Wednesday 9 November 2011

Patent Docketing Software - If It's Broken, Fix It!



Countless users of last generation patent docketing software program really feel that there is no reason to upgrade. Almost everything is working fine. Why rock the boat? If the patent department has established metrics to evaluate the efficiency of the patent docketing technique, and the technique is consistently meeting or exceeding the benchmark, then pat your self on the back, considering that you rank higher among your peers. If that is not the case, then this is a fantastic time for a adjust.

This post will assist patent departments build meaningful metrics to measure the efficiency of their patent docketing program and revisit them whenever needed. Each and every patent department is distinctive and the metrics that function for 1 department may perhaps not work for one other. The objective is to assist IP departments create and measure their own metrics to determine no matter whether their patent docketing software program is meeting the objectives. Developing and measuring these metrics can present a basis for setting goals and establishes whether or not there is improvement or progress toward those goals more than time.

The key metrics can be categorized into 1 of these five locations:

1. Client Satisfaction

2. Information Management

three. Outside Counsel Management

4. Team Effectiveness

5. Visibility

Client Satisfaction

For the IP department, the clients are inventors, patent committee, important topic matter professionals and other stakeholders in technology and R&D groups. The metrics for client satisfaction include, but not limited to:

1. How effortless is it for your inventors to submit new invention disclosures?

2. How easy is it for your inventors to track what is happening on their submitted disclosures or patent applications and patents?

three. Do they have visibility into their awards?

four. How simple is it for your patent committee members to give their recommendations on invention disclosures?

five. How simple and easy it is for the topic matter specialists to interact with inventors for significantly more productive assessment and analysis?

6. How painless is it for senior management in technology and R&D to view the overall patent portfolio and pipeline?

Information Management

With out simple and easy access to managed information, each circumstance is addressed based on what the individual or group brings to the situation with them. With seamless access to managed expertise, every circumstance is addressed with the sum total of every little thing any person in the patent department has ever learned about a situation of a similar nature.

The metrics for expertise management incorporate, but not restricted to:

1. Do you have established metrics and rationale for evaluating invention disclosures for patent filings? If you do, can it be applied across all choices produced in the last 3-4 years?

two. How hassle-free is it for everyone to look at the foreign filing record and trace why the decision for this filing was taken?

three. How uncomplicated is it for someone to assessment annuity choices and know who produced the choice to preserve a certain patent and why?

four. How significantly time would it take for you to get a uncomplicated report, for example your whole patent portfolio grouped by jurisdiction and PTO status?

five. How considerably time would it take for you to project your overall spend for the next 3 months?

Outside Counsel Management

A quantity of patent departments use outside counsels for drafting, filing and prosecuting patent applications. The services provided by firm can account for 70% of the overall patent department spending budget. It is crucial to know if your existing patent docketing technique can supply you metrics to measure their performance.

1. How very easy is it for you to locate out what each and every firm is handling and the most up-to-date status on filings for each and every firm?

2. How considerably time would it take for you to get a report of overall invest per firm?

3. How rapid can you get the report of the turnaround time per firm?

four. Each and every time the OC requirements to collaborate with inventors (for example in patent application drafting), do they have to go through your team? How much time do you devote coordinating these activities?

five. How a lot do you know about extensions filed by law firms on office action responses?

Team Effectiveness

Patent docketing software is expected to help your team get more useful. Here are some metrics to help you determine if it is meeting the expectations-

1. How a lot time is your team spending on emails for sending facts to inventors, patent committee members, outside counsels?

2. How considerably time are they spending on duplicate entry of the very same information in many systems?

three. How a lot paper are they printing?

four. How straightforward is it for them to delegate perform to their colleagues?

five. How much time are they spending on calculating patent award payments?

Visibility

If you have been utilizing the patent docketing computer software to track invention disclosures, patents, trademarks, licenses and invoices, you will need to be in a position to get answers to the following concerns-

1. How much time would it take for you to view all invention disclosures, patents, trademarks and licenses by goods, by technology places and by small business units?

2. How rapid can your team get to all of their assigned tasks?

three. What visibility do you have into the workload of your team members and their typical response time?

4. How soon can you view the established budgetary goals for the fiscal year and the devote and accruals so far?

five. How effortless it for you to go to any record and get out the actual time status?

Lecorpio is created to present answers to all of these concerns. It automates all manual workflows, get rid of redundancies, and offer accurate reporting to help corporate IP departments improved service their customers and greater manage their service providers. If it is not broken, that's a great thing - but not a good cause for staying on an old technology.

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