Forge & Fence • Strategic IP Counsel

Are you renting your business, or do you own it?

You've spent years figuring out how to make parts your competitors can't match. But without intellectual property behind it, you're leasing that advantage — and when an employee leaves, an OEM leans on you, or a buyer kicks the tires, you find out what you really own. We help manufacturers turn know-how into owned, defensible value.

Start with an IP Audit See the Three Edges

Sword — stop the copycats Shield — survive departures & demands Bridge — turn IP into value

The Question Every Manufacturer Should Ask

Most shops have refined their processes for years. The uncomfortable truth: without IP protection, you don't actually own any of it.

Your expertise, your equipment, your customer relationships — real, but mobile. The person who "just knows" how to run the pour can walk. A competitor can reverse-engineer your part. An OEM can demand your process in a 40-page contract. A buyer can value all of it at zero if you can't point to what you own.

Intellectual property is how you stop renting. Done right, it plays three roles at once.

The Framework

Sword, Shield, and Bridge

Every engagement strengthens one of three edges. Patents and trade secrets aren't the goal — they're the tools.

Sword

Go on offense

Stop the people copying you.

Cease-and-desist letters — drafted and sent
Infringement & enforcement strategy
ITC Section 337 actions to block infringing imports at the border
Offensive filing — patent it before the copycat shows up

You're here when: "Someone is copying my part."

Shield

De-risk

Keep what you've built when people leave or come at you.

Respond to — and head off — incoming cease-and-desist letters
Trade-secret documentation programs (if you can't point to it, you don't own it)
Departing-employee protection before the knowledge walks out
Freedom-to-operate & non-infringement opinions

You're here when: "My best person is retiring and it's all in his head."

Bridge

Capture value

Turn IP into money and leverage.

M&A readiness — sell at a higher multiple, not a discount for risk
OEM contract negotiation — carve out your background IP, then negotiate
Licensing programs — make a patent a profit center, not just protection
SEP / standard-essential cooperation — FRAND, pooling, and a seat at the table

You're here when: "An OEM wants all my IP," or "I'm selling in a few years."

Why It Pays

The Math Manufacturers Live

The same four situations play out across the industry. IP decides which side of them you land on.

~$25K

A patent that could have stopped a copycat — against ~$3M in revenue lost over two years.

+$800K

Added to one foundry's sale price from ~$40K of audit-and-filing work — a ~20x return.

3-4x → 4.5-5x

The EBITDA-multiple swing between "no documented IP" and "defensible moat" at exit.

Your legal recourse against a competitor who legally reverse-engineers an unprotected part.

Shield • The Departing Veteran

The knowledge walks out the door

A 28-year supervisor retires. Within six months the reject rate doubles and nobody can say why. Documented as a trade secret first, that know-how stays with the company — and a patent on the novel step survives any single employee.

Bridge • The OEM Squeeze

"Disclose all processes used"

A big customer's contract demands your process. With no patent, you have no leverage — disclose, and two years later the work moves overseas using what you gave away. Patent first, and that's background IP you license on your terms.

Sword • The Copycat Competitor

Same part, 40% less

An overseas shop buys your casting, sections it, and undersells you. Reverse engineering is legal — trade secrets won't help. A patent on the design is the one tool that stops them, and can block the imports at the border.

Bridge • The Exit

"What are we actually buying?"

A PE buyer asks what proprietary technology you have. "We're just really good" walks the deal. Documented trade secrets and a few well-placed patents answer the question — and move the multiple.

Illustrative industry scenarios drawn from common manufacturing situations. Not client results, and not a prediction or guarantee of any particular outcome.

Start Here

The IP Audit

One focused engagement to answer the question a buyer, a court, or an OEM will eventually ask: what do you actually own? We walk your operation with fresh eyes, find what's protectable, and hand you a prioritized roadmap you can act on this quarter.

Inventory — the processes, methods, and improvements you've developed in-house

Classify — patent candidate vs. trade secret, item by item

Protect — the gaps that expose you, ranked by risk and value

Roadmap — a concrete filing and documentation plan, with priorities

Schedule Your IP Audit Call (414) 250-7985

How We Work

From Audit to Owned

Most engagements start small and grow with the relationship. No subscription required.

The IP Audit

Fixed-fee diagnostic. Find what's protectable and what's exposed, and leave with a roadmap. The on-ramp to everything else — and creditable toward the work it recommends.

Targeted Projects

Discrete, scoped work: a cease-and-desist (sending or responding), a trade-secret documentation program, an FTO opinion, an offensive patent filing, or an OEM contract IP review.

M&A IP Readiness Sprint

A structured program to make your business sellable — documenting trade secrets and filing the patents that turn "what are we buying?" into a higher multiple. Best started 5-10 years before exit.

Ongoing Strategic Counsel

For shops that want IP handled as a standing function — portfolio decisions, new-process reviews, and an annual audit — on a predictable retainer.

Who We Serve

Built for the Shop Floor

An engineering background and a foundry's-eye view of where real advantage lives — and how it leaks away.

Foundries & Metalcasting

CNC Machining & Job Shops

Tooling & Pattern Shops

Industrial Equipment

Aerospace & Defense Suppliers

Medical Device Manufacturing

Automotive & Heavy Equipment

Robotics & Automation

The Attorney

Brad G. Jubber

Brad is a USPTO-registered patent attorney with engineering degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering — someone who reads a process sheet the way your shop does. He works directly with owners and engineers to turn hard-won know-how into IP that holds up when it counts: in front of a copycat, a departing employee, an OEM, or a buyer.

He speaks to manufacturers about exactly this. His talk for the American Foundry Society — "Sword, Shield, and Bridge: Use Cases for Intellectual Property" — is the backbone of how Forge & Fence works: practical, ROI-first, and built around the question that decides your exit and your legacy. Are you renting, or owning?

USPTO Registered

Wisconsin State Bar

BSME + BSEE

AFS Speaker

Full Bio & Credentials