A client recently told me: “All this paperwork is driving me crazy!” He meant the paperwork that comes with protecting intellectual property. The fix is simple: talk to your patent attorney regularly. Doesn’t that take time? No, it saves time, and often money too. Here are four benefits of staying in regular contact.
1. You save time
Protecting an invention comes with a lot of reports: results of searches, opinions on patentability, the draft application and so on. They’re hard to read and full of legal jargon. It’s often difficult to tell what matters and what doesn’t. That’s why staying in touch is so important. You don’t have to work through everything yourself.
I speak to my clients every month or two to walk them through the dreaded paperwork. I guide them through the text, explain the key points and flag any decisions coming up. This saves you a lot of time, because you no longer have to read everything. Reports can be shorter too, and you avoid long email chains full of questions. You can focus straight away on what matters.
2. Better advice
The quickest way for me to get to know your organisation is to speak to you regularly. That way I know what you’re working on. You may be talking to investors or improving your current innovation. Regular contact lets me advise you on your next steps and on what’s happening now.
It also lightens your load and keeps things moving without delays. If a deadline for choosing countries is coming up, I can advise you there and then. If I’m waiting on information from you before filing, we can sort it out on the spot. My advice stays up to date, and the lines of communication stay short.
3. Budget left over for newer innovations
Another key topic is the annual review of your patent portfolio. Together, we take a critical look at your patents: which ones do you still need, and which can go? Cutting what you no longer need saves money.
Think, for example, of the countries where your innovation is protected. For a patent, you pay an annual renewal fee per country. After ten years, the total adds up. That’s a big chunk of budget you could spend elsewhere. So in our annual review, we look together at where you can save.
If there are countries where you don’t operate, or where results are disappointing, consider letting the patent lapse there. This frees up budget to protect recent innovations, develop new ones, or find ways around competitors’ patents.
4. Insight into your competition
Keeping an eye on your competitors is another reason to stay in touch. Many innovative companies use patent monitoring. They receive a monthly list of new patent publications relevant to their business, with links to the full details. It gives valuable insight into your competitors, but many people find it hard to read. If you’d like to know more about patent monitoring, download our brochure here.
The main advantage of our conversations is that they let you get to the heart of the matter quickly and agree next steps straight away.
In short, regular contact with clients is essential to me. Of course, every patent attorney has their own way of working, and every client has different preferences. Regular contact keeps my work interesting, and above all it keeps me informed. That means better advice and a smoother process for you. Working closely together brings out the best in both of us.
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If you want to find out more about the protection of your intellectual property or want to set up patent monitoring, please feel free to contact us.
