The Most Effective Way to Improve Your Patent Practice Right Now

As we near the end of the year, IP managers and patent attorneys are more conscious than ever of their bottom line.

We’re hearing it from clients and industry colleagues – everyone is looking for ways to save money without sacrificing quality patent work. But what changes can you implement right now that will have the most immediate impact on your profit margins? Workflow automation may be the answer.

How workflow automation instantly impacts your patent practice:

It supplements the efforts of your assistants and paralegals.
We know that support staff often finds itself having to do more with less. Automating away repetitive tasks with workflow automation can free up time for more vital (and profitable) work. Juristat Office Action Response (OAR), for example, cuts at least one hour of work from response preparation. What would you do with that extra hour?

It delays your need for a new hire.
It can be very challenging to find skilled legal professionals – especially in the world of remote work. Offloading tedious tasks to AI is essentially hiring a new employee without having to post the open position, gather and review applications, interview, onboard, and train new staff. 

It means less logins and manual entry.
It sounds counterintuitive, but adding the right workflow automation tool into your process can actually cut back on the number of systems you log into and the amount of time you spend on manual entry just to prepare patent-related documents and research. 

It reduces USPTO fees.
A late response to an office action, an untimely IDS submission, or a missed prior art disclosure can incur USPTO fees that chip away from your profitability and damage your attorney-client relationship. By relying on AI for more tedious tasks such as generating required information disclosures, gathering cited prior art, or drafting office action responses, you ensure tasks are completed with accuracy and precision. 

It improves profitability on flat-fee work.
Ultimately, when you shave time off menial tasks and cut unnecessary costs, you'll earn more profit on every flat-fee project you bring in the door. 

More than ever before, law firms and corporate patent teams are being asked to do more with fewer resources. Organizations that invested in technology were significantly more likely to report higher profitability than organizations that did not. Investing in workflow automation technology can speed up menial tasks, ensuring that time is spent on the most valuable and profitable activities. 

Interested to see how workflow automation can cut costs from your patent practice? Let’s find time to talk.