Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner, P.A.

Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner is an IP boutique with Midwest roots. With offices in Minneapolis, Silicon Valley, Austin, and the U.K., the firm focuses on patent portfolio planning and management, infringement, validity and clearance investigations, opinions, and IP prosecution.

Avoid the Ghosts, Form a Firm

In 1993, three partners at a Minneapolis IP firm were playing a game of Ms. Pac-Man, and the discussion turned to how they could form a new firm focused on patents and innovation in the field of IP law. It was from this conversation that Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner was born. Since it was formed, the firm has grown to more than 120 attorneys and four offices—three in the United States and one in the U.K. And as homage to its founders, the firm has a Ms. Pac-Man game in the lunchroom.

Patents from All Angles

Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner represents multinational corporations, middle-market businesses, universities, startups, and individuals across industries like chemical & materials science, clean technology, electrical & computers, life sciences, mechanical & electromechanical, medical devices, and software & e-commerce. The firm offers the full swath of IP work, from due diligence and opinions to trademarks and licensing to patent prosecution and post-grant proceedings.

True to the founders’ intent to build a patent-focused firm, Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner has strong practices in patent prosecution and patent analytics. The firm has obtained more than 22,000 patents since 1993, and it offers a variety of robust analytics for its clients. It hosts an interactive, searchable database called ClaimTrackerTM, which tracks prosecution history and associated claims for each patent. To keep better track of their intellectual property, clients can also use the Claim Coverage Matrix, which tracks patents and claims. The firm offers a number of other analytics-based services, including SWOT analysis, examiner analytics, portfolio curation, technology-based patent landscapes, and “Blue Ocean Maps,” which provide a matrix of prior art and show areas where there is space for innovation and new patents.

Proponents of Learning

Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner is also in the business of educating others about the ins and outs of intellectual property. The firm’s SLW Institute is a virtual collection of educational resources created by the firm about IP topics, from analytics to virtual IP, plus current events, updates to the law, and everything in between. The material is presented in various forms, including webinars, blog posts, an IP playbook, and even live events, many of which include CLE credits for attorneys in attendance.