J.S. Held acquires IP consultancy TechPats
J.S. Held, a global consulting firm, has acquired TechPats, a Philadelphia-based, full-service intellectual property (IP) consulting firm.
Founded in 1998, TechPats provides consulting services to large tech companies to help them protect and profit from their IP and intangible assets. The firm has practices in patent services, portfolio development, litigation support, and patent transactions.
TechPats has more than 220 employees, according to LinkedIn, and has an office in Philadelphia, an office and lab services in Ottawa, and a business development center in Tokyo.
J.S. Held announced it will roll TechPats into the newly created IP specialty services group under the Ocean Tomo brand, which it acquired last year. Ocean Tomo, a Chicago-headquartered IP consultancy, had 80+ employees at the time of its acquisition.
J.S. Held in 2021 acquired IPFC, a Houston-based forensic and economic services consultancy with expertise in IP infringement.
"Our IPFC and Ocean Tomo acquisitions were premised on a shared vision to add a full slate of IP Specialty Services. Leaders within our IP practice and our corporate development team identified TechPats from a number of global candidates as an ideal anchor acquisition for expansion," said Jon Held, CEO of J.S. Held.
The consultancy said TechPats’ patent-focused business intelligence services will complement the IP opinion, valuation, strategy, transaction brokerage, and capital raising services of Ocean Tomo.
The new IP specialty services group will advise corporate IP departments on patent-focused business intelligence, including patent infringement analysis and lab testing; portfolio development strategy, including patent mining and evaluation, portfolio assessment, and cost analysis; litigation support, including litigation risk assessment and validity analysis; and transaction and monetization strategy, including IP acquisition due diligence.
The combined TechPats and Ocean Tomo teams have domain expertise across semiconductors, software, telco, and automotive, and have supported 53% of the 100 largest publicly traded tech companies and 87% of AMLaw 100 law firms.
"We look forward to aligning our team of IP-focused technology experts with the more than 1,500 talented engineers, scientists, and other technical experts at J.S. Held for the benefit of our clients," said Chris Wichser, CEO of TechPats.
Founded in 1974 and headquartered in Jericho, NY, J.S. Held provides specialized technical and forensic advisory services to a wide range of industries. The firm’s practice areas include forensic accounting, economics, corporate finance, investigations, construction claims and disputes, and environmental health and safety.
J.S. Held has more than 100 offices across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific regions.
