Fredrikson & Byron partners Eric Snustad and Charles Segelbaum are part of a behind-the-scenes intellectual property crew that helps Tennant Co. push forward into new markets.

They do licensing and patent counseling work for Tennant, a cleaning-equipment, products and coatings company with $822 million in sales in 2014, and provide advice on many types of intellectual property agreements, including licensing deals and confidentiality covenants.

“We're trying to help them develop new technology using other companies and other suppliers in a way that Tennant makes sure it doesn't lose control of its technology or lose its ability to get patents,” Snustad said. The firm had 276 lawyers in 2013, according to The National Law Journal's 2014 survey of the nation's 350 largest law firms. Often that involves intricate agreements that start with licensing another company's technology, further developing it and ending up with rights in a newly created product, Segelbaum said.