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Reasons Why IP Docketing Service Boosts the Law Firm’s Efficiency

Reasons Why IP Docketing Service Boosts the Law Firm's Efficiency
Reasons Why IP Docketing Service Boosts the Law Firm's Efficiency

By providing its clients with great services and proving that they can trust the law firm, the client’s trust will grow. In a world where people have busy schedules, they will forget many things daily under the pressure of overloaded work. What if you forget about your application deadlines, which causes great damage or loss.

The introduction of docketing in the legal domain is a gift for an attorney in their hectic life, which not only provides stability through monitoring the process of application status and reminds them of its deadline. Also, secure the database of patent applications and relevant information.

Intellectual Property (IP) Docketing is the crucial software that accesses law firms by tracking the application status of a Patent and putting an eye on the whole process. It operates to handle the process from start to end because this docketing software can handle the application procedure accurately and well mannered. In addition, some inventors hire attorneys or enter into a docketing company that facilitates this outsourcing service to law firms or individuals.

While docketing the patent, it is necessary to recheck all the details provided in documents, including patent drawings, patent drafting, various forms, documentations, and declarations, for its surety whether it is correct; otherwise, you have to pay extra money with a penalty of. So hire an attorney for the proper procedure to avoid any circumstances.

Some of the reasons which we discussed here are why IP docketing plays a crucial role in succeeding and boosting law firms effectively:

Least cost comparatively

The costs generated while processing patent applications through IP docketing are the least compared to others. The attorney who has access to docketing demands less than comparatively who works in actuality with no systems or tools as it takes more energy to perform. The clients can easily afford it according to their preferences.

Connect with a law firm or company helping you with IP docketing. The cost of docketing will be determined at the time of the patent application and will vary depending upon the type of object and the degree of technical work involved.

Clients trust factor

The company should take responsibility for building trust against clients by affirmatively providing the services and avert the patent application from losing opportunity if not add the information for having an alert of the deadline of the patent application.

The credentials are also shared with the clients to get updates regarding patent applications and when the deadline falls for further submission of complete specifications of the invention to the USPTO or any other National Patent and Trademark Offices. The flexible approach for clients in IP docketing makes it easy to monitor the application status; meanwhile, it trusts the company and makes the relationship strong with potential clients.

Notify the deadlines of the Application

Intellectual Property docketing is an imperative tool to use under patent proceedings. Suppose there is any submission of the Application or documentation needed after the prior Application, then in such case docket performs its duty by providing notification of deadlines. This type of service is the most important part for IP attorneys to use in their work.

However, because the attorney forgets or misses the last date of any tasks, it leads to heavy compensation in dealing with small and large organizations or law firms. Moreover, it must check the deadlines provided in the notification by determining what to tell as to whom the clients have to approach and which PTOs.

Conservation of time and money

IP docketing in law firms involved in tracking patent applications. The number of applications generated for patents and remembering their coming deadlines is difficult; meanwhile, it takes a lot of time to address the dates of all the applications.

So IP docketing is now helping to manage dates of deadlines which automated notify the clients and attorney who had the case file. Moreover, through electronic ways, one can upload all the documents and relevant data to the docketing software for a further process without going anywhere. Besides time, avoid spending extra money in various places for the patent process and attorneys.

Avoid long proceedings

Before the arrival of technologies, there was no such software and tools to make the way easy and less burdensome. But in the last few decades, the advent of new development in every domain drives the respective tasks in flow. The classical era has become the digital world now. So you do not have to stand in a long queue and wait for your turn. The software named IP docketing is introduced into the market, making the proceedings easy and quite less long-lasting To avoid this long patent prosecution process. You must submit all the documents, patent drawings, declarations, different forms, applications (if needed), specifications, and contact information.

Store database with security

IP docketing is the assured instrument used to store confidential information in its software. All the data and relevant details of the patent application will be stored for docketing. The skilled docketers shall add on the details with great experience and follow the steps correctly. Data updation is crucial to the clients and attorneys daily and provides the activity results entered into it.

Various software is engaged to store the data through outsourcing patent docketing, which applies cost depending upon the organization’s work domain. These types of software generate to reduce the onerous and easy to access where all the details gather at one place, which needs good management to access

Conclusion

Intellectual property is one of the greatest protected rights provided to inventors, artists, manufacturers, and scientists for their inventions and work. So to reach the point for granting the patent from USPTO or other NPTOs, you have to follow the documentation process, which is possible with the help of a patent paralegal and attorney, which includes patent drawings, and patent writings, and some other credentials to submit with required specifications.

In handling the patent application, IP docketing is subject to this procedure, which tracks the status of the patent application through this tool. Docketing is the qualitative way to manage the hustle of IP documents. Sometimes, law firms get their IP docketing software to provide services and use it themselves. It is easy for both clients and docketers.

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6 Things to Consider When Selecting A Docketing Service

IP Docketing
IP Docketing

Choosing the right docketing specialist isn’t a piece of cake, especially if you’re doing it for the first time. While most of the consumers demand the highest quality of services along with great professional staff, you must consider some other factors as well before you just rely on any of the patent paralegal professionals. 

Moreover, it’s important to do a little research about the aspects that matter while you’re about to hire a professional service provider. Let’s have a look at the crucial aspects that you shouldn’t miss while selecting a docketing service provider. 

Overall Experience 

When you are on a hunt for the right remote docketing specialist, the first thing you must emphasize is the overall experience of the professional. The more the experience, the better services and consultation you’ll be getting. 

So, before you just finalize any of the service providers, it’s strongly recommended to check the total years of experience. 

Flexibility

If your service provider offers you scalable and flexible services in the future without burning a hole in your pocket; you’ve got the best. It’s advised to check for the service options in advance and ask the service provider to explain the scope of their services in the future. 

Customer Services

A great patent paralegal service provider is one that holds a bunch of good clients. You must cross-check the entire client base of your company. This is crucial because you can’t just squander your hard-earned money on services that aren’t up to the mark. You must choose the desired company wisely. 

Professionalism 

Another crucial aspect is to check whether the service provider that you have shortlisted has a group of professionals or not. Only a professional can deliver you the desired services that help to scale your business growth in the long run. 

Check for the Single Point of Contact during the tenure of services.

Quality & Security 

Quality and security can’t be overlooked especially if you’re new to hiring a professional docketing service provider. Do check reviews and ratings of the market players before making a final decision.

Make sure you ask for references from the service provider and verify them.

The Pricing 

Ask the service providers in advance regarding the services they are about to offer and the overall charges for the same. This would surely help you in picking the right services without putting a load on your pocket. 

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Articles IP Docketing General

How much IP Docketing Services cost?

IP Docketing Services
IP Docketing Services

IP Docketing Services are required when you are super busy with your day to day business activities. I am an attorney myself, and I understand attorneys keep themselves extremely occupied. At times, the attorneys keep admin staff to help them, however, the IP docketing and paralegal work become too much quite often. Therefore, it is required to utilize outsourced IP Docketing Services.

It’s a headache to contact a number of service providers and zero down their strategy to understand how do they charge.

Typically, the price for a 2000 matters portfolio management costs in the range of 3000 – 6000 US dollars per month. The pricing pretty much depends upon the pricing model we use. If you have a small portfolio of around 200 patents and trademarks, these docketing services might cost you around 500 to 800 US dollars per month.

Pricing Models for IP Docketing Services

Service providers keep a standard pricing model for its clients. So that it is easy for them to cater to the inquiries. There are multiple methods of pricing IP docketing services. Let’s look at all of them one by one:

Matters Based Model

In matter based pricing model, the docketing service provider counts the number of matters available in the docketing software. They keep a fixed multiplier for domestic matters and a different multiplier for foreign matters. For domestic matters generally, the pricing is 2 USD to 4 USD per matter. And for foreign matters, the cost is generally, 3 USD to 6 USD depending upon the negotiation. Further, at times, the service providers charge a flat rate for both domestic and foreign matters. The flat pricing typically range in 3 to 5 US dollars per matter.

Now, when there are 2000 matters in the system and if we chose the lowest flat price here, the cost becomes USD 6000.

The cost of docketing services increases when we enter a new matter in the docketing system. Generally, docketing service providers count matters every month. Also, the billing contains only active matters in the system. There are fewer emails associated with inactive matters, and hence they are not billed.

Email Correspondences Based Model

Another popular model of docketing services is counting the email correspondences model. In correspondences based models, the service providers count the received emails on a daily basis. These email correspondences include emails from the patent offices, foreign agents, internal attorneys, external counsels, unsolicited emails and other emails.

The service providers categorize correspondence in to docketable and non docketable emails. They bill for docketable matters only.

The pricing for docketable matters typically ranges from 10 USD to 15 USD. Here again, at times the docketing services provider counts the domestic and foreign matters.

For 2000 matters, typically, we receive around 20 correspondences every day. The monthly load becomes around 400 correspondences. If we consider the average pricing of domestic and foreign matters, the monthly for docketing services become USD 5000. Of course, the pricing will depend upon the negotiation and the monthly correspondences.

Also, sometimes, there is a charge for non-docketable emails as well. There is genuine reason for it. The IP docketers invest time into analyzing these correspondences. At times the non docketable correspondences are charged at 1-3 USD per correspondence.

Personally, I don’t like this pricing model. There are few reasons for it.

  • For docketing email in the back of my mind, it goes that the pricing is increasing,
  • I feel like why am I paying for non-docketable matters? Also, equally important is why I am not paying for the efforts of the docketing person?
  • Many times, this creates distrust because you can’t count the correspondences every month.

Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Based Model

In FTE based model, we decide a fixed monthly at the beginning. The IP Docketing Service Provider analyzes the docketing services requirements depending on the number of matters, number of daily correspondences, number of expected daily hours, and experience of docketing time investment by the client.

FTE Models, keep one or two-level docketing. In one level docketing, only the single person performs the docketing. The quality check is performed by a single person only. In two-level docketing, a QC manager works with a docketing team member. Once, the docketing and first quality check are complete by the docketing team member, the QC manager performs the second quality check. It makes docketing a Four-Eye quality check process.

Both the docketing member and the QC manager are charged differently. The charge rate of docketing team members ranges in 23 USD per hour to 35 USD per hour depending upon the location of the team. Further, the charge rate for the QC manager varies from USD 28 to USD 45 per hour.

Let’s take the example of 2000 matters again. Let’s assume you negotiate half FTE and 1 daily hour of QC manager on a monthly basis. 1/2 FTE charges at USD 23 per hour becomes 2024 USD per month. QC Manager charges at USD 28 per hour becomes 616. The total monthly billing becomes 2640 USD per month.

How to calculate FTE requirements?

First and foremost, check how much time you or your admin member is investing in docketing. If you are investing around 3-4 hours in docketing daily, go for half FTE i.e. 4 hours daily. Remember, the FTE might take little extra time than yours considering he/she needs to reverify the docketing again. The QC manager time is generally the 25% of the FTE time. In this case, the QC manager you hire will invest 1 hour on a daily basis.

Another method of calculating the FTE requirements is counting the number of daily email correspondences. If you are receiving around 40-50 daily correspondences, you’ll need one complete FTE i.e., 8 hours daily and corresponding 2 hours of the QC Manager daily.

What is common in all pricing models?

The common thing in all the pricing models is that every model charges a monthly fee. You’ll have to be ready to invest a monthly amount in maintaining the docketing work.

Which model is best?

Out of three models, I believe FTE model is best. There are several benefits of this model.

  1. You won’t have to count the matters every now and then as it is required in the matters counting model.
  2. You won’t have to worry about the number of daily email correspondences, non-docketable matters dilemma, and distrust issue.
  3. You’ll focus on the business process and the team will work with you as your extended team without much vendor payment discussions. The vendors usually don’t come for minor surges in the work however if the surge becomes regular they might come back and request you for the increase in the fee.
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Pricing for Auditing

Pricing for auditing the system is generally charged separately irrespective of the pricing model you use. You can negotiate a quarterly auditing in whatever pricing model is available.

What Model Menteso IP follows for its IP Docketing Services?

Menteso IP recommends and uses FTE based model. We believe in working closely with clients. We successfully applied this FTE model with many of our clients. If you wish to talk to our clients before proceeding with us. Please contact us.

Written By: Azam Ghani, LL.M., Intellectual Property Laws, University of California, Berkeley

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IP Docketing General

What is Patent Docketing?

What is Patent Docketing?

The definition of Patent Docketing

Patent Docketing is the calendarization of events associated with the patent prosecution journey. The events include pre-filing activities, patent application filing activities, and the grant and patent maintenance activities.

The Process Management

If you are managing a few patents probably you can utilize an excel sheet and track the requisite dates. The patent docketing becomes complex with the increase in the number of patents. Imagine, if you have a large number of patents even two hundred or more, you will have a difficult time managing the patent prosecution. Law firms with a focus on patent practices must establish a strong patent docketing process. Large patent law firms use software and hire a team of docketing specialist to manage the complete process.

What are the uses of the Patent Docketing?

United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) takes years to grant a patent. When there are hundreds of patent applications the process of docketing helps in managing the patent prosecution process efficiently. There are filing deadlines, documents, forms, drawings and statements that need to be tracked down. Patent Docketing ensures that all the deadlines are met and all the documents are correctly labeled and kept in the correct folder so that the documents can be retrieved as and when required.

What is Docketing Process?

In the past, there used to be a lot of paperwork in patent law firms. Docketers’ used to label each document and place them in the relevant files. Nowadays, after the introduction of Softwares, paperwork has shifted to electronic files. As a result, the docketing process now includes entering each document into an electronic database. This electronic database helps attorneys easily fetching the list of required documents and deadlines. Also, docketers must also send daily docketing work completed and activities reports to the attorneys so that the attorneys can take relevant actions.

What is virtual patent docketing?

Virtual Patent (IP) Docketing is also known as Remote IP Docketing or Managed IP Docketing or Outsourced IP Docketing. In this process, a team of remote IP Docketers works at a fixed monthly cost. This process helps in reducing the costs of hiring, training and maintaining the inhouse IP docketers team. Menteso IP is thoroughly experienced in managing the docketing system remotely. You can also contact Menteso IP for queries related to remote/virtual IP docketing.

Docketing Softwares

There are a number of patent docketing softwares available in the market. All the softwares help in tracking the deadlines, as well as, managing the complete patent docketing process. Further, many softwares are extremely smart. They automatically get a document feed from the USPTO and create the tasks for the attorneys. Furthermore, some softwares are complex. Such complex softwares keep a track of patent applications in multiple countries. We wrote an article about basic docketing softwares. Here it is, Four best IP docketing softwares for small and medium law firms. The four best docketing softwares include AppColl, Alt Legal, DocketTrak, and FlexTrac. We generally recommend AppColl for our clients unless there is a specific or highly complex need.

Do you need patent docketing services? Check the Menteso IP approach.

Patent Docketing services become important if:

  • you think you won’t be able to manage the business needs together with the unproductive work of calendarization, docketing or paralegal
  • time is short and you can not manage hiring, training and maintaining a docketing team
  • you need docketing experts from day one
  • the docketing software is new and it needs to be managed,
  • you need expert help to set up the system or process. Menteso IP can rescue you in all situations.

We wish to see your docketing system up and running. Contact us today.

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IP Docketing General

Seven (7) Steps to Setup an Excellent Patent Docketing Process

Patent Docketing
Patent Docketing

As you are here, I could think of three reasons:

1. You have a messy patent and trademark docketing system, and you wish to improve its quality (by audit or data cleansing);
2. You are trying to build patent or trademark docketing process from scratch and you are looking for IP Docketing Best Practices; or
3. You are trying to switch the IP docketing system.

If there is any other reason, please write in the comment section towards the end of the page.

Nonetheless, I am glad; you are here. I am sure that the following seven steps of setting up a robust IP docketing process will help you in all of the situations mentioned above as well as the reasons shared in the comment section if there is any.

If you face any issue or need help in setting up the process, I’ll be glad to provide FREE of cost initial IP Docketing Consultancy.

The following seven (7) steps would be a great help, I guarantee you. If you need my help, I’ll be more than happy to help you in setting up the whole system. I understand it’s a pain to build the system from scratch. Nevertheless, if you follow the below seven (7) steps, it should be an easy one.

1. Create a Common Mailbox.

I can’t stress more. Many of our clients, with small docketing, needs avoided creating a common mailbox and used multiple mailboxes. When the practice grew, they got lost. When we handled their patent docketing system, we created this common mailbox on Day 1 of our assignment. And yes, don’t forget to use this common mailbox everywhere including PTO filings, Agent Communications, Client Communications, and all the other relevant communications.

2. Create a Standard Practice Manual

Heard it the first time about Manual? Well, we rely on our “Best IP Docketing Team,” that’s the general response of law firm managers. The problem arises when a team member leaves for one or the other reason. She/He will take away all the know how. Now, when you have a manual and deploy a new team member, it becomes straightforward to track what’s going on in the system. We faced this situation when we offered our team members as extended team wherein one or two of our team members acted as Full-Time Equivalents for our client’s team. Our team members had to deep delve into the system to understand the full practices. Then finally, our team created the Standard Practice Manual which was used throughout the client’s firm later.

3. Choose and Customize a Docketing Software.

Here, the significant point is to use a customizable docketing software.

  • Read 4 Best IP Docketing Softwares: If you are starting now, and wish to select the software you can read this important article that helps you in deciding on Patent Docketing Software for your needs.
  • Choose Reports Types and Frequency: Make sure the software you choose should be able to create periodic reports as per your needs. It is imperative. Your client would ask for the reports time and again. At times, the clients will ask for the login of the system for status of their matters.
  • Train the IP Docketing System: Training the docketing system means whenever you set up a system from scratch customize the tasks generation as per your docketing needs. For example, you want a task created two days before the deadline as you plan complete everything two days before the deadline to manage last minute issues. In this situation, training the system would be extremely helpful.

4. Choose a Supervisor

Someone has to be a complete owner of the system who takes care of the entire process including monitoring of the patent docketing system, tracking of the common mailbox, coordinating with remote patent and trademark docketing teams, internal teams, attorneys, etc. It’s a lot, and you really need someone to manage your internal stuff. Initially, the attorneys do it themselves however as the system grows they must delegate it so that they focus on their core activities.

5. Build the IP Docketing Team

You need this, when the business grows, you can build both internal teams as well as the remote docketing team, or you can plan a mix of the team. All three options of the team structures have its advantages and disadvantages. The internal team remains with you all the time, however, at times it is costly to maintain an internal team considering the hiring and training costs involved. On the other hands, the remote team might be cost-effective as well as deliver peace of mind as you don’t have to hire and train the team members. Further, the extension of team members upon surge in work. Usually, remote docketing teams keep a buffer team which can quickly manage the surge, or increase the team members as and when required.

6. Monitor and Train the team

Whether you keep an internal or remote team, it is vital to monitor and train your team members. There might be n number of things specific to your standard practices on which your team members need training. The best you can do is record the training videos these become useful for future uses and you won’t have to pass on the same information again and again. Further, the team can also view the videos repeatedly on its pace. Furthermore, you can upload the videos on Youtube with restriction to availability to your firm’s email IDs. This is only possible when your team is using G Suite for your emails.

7. Setup Quarterly Audits

It is critical, at times we find important issues while auditing. One simple reason for this process step is “To err is to human,” and you have human beings working with you. It doesn’t mean that you won’t need audits when you have incredibly sophisticated systems which are updating everything automatically. Many a time there would be errors from PTO. We saw a lot of mismatches even in Titles or dates of filing. The sophisticated systems can’t resolve these issues automatically. Your audit and cleansing drive will make your system robust and healthy all the time.

I wish you good luck in setting up your patent and trademark docketing process. Please feel free to write to us for your specific queries.

About Author: Azam Ghani is the Founder and CEO at Menteso (IP), Inc. He is the LL.M. from University of California at Berkeley with specialization in Intellectual Property. IAM Magazine included him in top 300 IP Strategist in the years 2017 and 2018. He is an IP Attorney, Consultant, and Innovation Enthusiast. For specific queries and inputs, please write to him at azam@mentesocom.wpcomstaging.com.

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