Strategic patent counsel, prosecution support, and enforcement in Israel — for inventors, technology companies, and international IP firms.
A patent is a commercial instrument before it is a legal one. For twenty years it grants the holder the exclusive right to exploit an invention — to manufacture, distribute, license, assign, or exclude competitors — in exchange for full public disclosure of how the invention works. The value extracted from that bargain depends on the underlying technology as much as the quality of the strategic and drafting decisions taken around it: whether to file at all or hold the invention as a trade secret; where to file; how broadly to claim; how to respond to examiner objections; how to defend the patent against opposition; and, ultimately, how to enforce it.
At Gershoni & Co., patents are approached as what they are — business assets with legal form. Our role is to help inventors, technology companies, research institutions, and international IP firms navigate the decisions that determine whether a patent becomes a genuine source of competitive advantage or an expensive piece of paper. We advise on strategy and portfolio structure, support prosecution before the Israel Patent Office (ILPO), handle opposition and appeal proceedings, and lead patent enforcement and litigation when rights are infringed.
→ Strategic patent counsel · invention capture to commercialisation
→ Prosecution support before the Israel Patent Office · office actions, hearings, appeals
→ Opposition and cancellation proceedings · before the Registrar and on appeal
→ Patent litigation and enforcement · infringement, invalidity, damages, and disgorgement
Read Our Reviews
A personal story: I ran into a small-but-urgent problem and started checking a few options on Google. Saar was the first I reached out to because of his informative content, and he replied on WhatsApp within 2 minutes. A 5-minute phone call and a two-hour wait later, what seemed like it would take months was resolved quickly and smoothly. Truly amazing. Thank you again!
At first, I was skeptical—just another lawyer making promises I doubted would be kept. Saar Gershoni proved me completely wrong. He explained exactly how to prove the copyright infringement on my video, documented everything professionally, , and the competitor removed the video and issued a written apology. He was patient and attentive despite my initial doubts, and in the end
A personal story: I ran into a small-but-urgent problem and started checking a few options on Google. Saar was the first I reached out to because of his informative content, and he replied on WhatsApp within 2 minutes. A 5-minute phone call and a two-hour wait later, what seemed like it would take months was resolved quickly and smoothly. Truly amazing. Thank you again!
WHAT WE DO
End-to-end patent support
We advise at every stage of the patent life-cycle — from the earliest decisions about what to protect and how, through patentability search, prosecution and portfolio management, to enforcement and commercial exploitation. Our clients include Israeli inventors and technology companies building and protecting patent portfolios, multinationals managing their Israeli rights within a global filing strategy, and foreign law firms who engage us as their Israeli correspondent on patent prosecution, opposition, or litigation matters.
We work closely with registered patent attorneys and technical experts on the drafting and prosecution elements where their specialist input is required, while retaining responsibility for the legal strategy, contentious proceedings, and commercial advice that our clients engage us for. The result is a coordinated service that covers the full spectrum of what patent-dependent businesses actually need — rather than a narrow slice of it.
Strategic counsel: patent, trade secret, or both
The first question for any inventor is often the most important: is this invention worth patenting at all? A patent demands public disclosure of the invention in sufficient detail that a skilled person in the field could reproduce it. That disclosure is the price paid for the twenty-year monopoly — and for some inventions, particularly manufacturing processes and algorithms that are difficult to reverse-engineer, the better commercial choice is to keep the invention as a trade secret rather than publish it to the world through a patent specification.
We advise individual inventors and corporate clients on this threshold strategic choice — weighing the strength and scope of the likely patent against the feasibility of trade-secret protection, the competitive landscape, the product life-cycle, and the client’s commercial plans. Where a patent is the right route, we advise on what to claim, how broadly, and in what sequence. Where a hybrid approach is appropriate, we structure it.
Patent application, drafting, and prosecution
A patent specification must describe the invention in terms a notional skilled person in the field can understand and reproduce. The claims — the numbered statements at the end of the specification — define the precise boundaries of the monopoly. Drafting that is vague, overly narrow, or poorly aligned with the commercial use of the invention can transform a high-value invention into a worthless registration. The drafting stage is where the commercial value of the patent is largely determined.
We support the full prosecution process before the Israel Patent Office: coordinating the preparation of the specification and claims, filing the application, managing the waiting period for examination, responding to examiner objections (office actions), attending hearings before the Registrar where required, and — in appropriate cases — pursuing appeals to the courts. The ILPO applies substantive examination, and office actions raising questions of novelty, inventive step, utility, or subject-matter eligibility are common. Framing effective responses requires legal judgment, technical understanding, and an appreciation of how the Registrar is likely to view the arguments on both sides.
Opposition, cancellation, and appeals
Once the ILPO accepts a patent application, a notice is published and a window opens for third parties to file an opposition. Opposition proceedings before the Registrar are adversarial and evidence-intensive: the parties submit affidavits, produce expert witnesses, cross-examine, and argue the case on statutory grounds such as lack of novelty, absence of inventive step, insufficient disclosure, or subject-matter ineligibility. A successful opposition stops the patent from being granted. A successful defence allows the applicant to complete registration.
We represent both applicants defending applications under opposition and third parties opposing applications that conflict with their commercial interests. Post-grant, we act in patent cancellation and revocation proceedings, and on appeals to the district courts from decisions of the Registrar.
Contentious patent proceedings draw on the full range of the firm’s capabilities — technical engagement with the invention, procedural command of the opposition or court forum, and the litigation experience led by Adv. Raanan Ben-Ishai, whose background includes a judicial clerkship at the Israeli Supreme Court.
International filing strategy
Patent protection is territorial — a patent granted in Israel is enforceable only in Israel. Clients with any international ambitions must decide where to file, in what sequence, and under which procedural framework. The Paris Convention provides a twelve-month priority period during which a first filing anchors the filing date for applications in other Convention states. The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) allows an applicant to file a single international application that preserves rights in all PCT member states for up to thirty months before national-phase filings must be committed to.
Filing costs — official fees, agent fees, translations, and local prosecution — accumulate quickly across multiple jurisdictions, and the economics of a global patent strategy need to be planned deliberately. We advise on the selection of jurisdictions, sequencing of filings, use of the Paris Convention and PCT routes, and coordination with foreign counsel in each national phase. For Israeli clients filing abroad, we work with a trusted network of correspondent firms and coordinate the international strategy as a whole.
Specific patent subject-matter
We advise on the particular considerations that apply to specific categories of patent subject-matter, including business method patents, software-related inventions, green-technology patents, and inventions falling at the boundaries of patent-eligible subject-matter. Each category carries its own examination considerations and strategic opportunities — accelerated-examination programmes for green technology, for example, or the careful framing required for business-method and software claims to sit within the eligibility boundaries the ILPO and the courts apply.
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ENFORCEMENT
Patent litigation and enforcement
Patent enforcement is where the commercial value of the registration is finally tested. Infringement disputes typically involve close technical comparison between the allegedly infringing product or process and the claims of the asserted patent, combined with the commercial and procedural considerations that characterise any high-value dispute. Our patent litigation practice is led by Adv. Raanan Ben-Ishai, who brings over fifteen years of civil litigation experience — including a judicial clerkship at the Israeli Supreme Court — to the technical and commercial demands of patent disputes.
Infringement proceedings and preliminary injunctions
A patent holder who identifies infringement in Israel may seek a permanent injunction, damages, an account of the infringer’s profits, and delivery-up or destruction of infringing products. Where the harm from ongoing infringement is serious and immediate, the District Courts have jurisdiction to grant preliminary injunctions — including, in appropriate cases, ex parte preliminary relief without prior notice to the defendant. The evidentiary threshold is real, but so is the remedy: an ex parte injunction can halt a competing product’s launch or distribution while the substantive dispute is prepared for trial.
We assess infringement questions with the technical specificity they require, prepare the affidavit and expert evidence that the court expects, and advise on the full range of available remedies — including punitive damages where the conduct justifies them, and disgorgement of profits under the law of unjust enrichment as a parallel claim.
Invalidity and revocation defences
A patent is a presumption of validity, not a conclusive determination of it. In infringement proceedings, defendants routinely raise invalidity as a defence — attacking the patent on the same grounds that would support opposition or revocation (novelty, inventive step, sufficiency, eligibility). We act for both claimants enforcing patents and defendants raising validity challenges, and we coordinate infringement and invalidity positions in the rare cases that require our client to argue both.
Licensing, assignments, and transactions
Patents are commercial assets that can be licensed, assigned, used as collateral, contributed to joint ventures, or sold. We draft and negotiate patent licence agreements — exclusive and non-exclusive, field-of-use limited, royalty-bearing or paid-up — as well as assignment deeds, research collaboration agreements, and the patent-specific provisions of broader commercial transactions. In M&A and investment due diligence, we assess the scope, validity, and enforceability of Israeli patent rights and flag the practical implications for the transaction structure.
For some clients the right commercial route is not to enforce or license the patent, but to sell it — to a strategic buyer or through an auction process. We advise on the valuation questions, the timing of a sale relative to the prosecution stage, and the documentation needed to complete the transaction cleanly.
ISRAEL AS A PATENT JURISDICTION
What international practitioners need to know
Israel is a significant patent jurisdiction in its own right — home to one of the world’s highest per-capita rates of patent filings and a sophisticated examination practice — and an important national-phase destination for international applicants. A few features are worth noting for practitioners unfamiliar with the system.
- Governing statute — Israeli patent law is governed by the Patents Law, 5727-1967, and the regulations thereunder. The Israel Patent Office (ILPO), headed by the Registrar of Patents, handles examination, opposition, and cancellation proceedings.
- Substantive examination — The ILPO examines applications on substantive grounds, including novelty, inventive step, utility, industrial applicability, and subject-matter eligibility. Office actions are frequent, and substantive responses — rather than purely formal ones — are typically required.
- Patentable subject matter — Products and processes in any technological field are patentable if they are new, useful, involve an inventive step, and are capable of industrial application. Pure abstract ideas, mathematical formulae as such, marketing concepts, and scientific theories are not patentable. Software as such is generally not patentable, though software-implemented inventions may qualify where they form part of a practical technological solution. Copyright, rather than patent law, is the primary protection for software code.
- International conventions — Israel is a party to the Paris Convention (with the standard twelve-month priority right), the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and the TRIPS Agreement. National-phase entries from PCT applications are routinely handled before the ILPO.
- Term of protection — Twenty years from the filing date of the application. Patent term extensions are available in limited circumstances — most notably for pharmaceutical patents affected by regulatory delay.
- Opposition window — Once the ILPO accepts a patent application, a notice of acceptance is published, and third parties have three months to file an opposition on statutory grounds. Opposition is an adversarial, evidence-based proceeding before the Registrar, acting in a quasi-judicial capacity.
- Appeals — Decisions of the Registrar — in examination, opposition, and cancellation — may be appealed to the District Courts, and from there, with leave, to the Supreme Court.
- Enforcement landscape — Patent infringement actions are heard by the District Courts, which have real experience in technical patent disputes and are willing to grant preliminary relief — including ex parte injunctions — where irreparable harm is shown. Remedies include permanent injunctions, damages, an account of profits, and delivery-up or destruction of infringing goods.
- Accelerated examination — Accelerated examination is available in defined circumstances — including green-technology patents, applicant age, and competitive commercial pressure — and can materially shorten the time to grant.
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FOR FOREIGN LAW FIRMS
Acting as your Israeli patent correspondent
We regularly act as Israeli correspondent counsel for international IP firms managing patent filings, oppositions, and disputes with an Israeli dimension. Correspondent work — particularly in patent matters — rewards responsiveness, clarity, and sound judgment on local law. We aim to deliver all three without wrapping straightforward matters in unnecessary procedural complexity.
Our services for foreign firms include Israeli national-phase entries from PCT applications, responses to office actions at the ILPO, opposition and cancellation representation, appeals from Registrar decisions, patent infringement proceedings on behalf of international rights holders, and advisory opinions on the validity, scope, and enforceability of Israeli patents in specific commercial contexts.
We maintain active working relationships with patent practitioners across Europe, the United States, and other jurisdictions, and we structure our reporting and communication to match the expectations of international practices. Instructions are acknowledged promptly, deadlines are tracked and reported, and substantive advice is given in a form that in-house counsel and partners in other jurisdictions can act on without having to interpret.
If you are considering or currently managing Israeli patent matters for your clients, we welcome a direct conversation about how we can support your practice.
Strategic & transactional: Adv. Sa’ar Gershoni · Litigation & enforcement: Adv. Raanan Ben-Ishai
