5 signs your firm's IP tech stack is quietly costing you billable hours
Formatting over strategy, four tools per draft, unclear costs per matter: five signs your IP tech stack is quietly costing billable hours.
Renewal time comes round, finance asks why software costs went up again, and nobody in the firm can point to what's actually driving it. Here are five signs worth checking for before that conversation happens.
Your attorneys spend more time formatting than strategising
In a real-world test, 85% of the time attorneys spent on prosecution tasks went to formatting and structure, not to the strategic thinking clients are actually paying for. If that ratio sounds familiar, it is worth asking how much of your team's week goes the same way.
Getting one draft out the door means touching four different tools
If producing a single patent application means moving between a word processor, a spreadsheet, a separate drawing tool, and your case management system, every handoff between those tools is a chance for something to be missed or duplicated.
The new associate is still asking which tool has the current version
If training someone how to use software takes longer than training them on your firm's own drafting conventions, that's not onboarding. That's the software getting in the way before the work even starts.
You cannot answer a client's AI question with confidence
Clients are asking firms directly what their AI story is. If the honest answer is "we have not really settled on one," that is worth fixing before a client asks it in a pitch meeting rather than a catch-up call.
Nobody can say what your tools actually cost per matter
Your IP software spend is spread across several platforms, and when someone finally asks for the real cost per matter, the honest answer takes a week to pull together and still isn't precise.
None of this is about ripping out every tool a firm relies on. It is about being honest with yourself about where the actual time is going.
Patently was built to bring search, drafting, prosecution, and portfolio review into one place for exactly this reason. See Patently.
Renewal time comes round, finance asks why software costs went up again, and nobody in the firm can point to what's actually driving it. Here are five signs worth checking for before that conversation happens.
Your attorneys spend more time formatting than strategising
In a real-world test, 85% of the time attorneys spent on prosecution tasks went to formatting and structure, not to the strategic thinking clients are actually paying for. If that ratio sounds familiar, it is worth asking how much of your team's week goes the same way.
Getting one draft out the door means touching four different tools
If producing a single patent application means moving between a word processor, a spreadsheet, a separate drawing tool, and your case management system, every handoff between those tools is a chance for something to be missed or duplicated.
The new associate is still asking which tool has the current version
If training someone how to use software takes longer than training them on your firm's own drafting conventions, that's not onboarding. That's the software getting in the way before the work even starts.
You cannot answer a client's AI question with confidence
Clients are asking firms directly what their AI story is. If the honest answer is "we have not really settled on one," that is worth fixing before a client asks it in a pitch meeting rather than a catch-up call.
Nobody can say what your tools actually cost per matter
Your IP software spend is spread across several platforms, and when someone finally asks for the real cost per matter, the honest answer takes a week to pull together and still isn't precise.
None of this is about ripping out every tool a firm relies on. It is about being honest with yourself about where the actual time is going.
Patently was built to bring search, drafting, prosecution, and portfolio review into one place for exactly this reason. See Patently.