| If you are part of an IP department in a mid-to-large | | | | reviews by the patent committee on international |
| size organization, you are probably facing the same | | | | filing decisions and annuity payments for collective |
| issues as others: More filings with limited budgets, and | | | | decision making. |
| a greater need for responsiveness to the business | | | | 3) Integrate Billing and Estimates into Workflow |
| clients with a smaller team. In short, you and your | | | | Processes |
| team are being asked to do much more with less | | | | You can optimize your financial performance by |
| resources. | | | | integrating budgets and estimates in the workflow |
| Maximizing process efficiency is one of the IP | | | | processes. This will help you track firms and |
| department's biggest challenges for effective patent | | | | attorneys who have a better turnaround time over |
| management. Here are the the top 5 tips to optimize | | | | other firms that routinely file extensions. This |
| your patent management processes: | | | | information will provide you with effective tools for |
| 1) Self Service for Inventors and Service Providers | | | | future work allocation and for reorganizing the |
| Create a self service portal for inventors where they | | | | workload according to your budget constraints. |
| can track the status of their patent filings. This will | | | | Integrating billing will also allow to forecast your costs |
| reduce the number of incoming inquiries and improve | | | | more accurately and help you measure the overall |
| inventor satisfaction. | | | | spend by firms, by countries, and other metrics. |
| The portal can also help your outside law firms and | | | | 4) Automate Manual Operations |
| agents collaborate with you and inventors in real-time | | | | Where possible, automate manual operations. If your |
| and enter information directly into your system. This | | | | team is spending 2 days a month calculating patent |
| will help you reduce administrative costs related to | | | | awards, it is time to automate that function. If your |
| data reentry and follow-ups and improve data | | | | law firms are directly working with inventors for |
| integrity. | | | | drafting application specs, it is time to give them a |
| You will be able to delegate tasks with confidence | | | | system where they can work together in a |
| and transfer matters seamlessly to another firm | | | | collaborative manner. If you are spending too much |
| when needed. | | | | time reentering data provided by firms or patent |
| 2) Electronic Case Repository | | | | offices, use technology integration to interface with |
| As a progressive legal department, you will get much | | | | patent offices and law firms. |
| better visibility into the entire patent lifecycle by | | | | Identify all opportunities to automate manual |
| setting up a centralized case repository. | | | | operations and use technology tools to get them |
| The repository should include a complete filing history: | | | | automated. |
| documents, cited references, all correspondence, and | | | | 5) Patent Characterization |
| docketing. It should also provide the most up to date | | | | Characterize your patent portfolios according to |
| information about all matters including current status, | | | | technology areas, business units, products and ratings. |
| filing and prosecution history, outstanding actions, and | | | | Establish workflow processes for regular updates to |
| annuity information. | | | | the categorizations and use analytical tools to spot |
| Having a centralized repository will provide you with | | | | trends, find anomalies, identify strengths and |
| the tools to selectively share relevant information | | | | weaknesses by leveraging your IP assets data. |
| with all stakeholders. For example, getting formal | | | | |