Practical Tips for Running the Patent Law Office

Alternatives to the Billable Hour

Doug Sorocco had an interesting post about the billable hour in the rethink(ip) blog, and I agree with a good part of it. However, he makes it sound like the fixed fee is the billable hour cloaked in presold increments.

Personally, I am a big fan of the fixed fee, but I don’t treat it as a pres-old bunch of billable hours.

The Continuing Discussion of the Embedded Patent Attorney

Matt Buchanan has another great posting about the Embedded Patent Attorney, but he makes one comment with which I differ. Near the end of his post, he suggests that any attorney with could be “embedded,” regardless of their specialty. I think the patent attorney has much more propensity than any other specialty.

The Embedded Patent Attorney

There were a few comments on my post about lowering costs. Notably, Doug Sorcco suggested the concept of the embedded patent attorney and Matt Buchanan added some comments. Doug and Matt both describe the patent attorney who knows the insides of your business, walks the halls, and attends both business and engineering meetings. No surprise here, I like the idea.

This is one of the most important ways to lower patent costs, and as Doug suggests, one reason for firing your patent attorney if he/she does not do this for free.

The Holistic Advisor

In talking with a client last week, we got on one of our favorite topics: almost nobody has the big picture in mind when it comes to patent protection.

The client was a CEO of a small company with a little revenue and a couple of very broad and early patents in their rapidly developing field. His biggest complaint is that most of the patent and legal experts know their specialty, but cannot integrate it into a cohesive business plan.

Processes in One’s Own Business

One book that I really liked was The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. I read the book about 6 or 7 years ago and it changed my thinking on business practices.

The basic premise of the book, as I remember it, is for entrepreneurs to free themselves from the slavery of operating the business. In essence, each person in the business should be easily replaceable. Having been through several layoffs in my career and knowing first hand the terror that strikes the hearts of people when they are told they are “replaceable,” this concept was hard to swallow.