand for this in Israel with few accessible and affordable options available.

Cohn, de Vries, Stadler & Co., a member of the CDS-LUTHI Intellectual Property Group, is entering its fourth year and has already secured its place as a leading firm in Israel. As noted by Dr. Ilan Cohn, Senior and Founding Partner, the firm, which is the IP procurement arm of the Group, assists clients throughout the entire technology life cycle by devising and implementing value-generating IP strategies that are tailored to a venture’s development stage, the market in which it operates, business development goals and growth projections, and budget.   1) What do you see as the main points that differentiates Cohn, de Vries, Stadler & Co. from your competitors? There are a few differentiating factors. To begin with, the Firm’s partners are all leading individuals in the country, and many have also an international renown that is second to none. The firm has been built with the declared mission to assist clients throughout all stages of innovations, from early conception stages through the establishment of significant market presence to the utilization of seemingly obsolete IP assets for revenues and non-dilutive capital. Given the span of activity, the Firm’s partners are not mere providers of professional IP services but rather serve as trusted advisors for many of the Firm’s clients being deeply involved in guiding clients and assisting in the clients’ decision making in a wide range of topics on a routine level. The partnership with Luthi & Co. and the formation of the CDS-LUTHI Intellectual Property Group, and the very close collaboration between patent attorneys and IP litigators that ensued, dramatically broadened the scope of service available to our clients and gave a new dimension to our wholistic approach to IP services.   2) Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that? There are several areas in which the Firm expects to grow over the next 12 months, including: IP strategy advice, including devising and implementing value-generating IP strategies Portfolio management IP due diligence IP audit Transaction-related professional IP services Patent monetization The main driver is the growing demand for high-quality, trusted, and ethical professional services, coupled with a critical understanding of the necessity for such services to build and maintain value in innovations. This growth is further complemented by a dramatic increase in our brand recognition.   3) What's the main change you've made in the firm that will benefit clients? Some changes that we have implemented, include: Streamlining of our internal work processes. Implementing concise and clear communications with our clients that permit even lay individuals to understand the status and the required decisions relating to their IP portfolio. Improvements in our file-management software that among others permits clients to view their portfolio online. Full transparency in our billing practice.   4) Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them? Yes, is does. Here are some examples: Complete paperless work environment Sophisticated document management and retrieval system Clients’ ability to online access all information relating to their technology   5) Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business? While I cannot divulge the clients’ identity, I am pleased to provide concrete practical examples, two companies I will not identify by name but will refer to them as “CoX” and “CoY”. CoX is a company with highly sophisticated technology in the medical device space. Company X conceived a technology that is outside its line of development that could greatly benefit a multinational corporation Z (“CorpZ”). CoX did not consider patenting an option, since CoX’s development team, who conceived the idea, thought that this technology is trivial and not patent worthy. In an innovation mining endeavor with CoX we have identified this solution as a patent-worthy innovation, namely that it is novel, inventive and that the patent would be enforceable. We have accordingly, with CoX’s approval, began a patenting campaign and the result is that CoX is now in discussion with CorpZ, for a multi-million $ deal. CoY made a decision to abandon a patent relating to a technology that was not being used anymore in CoY. We have identified the patent as a monetizable asset and jointly with CoY entered a patent monetization campaign that may generate a multi-million $ income.   6) Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms - where do you see the firm in three years’ time? Clients indeed look for stability and if a firm performs and cater to their needs, they will not seek alternative professional services. In three years I expect the firm to be more heavily focused on clients with large portfolios that understand the value of high quality professional service providers. This will lead to an increase in the type of activities noted in Section 2.