The Who’s Who of patent renewal providers

Different countries have different patent rules, payable fees, and renewal processes. Those owning multiple patent families across different jurisdictions are therefore likely to find themselves in need of a system to help keep track of which patents need renewing, where, and when.

Patent renewal companies assume responsibility for staying on top of patent arrangements and paying the renewal fees, each offering their own unique software and services to manage the ongoing exercise of patent management.

WIPR caught up with a selection of providers and their users to find out exactly how patent renewal services work and why they’re worth the investment. We asked each provider to give us a rundown of what makes them stand out, and client contacts to provide a user perspective on their systems. Where we weren’t able to source user comments, we’ve included smaller profiles of the provider.

Anaqua: Minimises risk through accurate forecasting

Anaqua offers integrated payment services and cost savings through its annuity and renewal service, which is designed to support the entire IP lifecycle.

The Anaqua Services suite integrates with Anaqua’s Unified IP Management platform, making annuity and renewal decisions easy to execute through the software. Through this, and by reducing the volume of invoices users receive, clients are able to save time in accounting and administration, the company claims.

It allows users to analyse payment history and assess the remaining balance, assisting users with their budgeting and minimising risk through accurate forecasting. Due to this flexibility and global processing efficiency, Anaqua is able to support patent portfolios of any size.

Brian Tucker, attorney at commercial law firm Kirton McConkie in the US, says Anaqua’s patent renewal service’s “seamless interaction with the docketing system” is what separates it from other comparable providers. The smooth integration of
the renewals service and the docketing system made selecting Anaqua as the firm’s patent renewal service an “easy decision” for Tucker.

He explains the ease of Anaqua’s system as follows: “The docketing interface includes an annuities window where we can simply set a pay/no pay option to instruct payment. The annuities window includes all the information we need to report to the client—including before the payment to request approval and after the payment to report its completion.”