Active funding
One or more current or recent federal R&D awards, often at Phase II or a comparable development stage.
Cognivito | Federal Innovation Counsel
Keep your federal awards, inventions, patents, reporting, ownership, and commercialization strategy connected.
Cognivito helps Phase II SBIR/STTR and other federally funded technology companies coordinate the award-to-invention-to-patent process through a source-linked portfolio review, ongoing counsel, and separately scoped IP work.
Looking for patent, trademark, copyright, or other IP help? Explore Patent & IP Services.
No assumption of noncompliance. No federal endorsement. Each engagement is separately evaluated for fit, conflicts, competence, scope, and applicable professional rules.
Stewart Myers
Oregon attorney
Registered patent attorney
Technical and IP experience
Direct attorney involvement
Defined scope and capacity
The operating problem
The problem is fragmentation, not paperwork.
Technical staff know what was built. Grant personnel know the award. Patent counsel knows the patent family. Management knows the commercial objective. The gaps appear when no one owns the relationship among those records.
Public information alone does not establish that a company has a reporting or legal problem. A useful review begins with the actual award, current records, responsible people, and questions that remain unresolved.
Connected-system review
From funded work to business action
- Federal Awards
- Inventions
- Patent Families
- Reporting
- Ownership
- Commercialization
Text equivalent: the review traces how federal awards relate to inventions, how inventions relate to patent families, and how those records connect to reporting, ownership, and commercialization decisions. Different people may maintain each record.
Best fit
Built for funded R&D companies with real portfolio complexity
The strongest fit is often a U.S. technology company with a Phase II SBIR/STTR or comparable federal R&D award, active invention or patent activity, and no complete in-house IP or technology-transfer function.
Active IP
At least one invention, candidate invention, or patent family that must be understood in context.
A real trigger
A filing, closeout, financing, license, acquisition, collaboration, reporting cycle, or change of adviser.
Enough complexity
Records and responsibilities that justify a professional, source-linked review rather than low-cost portal entry.
Primary entry product
Start with the Federal Innovation Portfolio Review
A fixed-scope review that organizes the included records, identifies supported findings and unresolved questions, and produces a prioritized roadmap for the company's federal invention and patent-management process.
Specialized premium module
When AI participates in R&D
For companies using AI during research and development, Cognivito can also examine how human technical contributions, AI-generated outputs, patent inventorship, ownership, federal funding, and protection strategy fit together.
AI use does not create a separate inventorship standard or automatically create a defect. The practical challenge is often preserving a factual record of human conception and contribution when AI participated in exploration, design, selection, optimization, testing, or documentation.
Explore the AI-Assisted Inventorship moduleContinuing relationship
Defined-capacity ongoing counsel
A one-time Review can identify the present state. Ongoing counsel is available when the company has a continuing job involving new awards, inventions, patent changes, reporting cycles, collaborations, commercialization, closeout, or transaction preparation.
Recurring coordination
Defined notifications, open-item coordination, management questions, invention intake, award mapping, portfolio priorities, and annual planning.
Clear boundaries
Major patent matters, opinions, transactions, disputes, remediation, and specialist work remain separately scoped. Ongoing counsel is not unlimited outside counsel.
Works with existing professionals
Coordination without unnecessary displacement
Cognivito does not need to replace patent counsel, grant consultants, accountants, or other trusted advisers who are already doing their work well. The role is to identify where responsibility is fragmented, coordinate the federal-invention and IP layer, and define who owns each next action.
Direct lawyer involvement
Technical fluency, patent experience, and practical business judgment
Stewart Myers is an Oregon attorney and registered patent attorney. He began his legal career in Intel's corporate licensing group in 2001, later earned a computer science degree, spent more than fifteen years in private practice, and became a partner at a boutique IP firm before restarting Cognivito in Southern Oregon.
Federal Innovation Counsel is a focused Cognivito practice description. Matters are accepted only after fit, conflicts, competence, jurisdiction, coverage, scope, and professional-responsibility review.
About Stewart and CognivitoGeneral IP client perspectives
What clients have said about working with Stewart
These public Google review excerpts concern general client experience. They are not Federal Innovation Counsel results or case studies.
“Works fast, and knows his stuff.”Steve Rice
“Incredibly knowledgeable, experienced and concise.”Jessica Brown
“Provided strategic direction toward my success.”Rory Finney
“Very professional!”Chuck Heckenlively
Read the live Google Business Profile for current reviews and profile details. No static rating or review count is displayed.
Core Cognivito practice
Patent, trademark, copyright, and other IP services remain available
Federal Innovation Counsel is the flagship specialized offering, not a replacement for Cognivito's core IP practice. Patent strategy, drafting and prosecution, trademark work, copyright, ownership, licensing, and defined IP matters are separately evaluated and scoped.
Frequently asked questions
Start with the boundaries
Is Federal Innovation Counsel a government program?
No. It is a Cognivito legal-practice description. Cognivito is not affiliated with, approved by, or endorsed by any federal agency.
Does a federal award make every invention a subject invention?
No. The actual funding agreement, contractor ownership, invention chronology, funded work, and matter-specific facts control. Award timing or public information alone does not answer the question.
Is the Portfolio Review a compliance certification?
No. It organizes included records, identifies supported findings and unresolved questions, and provides a prioritized roadmap. It does not certify compliance or guarantee title, patent rights, agency acceptance, funding, or commercialization.
Must we replace our patent firm?
No. Cognivito can coordinate the federal-invention and IP layer while existing patent counsel, grant professionals, accountants, and other advisers continue their defined work.
What changes when AI is used during invention development?
AI use does not create a separate inventorship standard or automatic defect. It can make the factual record of human conception and contribution harder to reconstruct, so current law, official guidance, claims, chronology, and source evidence must be reviewed.
Is ongoing counsel unlimited?
No. It is defined-capacity recurring counsel. Record limits, cadence, response expectations, client responsibilities, payment terms, and separately priced work are stated in the engagement.
A qualified first conversation
See whether the Portfolio Review matches your portfolio, trigger, records, budget, and timing.
The fit call is not a free portfolio review or legal opinion. Do not send confidential, controlled, proprietary, or time-sensitive information.