Why Ex­ter­nal Patent At­tor­neys Pro­tect Independence

A patent strat­e­gy can lose val­ue quick­ly when tech­ni­cal, le­gal and com­mer­cial de­ci­sions are treat­ed as sep­a­rate tasks. We de­lib­er­ate­ly work with ex­ter­nal patent at­tor­neys. This ap­proach en­sures our in­de­pen­dence and gives our clients the flex­i­bil­i­ty to in­volve their own patent at­tor­neys when­ev­er they wish. The re­sult is ad­vice fo­cused on the mer­its of the in­ven­tion, the rel­e­vant patent land­scape and the com­mer­cial de­ci­sion at hand.

In­de­pen­dent analy­sis be­fore le­gal action

Patent at­tor­neys play an es­sen­tial role in draft­ing, fil­ing and pros­e­cut­ing patent ap­pli­ca­tions, and in rep­re­sent­ing clients be­fore the rel­e­vant of­fices. How­ev­er, many crit­i­cal de­ci­sions arise be­fore an ap­pli­ca­tion is pre­pared or a le­gal po­si­tion is as­sert­ed. Is the in­ven­tion suf­fi­cient­ly dis­tinct? Which tech­ni­cal fea­tures cre­ate val­ue? Does a com­peti­tor’s claim cre­ate a prac­ti­cal risk? Is there free­dom to op­er­ate in the in­tend­ed market?

TIPAG ad­dress­es these ques­tions through tech­ni­cal patent analy­sis and com­mer­cial­ly fo­cused IP strat­e­gy. We as­sess claims, pri­or art, prod­ucts and tech­ni­cal ev­i­dence in de­tail. Be­cause we are in­de­pen­dent from the patent-at­tor­ney fil­ing func­tion, our work be­gins with a clear view of what the busi­ness needs to de­cide, rather than with a pre­de­ter­mined route to an application.

This dis­tinc­tion mat­ters. Fil­ing may be the right next step, but so may fur­ther de­vel­op­ment, a tar­get­ed search, a de­sign-around, a li­cens­ing dis­cus­sion or a de­ci­sion not to in­vest fur­ther. A sound strat­e­gy should make these al­ter­na­tives visible.

Ex­ter­nal patent at­tor­neys and client flexibility

Work­ing with ex­ter­nal patent at­tor­neys gives clients con­trol over their pro­fes­sion­al team. A busi­ness may al­ready have a trust­ed at­tor­ney who knows its tech­nol­o­gy, port­fo­lio and in­ter­nal process­es. That re­la­tion­ship re­mains ful­ly avail­able. TIPAG can pro­vide the tech­ni­cal analy­sis, in­ven­tion doc­u­men­ta­tion, claim-ori­ent­ed as­sess­ment and strate­gic in­put that help the at­tor­ney act efficiently.

Where a client needs a suit­able rep­re­sen­ta­tive in a par­tic­u­lar ju­ris­dic­tion or tech­ni­cal field, we can draw on long-stand­ing pro­fes­sion­al re­la­tion­ships. We have co­op­er­at­ed with many part­ner patent at­tor­neys for more than 30 years. This ex­pe­ri­ence sup­ports ef­fi­cient com­mu­ni­ca­tion and a dis­ci­plined han­dover of tech­ni­cal ma­te­r­i­al, while the client re­mains free to ap­point the ad­vis­er they con­sid­er right for the matter.

In­de­pen­dence also sup­ports clar­i­ty in con­tentious sit­u­a­tions. In an in­fringe­ment al­le­ga­tion, op­po­si­tion, in­va­lid­i­ty as­sess­ment or free­dom-to-op­er­ate study, de­ci­sion-mak­ers need an ev­i­dence-based view of the tech­ni­cal facts. They need to un­der­stand what a claim re­quires, how a prod­uct op­er­ates and where un­cer­tain­ty re­mains. That work should stand on its own be­fore le­gal tac­tics are selected.

Build­ing an in­ter­na­tion­al IP strategy

Patent rights are ter­ri­to­r­i­al, but prod­uct de­vel­op­ment and com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion rarely are. A fil­ing pro­gramme may need to ac­count for man­u­fac­tur­ing in one coun­try, sales in an­oth­er and com­peti­tors ac­tive across sev­er­al mar­kets. The ap­pro­pri­ate ap­proach de­pends on the tech­nol­o­gy, bud­get, busi­ness mod­el, in­vest­ment timetable and en­force­ment priorities.

Our net­work in­cludes ex­pe­ri­enced patent pro­fes­sion­als in Switzer­land, Ger­many, across the Eu­ro­pean Union, and in the Unit­ed States, Japan and Chi­na. This is valu­able when a strat­e­gy re­quires lo­cal fil­ing, pros­e­cu­tion or le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. It does not mean that every in­ven­tion needs broad in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion. For some busi­ness­es, con­cen­trat­ed pro­tec­tion in a small num­ber of mar­kets is com­mer­cial­ly stronger than a wide but un­der­fund­ed portfolio.

TIPAG helps clients de­fine the tech­ni­cal and com­mer­cial ba­sis for those choic­es. We can pre­pare in­ven­tion dis­clo­sures, iden­ti­fy pro­tectable fea­tures, re­view ex­ist­ing port­fo­lios and sup­port claim de­vel­op­ment with en­gi­neer­ing in­sight. When in­ter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion is ap­pro­pri­ate, ex­ter­nal at­tor­neys can trans­late this foun­da­tion into ju­ris­dic­tion-spe­cif­ic ap­pli­ca­tions and procedures.

One co­or­di­nat­ed process, clear responsibilities

The strongest re­sults come from de­fined roles. Prod­uct teams pro­vide the en­gi­neer­ing knowl­edge. TIPAG struc­tures the tech­ni­cal ev­i­dence, as­sess­es patent risks and op­por­tu­ni­ties, and sup­ports the strate­gic de­ci­sion. Patent at­tor­neys pro­vide for­mal le­gal rep­re­sen­ta­tion and ju­ris­dic­tion-spe­cif­ic ad­vice. Man­age­ment re­tains con­trol of the com­mer­cial ob­jec­tive, bud­get and ac­cept­able risk.

This mod­el is par­tic­u­lar­ly ef­fec­tive where dead­lines are tight or the tech­nol­o­gy is com­plex. A well-pre­pared tech­ni­cal analy­sis re­duces avoid­able it­er­a­tions dur­ing draft­ing and helps en­sure that the patent ap­pli­ca­tion re­flects the in­ven­tion that cre­ates mar­ket val­ue. In dis­pute sup­port, it also helps le­gal teams test ar­gu­ments against the ac­tu­al op­er­a­tion of the de­vice or process.

Your IP ad­vis­ers should strength­en your free­dom to make in­formed de­ci­sions, not re­strict it. In­de­pen­dent analy­sis com­bined with trust­ed ex­ter­nal patent at­tor­neys gives you the flex­i­bil­i­ty to pro­tect, de­fend and de­vel­op tech­nol­o­gy with a strat­e­gy that re­mains aligned with your business.