Law firms looking to reduce the risks associated with the management of IP rights are advised to consider outsourcing to a specialist service provider, suggests Adam Wylie.
Anyone involved in IP will be aware that payment of patent annuities is an important and necessary part of maintaining an effective intellectual property portfolio. For law firms, it creates considerable workload and added expense if carried out directly with patent offices around the world.
For these reasons and more, the trend among law firms is to outsource the management of their clients’ IP rights to third-party IPR management service providers. Clients demand lower costs and services such as an online portal, and outsourcing is one way this can be achieved.
Patent annuity costs can represent a significant part of the overall patent expenditure. A company with just 500 patents can incur an annual spend of more than £100,000 on patent renewals. More difficult to quantify is the time spent in-house by an IP rights holder or law firm in the diligent administration of the patent renewals process.
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IPR management, outsourcing, service providers, patent annuity
