Center of Excellence: Intellectual Property
This series covers the IP fundamentals that determine whether your portfolio, and your fund, is built on defensible ground: from a founder's first filing decision to the diligence questions every manager should be asking before writing a check. Get it wrong and you discover the problem at the worst possible time, usually in an acquisition data room. Get it right and you build companies that are fundable, defensible, and worth what you think they are.
Part 1: File First. Talk Later.
A founder who pitches before filing has, in most of the world, already lost their patent rights — and they usually don't find out until it's too late to fix it.
The difference between a provisional that protects you and one that merely checks a box is whether it was written to actually describe the invention.
Part 2: "We're Patent-Protected" Is Not an Answer.
The best VCs don't just want to know what IP a company has filed — they want to know who actually owns it, whether it covers the product being sold, and whether a challenge would survive.
A clean chain of title, honest documentation of risk, and founders who can explain what is and isn't protected are the green flags that matter.
Part 3: Having a Patent Doesn't Mean You're Free to Operate.
A company can have a strong IP portfolio and still be infringing on someone else's — and that problem almost always surfaces at the worst possible moment: in acquisition diligence.
Freedom to Operate is the IP risk that founders don't know to worry about and investors forget to ask about, right up until it becomes the only thing anyone can talk about.
Kathryn Vatt is an intellectual property global strategist who advises venture-backed companies and fund managers on patent strategy, IP diligence, and freedom-to-operate analysis. She works with emerging managers and their portfolio companies at the intersection of legal protection and commercial strategy.
Decile Partners get exclusive introductions to Kathryn, as well as experts like her across other Centers of Excellence.
About Decile Group's Centers of Excellence
Decile Group believes AI is changing how the venture ecosystem works, but there's no substitute for deep human expertise. That's why we build Centers of Excellence around practitioners who have done the work.
This content is open source because a better-informed ecosystem benefits everyone. Decile Partners get more than the articles. They get direct access to the experts behind them.