How To Reduce Dependence on Outside IP Counsel for Patent-Related Matters?

The process of filing for and obtaining a patent is lengthy and expensive. USPTO application fees, legal fees, and drawing costs can drain a budget and prevent promising inventions from getting to market. To navigate these complexities, it’s vital to understand the evaluation of ideas for their patentability which can help streamline the patent process and reduce unnecessary expenditures.

Fortunately, there’s a simple way to mitigate the priciest portion of this process — legal fees.

Although attorney fees can’t be completely avoided, there’s a way to decrease legal expenses and, at the same time, gain a tool for making smarter patent-related decisions.

Triangle IP’s TIP Tool™ is an innovative, interactive, web-based portal that keeps you in sync with the USPTO and provides answers your patent attorney would bill you for.

With the TIP Tool, you no longer have to pay counsel for USPTO updates, status reports, and insights.

The TIP Tool uses powerful data science to give you the information you need to track your case and make intelligent decisions without paying your attorney for often limited or inadequate answers.

“When you want to know how things are going with your case or what’s likely to happen, your attorney charges you for answers that can be difficult to understand or are often based on a gut feeling,” says Thomas Franklin, co-founder of Triangle IP. “With the TIP Tool, you get the facts, simply and clearly.”

The TIP Tool uses data analytics, so you know the information you’re getting is science-based. You can use it confidently to guide decisions about how to move forward with your case.

Reducing dependence on outside IP counsel

Five Critical Pieces of IP Information the TIP Tool Delivers

With the TIP Tool, you no longer need to pay for potentially complicated or speculative answers to your patent-related questions. The TIP Tool makes it easy to find answers with no legal fees.

These five key pieces of information help you make sound decisions based on science rather than guesswork.

1. Status of a Patent or Patent Application
The TIP Tool provides an easy way to capture, track and manage your patent pipeline from invention disclosures to patents.

You can watch your ideas progress through idea capture, internal vetting, patent drafting, and filing. Along the way, you can instantly notify team members and stakeholders of any changes or updates.

Because the TIP Tool is in sync with the USPTO, it also provides automatic status updates for your published and unpublished applications.

With the TIP Tool, you no longer need to depend on outside counsel for status updates. Instead, you’re immediately notified of any actions the USPTO wants you to take as well as any changes in the application process. This aligns well with the concept of strategic patent filing which ensures efficient management and progression of patent applications.

The TIP Tool saves you time; you no longer have to call your attorney for updates and wait for a response. And it saves you money; all USPTO status changes are immediately available so you can make timely and informed decisions.

With the TIP Tool, you can keep tabs on your case, determine how your application is progressing compared to others in the same domain and decide which patent application might need your immediate attention.

Automatic USPTO updates with the TIP Tool

2. Likelihood of Getting a Patent
The likelihood of getting a patent majorly depends on the allowance rate of the examiner assigned to a case besides other factors. An attorney can speculate based on professional experience, but the TIP Tool provides examiner analytics to help you pursue patent applications efficiently.

“When you want to know the likelihood of getting a patent, you don’t want to hear your counsel tell you, ‘Wow, I’m feeling really good about it.’ You want data, not hunches,” says Franklin. “The TIP Tool tells you your examiner’s allowance rate so you can determine your chances and whether to expect additional rounds with this particular examiner. This is good information to have. It allows you to make informed decisions.”

The more you know how the examiner handling your case might respond to it, the better you’ll be able to negotiate the patent.

The TIP Tool puts you in the driver’s seat when choosing the right actions to pursue your case.

Detailed Examiner Analytics Triangle IP — Detailed Examiner Analytics

3. Case Analytics
The TIP Tool allows you to extend your knowledge base about your case so you can make more informed decisions without the need for counsel.

The TIP Tool provides the precise intel you need for each case, such as:

How far along it is in the process
How the patent counsel handling your case has prosecuted other patent applications
How are other patent applications performing in the same art unit
The anticipated costs for end-to-end prosecution
How much resistance the case is meeting at the patent office
A family tree so you can see what other cases proceeded it or maybe follow it
What’s going on overseas
A timeline of interactions with the patent office

And, having an idea about cost estimates for filing utility patents can be immensely beneficial for budget planning.

The TIP Tool provides thorough updates on your case, so you don’t need to pay your attorney for answers.

Patent Counsel and Examiner Analytics Triangle IP — Patent Counsel and Examiner Analytics

4. Cost Estimations

The TIP Tool gives you the information you need to predict patent costs and create a realistic budget.

Among other things, the TIP Tool helps you determine the chances of success. Based on the intelligence it gathers by studying millions of applications, the TIP Tool provides the data you need to decide how much of an investment you’re willing to make to pursue a case.

“When your decisions are based on data science, you can create realistic budgets that rely on patent data, competitive activity and USPTO behavior,” says Franklin.

With the TIP Tool, you can determine if the invention stands a good chance and how much the patent will cost you over the years if you decide to move forward.

In fact, the TIP Tool also gives a complete breakdown of costs for provisional as well as non-provisional patents and patent applications

Must Read: Five Ways to Deal with the Challenges of IP Budget Allocation

Cost Estimation Triangle IP — Cost Estimation

5. Holistic View of the Patent Portfolio

Instead of relying on your attorney for answers, you can count on the TIP Tool to give you actionable intelligence about your cases.

In the Portfolio Manager tab, you can find all the data you need to make informed decisions about your case. Among other things, you can compare the allowance rate of the examiner on your case to the number of rounds the case has gone through.

“For instance, if you have a case in which the examiner on average allows the case after two rounds, but your case has already gone seven rounds, then it’s a good sign there might be something wrong with the case,” says Franklin. “The TIP Tool alerts you to this kind of issue so you can make an informed decision about whether to continue pursuing the case or abandon it and save the budget for something else.”

From specifics about the progress of your case to details about related national and international applications, the TIP Tool provides accessible and easy-to-understand data that gives you a holistic view of all the pieces you need to make thoughtful, educated, and strategic decisions about your

patent process.

Parting Thoughts

The TIP Tool by Triangle IP is dedicated to democratizing the patent acquisition process.

This easy-to-use IP patent management software solution delivers a transparent and autonomous system for tracking and managing the progress of your innovative ideas.

Synced to the USPTO, the TIP Tool also provides the data you need to track case progress and make educated strategic decisions without having to pay outside counsel.