# Workman Nydegger **Type:** helper **Status:** Draft **Confidence:** Medium **Focus:** patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, IP prosecution, IP litigation **Location:** Salt Lake City, UT **Updated:** 2026-06-18 **Layout:** field-guide ## Summary Workman Nydegger is a Salt Lake City law firm focused exclusively on intellectual property — patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets — covering both prosecution (getting protection) and litigation (enforcing or defending it). Its own materials describe it as the Intermountain West's largest IP firm, founded over four decades ago, with many attorneys who came from engineering, software, and science backgrounds. For a founder, the useful framing is: this is the specialist you call when the company's core asset is an invention and you need that invention protected correctly the first time. ## Impact Patent strategy is one of the legal areas where early mistakes are hardest to fix. A public disclosure before filing, a thin or poorly drafted application, or an inventor-ownership gap can permanently weaken or destroy patent rights — and investors and acquirers scrutinize exactly this during diligence. A boutique that does only IP, staffed by people who can read the technical work, is built to prevent those failures. This matters especially for Utah's deep-tech, hardware, medical-device, and life-science founders, and for university researchers whose company will live or die on a defensible patent position. ## How They Help From the firm's public service descriptions, Workman Nydegger can help with: - **Patent prosecution** — drafting and filing utility and design patent applications, building a portfolio, and managing prosecution domestically and internationally. - **Trademark and copyright** — protecting brand and creative assets. - **Trade secrets** — strategy for protecting know-how that isn't patented. - **Post-grant proceedings and IP litigation** — defending or challenging patents, and enforcing rights when infringement occurs. - **Strategy across technical domains** — software/e-commerce, electronics, mechanical, optics, pharma/biotech, and medical/life-science. [source:workman-nydegger-official-website] The firm publicly says it customizes a pricing model per client and tries to avoid surprising clients on cost — useful for an early-stage budget. ## Best-Fit Founders The strongest fit is a Utah founder whose competitive moat is technical — a device, a chemistry, an algorithm, a manufacturing method — and who needs a patent filed, a portfolio built, or an IP position defended. University spinouts and researchers commercializing patented work are a natural fit, as are hardware and medical-device teams. It is not the right first call for a pure-services or consumer company with no patentable core, or for a founder whose immediate need is formation and a financing round — that work belongs with a corporate firm such as [Kirton McConkie](kirton-mcconkie.md) or [Parsons Behle & Latimer](parsons-behle-latimer.md), with patent counsel brought in for the IP layer. ## Cost / Engagement Model As an IP boutique, Workman Nydegger handles prosecution and litigation matters; the firm states it customizes pricing per client. Patent work commonly mixes fixed-fee components (e.g., per-application) with hourly work, but specifics are not published. Founders should ask for an estimate of filing and prosecution costs, expected timeline, and what an initial patentability assessment would cost before committing. ## Proof Points - Public services page describes full-service IP work for "a solo inventor, a startup, or a Fortune 500 company," including patent, trademark, copyright, trade-secret, post-grant, and litigation work. [source:workman-nydegger-official-website] - The firm reports recognition in Chambers USA (2026) and the IAM Patent 1000 (Utah jurisdiction) — independent reputational signals for a patent practice. - The firm publicizes a $9.4M patent jury verdict won for Utah-based SnapPower (a firm-reported, case-specific litigation result). ## Good Matches A good match is an invention-driven Utah venture that needs a defensible patent position before it raises money, signs a partnership, or goes to market — or a university researcher who needs patent counsel alongside a commercialization path. The firm pairs naturally with corporate counsel and with commercialization resources such as the [Nucleus Institute](nucleus-institute.md). ## Cautions This page describes public capabilities only and does not imply the firm has agreed to represent any founder. IP timing is unforgiving: talk to patent counsel before public disclosure, not after. Confirm conflicts (the firm may already represent a competitor), cost estimates, and the responsible attorney before relying on the firm for a filing deadline. ## Evidence - [Workman Nydegger Official Website](workman-nydegger-official-website.md) ## Open Questions - What does an initial patentability search and opinion typically cost, and how fast can the firm act before a disclosure deadline? - Which attorneys map to which technical domains (software vs. mechanical vs. life sciences)? - How does it compare with the IP-transaction depth at [Parsons Behle & Latimer](parsons-behle-latimer.md) for founders who need licensing as much as prosecution?