Business organizations often hold the rights to numerous types of intellectual property in the form of patents, trademarks, licenses and royalties. These organizations use docketing software designed to manage their intellectual property, particularly in regards to patents. Patent docketing may organize any legal matters, licensing, letter and forms generation or scheduling that pertains to an organization's existing or pending patents.
The Facts
Patent docketing basically keeps tracks of any procedures and deadlines that are related to the patent process. Most programs will cover the process from the time of the initial application up until the day the patent expires.
History
New inventions, ideas and processes are constantly being developed to further technology. Corporations must obtain protection of their newly developed intellectual property to prevent their competitors from stealing their ideas. In order to do so, they often obtain patents to protect them legally. Docketing was originally developed to organize legal matters and the intricate scheduling related to such matters. Patents, like other legal issues, have deadlines and due dates and involve a lot of paperwork. Software developers have created more specialized docketing software to help business organizations maintain and keep track of their intellectual property more easily.
Significance
Filing an application for a patent can be a timely and bothersome process. The development of patent docketing makes this process a lot easier and allows businesses to file for multiple patents easily. This benefits companies economically by saving time and in the long-run, money.
Features
A large number of software developers offer various types of patent software. Most programs cover pre-filing, post-filing and post-grant deadlines with the forms related to each stage in the patent approval process. Other features may include a detailed schedule, audit logs, alerts, action assignments and custom activities associated with a particular patent.
Considerations
Not all patent docketing software programs are available for all operating systems. Currently, many programs are available solely for the PC. Also, the prices of such programs may run up to thousands of dollars which may pose budget issues with smaller companies.
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