Case Study: Supporting IP Litigation Law Firms

[Some information in this case study has been redacted to preserve client’s confidentiality requirements.]

INTRODUCTION

GHB Intellect has been providing IP technical and business consulting services since 2007, helping our customers to align all their IP activities with their business objectives. Our services include turn-key IP evaluation, development, management, valuation, and monetization.

Understanding the true value and merits of high-tech/high-science patent portfolios requires a multi-disciplined and experienced team of top-notch IP specialists, technologist, and financial analysts. With over 600 hand-picked deep domain experts, state-of-the-art labs and equipment, and time-tested analytical and management processes, we are proud to offer one of the highest-quality, full-service, IP services worldwide.

GHB Intellect’s elite team of specialists, along with our extensive resources and experiences, uniquely position us to provide invaluable intelligence and actionable advice, reliably and cost-effectively. GHB Intellect provides its customers a full project management solution for managing resource-intensive and highly complex IP projects, starting from customer project intake all the way to work-product delivery. We are equipped with full staff of project managers, SME’s, and ancillary resources to reduce over 95% of our customer’s burden on due diligence effort, producing high-quality actionable work product ready for final review.

FIG. 1 illustrates GHB Intellect’s 5-step approach which includes 1) Project Intake; 2) Expert Matching and Assignments; 3) Expert Analysis; 4) Quality Assurance; and 5) Delivery and Follow-Ups. Our 5-step approach has proven time and again to deliver to our customers the value-add work product based on which they can confidently take case and business actions.

FIG. 1 GHB Intellect’s 5-step approach

Below we will describe a case study that exemplifies this value proposition.

CASE STUDY: 5G Evidence-of-Use Charts

GHB Intellect was approached by one of its top customers to help them with the development of a large number of Evidence-of-Use (EoU) charts for a patent litigation case for which they were about to file. The scope of the infringement theories were massive covering mobile communication (5G) base stations, networks, as well as handsets. They covered a wide variety of features of 5G RAN (Radio Access Network) and 5G Core Network.

The time-frame was extremely tight (1 week) due to hard-stop deadline for filing the complaint. Given the track record of GHB Intellect in quality and on-time delivery, the customer felt comfortable relying on GHB Intellect to deliver on this very sensitive project.

The Customer offered no project management of its own. A team approach was necessary to set up and execute the project in a timely and effective manner, complete with multiple subject matter experts, project managers, and project tracking tools. The project required the preparation, analysis, and claim charting for nearly 50 patents, averaging about 10 claims per chart for a total of nearly 500 charted claims.

KEY HURDLES

1. At project intake, understanding customer objectives, determining subject matter requirements, strategizing on targets.
2. Determining customer’s entire project scope and objectives, and translating them into technical requirements and tasks for each subject matter expert to follow.
3. Determining the best fitting subject matter experts for each task, forming a team of such experts with backups as needed.
4. Producing work products on a rolling basis to keep the counsel productive on their own end.
5. Organizing and managing the team and the project efficiently and keeping the client abreast of progress frequently.
6. Staying flexible as client change requests come in.

PROJECT INTAKE REQUIREMENTS

• Rushed Customer Objectives: Initial discussion with customer on project scope, work product deliverables, and delivery dates.
• Highly Technical Subject Matter Clusters: 5G RAN, 5G Core, 5G handsets, 5G carrier networks, 5G base stations, 5G standards
• Extensive Subject Matter Expertise Requirements: SMEs for MIMO Antennas, base station equipment, carriers, user equipment, standard, PHY, MAC, Network, etc.
• Rush Delivery Date: 1 week

STEP 1 – Project Intake

The table below illustrates the project intake process, exemplified by the case study example.

Typical Intake Flow	Case Study Example
	Initial discussion with customer on project scope, work product deliverables, and delivery dates. Customer needed help with the development of Evidence of Use (EoU) for a patent litigation case. The scope of the infringement theories were massive covering mobile communication (5G) base stations, networks, and handsets, covering multitude of targets. The time-frame was extremely tight: 1 week.
	Customer objectives were reviewed from customer’s description of the requirements in patent claims to determine key aspects of claimed invention, and then translated into specific groups of technological subspecialty domains required. The project required the preparation, analysis, and EoU charting for nearly 50 patents in a diverse group of technology areas.
	3 major carriers, 3 major equipment vendors, and 3 major UE suppliers were identified as targets for the project. Detailed search and analysis of all products from all targets were performed and included as work product.
	The project also required all expert requirements to support a multitude of technology and subspecialty areas. A team of 12 SMEs with matching subspecialties were hand-picked for the project to cover areas such as: 1) MIMO Antennas & systems, 2) base station equipment, 3) mobile communication carriers, 4) Handsets, 5) 3GPP standard, and 6) Wireless networking protocols

EXPERT SELECTION & ASSIGNMENT

Our internal expert selection protocol begins with matching, coordinating, and managing multiple experts to analyze and prepare claim charts, technology standards, and technology trends.

1. Determine expert resources having “best-fit” expertise that matches each claimed technology.
2. Assess resource availability with backup experts in every technology area.

After expert selection, project assignments were made to each expert by a project manager.

Multiple experts were involved to review, analyze and prepare 50 claim charts.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Coordination and management of the massive project included one master project manager and a number of QA managers. The QA Managers were in charge of making sure the work products from SMEs are all high-quality, consistent, and meeting requirements. They performed iterative reviews with their assigned experts. The project manager was in charge of overall project management, including project tracking, work product delivery on a rolling basis, routine status updates to customer; overall QA, handling ongoing customer issues and change requests, etc.

EXEMPLARY WORK PRODUCT – Claim Charts

Within a week, a total of 50 high-quality, litigation-ready EoU claim charts were prepared and delivered.

EXEMPLARY PROJECT MANAGEMENT, TRACKING & DELIVERY

Our project manager is responsible for organizing, tracking, and managing multiple assignments across a multitude of experts, ensuring that projects are completed efficiently and effectively, that project goals are met, and that experts are effectively coordinated. This typically entails an iterative process with customer and with experts as work products are produced and customer reviews lead to additional requests and follow-ups.

The final work product of 50 claim charts were delivered on time to the customer based upon the customer’s objectives with substantial interactions between the customer and the project manager to refine or add to certain aspects of the final work product.  In the end, the customer received all highly detailed and substantive claim charts on time, allowing the customer to meet their objectives.