In House Patent Paralegal or Outsource: Which is best?

As an industry you spend lot of money and resources in doing R&D for the development of your industry. However, you need to legally secure the intellectual property you developed. If not, then any third party can us your IP on their name. This will give them the advantages and benefits that belong to you. Process of securing your IP is known as patent prosecution. However patent prosecution is full of legal complexities and needs you to have a dedicated team to look after this. You can have an in-house patent paralegal team or outsource an IP law firm to help in this.

This article will tell you the roles of patent paralegal teams whether in-house or outsource. Read in full and get to know, how to proceed with patent prosecution.

Also read: Virtual Patent Paralegal: Managing Workload of Patent Attorneys

What is the role of hiring a Patent Paralegal?

As you read above, a patent paralegal whether it is in-house or outsource, they help in patent prosecution. So after developing your IP you take their help in patent prosecution of your IP. Patent prosecution refers to the process of drafting patent application, proofreading, filing it with USPTO, responding to office actions, etc. It goes on till you obtain patent rights from US PATENT and TRADEMARK OFFICE (USPTO).

But all these processes are highly complex and demand legal expertise. Thus you need to hire an expert who can look after all the processes so that you obtain IP rights quickly. This is where a patent paralegal helps you. Now there are two ways of this, either develop an in-house patent paralegal or outsource a third party paralegal.

In case of In house patent paralegal, they are the employees and law experts from within your industry. In outsourcing, you hire an IP law firm as an IP paralegal, for the patent prosecution.

So either of which you hire, they help in full-fledged patent prosecution work. It typically starts with patent search by patent paralegal you hire. This allows you to determine whether your invention is worth spending money to get for it patent or not. In-house or outsource patent paralegal using their IP legal knowledge carry out all the patent prosecution process.

Also read: Patent Prosecution Paralegal: Importance and Role

Creating In-House Patent Paralegal Team for IP Prosecution

As a corporate you develop ideas/services/products after doing innovation and research. Later you want to get IP rights for it, as it is your creation. But as said earlier, it requires legal knowledge for IP prosecution. Thus, many times, corporates take help of their in-house employees who have good technical-knowledge in their field. They are made to interact with the team who has developed the product for which IP right is sought. Then both these teams work together to get IP rights for the invention. Thus they come under in-house patent paralegal team for IP prosecution.

However, both the teams don’t have proper IP and legal knowledge for patent prosecution. Thus they can commit in error in application draft. This will lead to office action from patent office, and due to lack of IP knowledge the correct office action response may also not filed.

Thus to overcome these challenges, corporates train their employees on patent law and patent prosecution process. But this is a costly affair and also affects the quality of IP service you get from them. Apart from them, setting an In-house patent paralegal team also burdens the employees who are part of it. Thus their individual efficiency in their main work also reduces. Thus, to overcome all these challenges you can hire external IP law firms for patent prosecution.

Also read: What does an Intellectual property litigation attorney do?

“Patent Paralegal Force” as your external IP law firm partner

As you read above, creating an in-house patent paralegal team is not a friendly affair for your industry. They lead to burden on employees and the productivity of your company also goes down. But you can’t ignore the patent prosecution process also. Thus it is always recommended to hire an external IP law firm as your prosecution partner. But you can’t hire anyone randomly, you should choose one whom you can trust blindly. This is where, our role comes. You can hire us, “Patent Paralegal Force” and we guarantee you the satisfaction you want for your IP matters.

We have earned clients in more than 45+ countries it’s all because of our reliable services. Our team includes the professionals having rich experience in IP law dealings. We provide our paralegal services using state of art tools. We totally understand your work first and then proceed with our services. Read more about our services here.

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