We get this question a lot. A company will see our patent drafting software and say it looks really interesting, but they will leave it up to their outside counsel on whether to use them. That’s an understandable perspective, but the truly forward-thinking companies consider it from a different perspective.

Control. Almost everyone we talk to complains about consistency, and visibility into the patent drafting process. They say that they know the patent drafter has a patent automation tool like ClaimMaster or PatentOptimizer but then they see patents that receive an antecedent basis rejection. If you want to get the benefits of the exhaustive data that can be achieved through the Rowan Patents integrated drafting environment, you want to have the controls that come from providing the tool yourself.

The analogy is e-billing.

No firms wanted to use e-billing software. But, companies wanted them to use e-billing because they didn’t want to have to scour bills to see if they were charged for more than 24 hours in a day. Or, to have 17 different associates working on the same matter on the same day. If you want the software to give you the data you want, then you have to drive the adoption and the features that you are looking for. We think it is the same scenario with patent preparation and prosecution. Your fees are ultimately paying for the patent drafting tools your firms use anyway, so you might as well do it directly and get the maximum benefit from them. Knowledge is key, and you get that from owning the data yourself.