UK: New Paper on Online Management of IP Services.
A. Gordon et al have published on Script-ed a paper under the title "Patent Remedies: Online Management of IP Services":
"[...] This paper was inspired by work currently in progress under a DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) funded KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) Project between Kennedy's Patent and Glasgow Caledonian University. The project offers a unique opportunity to study the interplay between the firm's business exigencies, and the constantly evolving legal and procedural framework within which the firm operates. The particular focus of the paper is the issues raised by the provision of online legal/quasi-legal services in an 'e-government' context. The paper focuses on the practical issues and changes wrought by the incorporation of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the form of electronic filing within a case management system in the patent and trademark law domain. In addition to exploring the drivers for, and management of, this change process, it considers the implications of such processes, not only in the relationship between the firm and the patent offices involved, but also between the firm, its clients and other agents. The paper attempts to extrapolate wider lessons of more general application to the provision of legal services.
The topic under discussion in this paper is but one element - albeit an important element - of a wider project to review the management processes in the work of a patent agents' office. Even at this early stage of the project, it is clear that the emergent electronic environment for online filing in the process leading to the creation of intellectual property rights will impact on those management processes. Thus, whereas in the past our preoccupation has been with the drivers for change internal to the firm that encourage the adoption of ICTs in such management processes, our focus in the project and for the purposes of this paper will be on the external drivers for change in the context of online filing. We must also point out that the work under the project covers intellectual property rights management in general and is not restricted to patents. Neither time nor space permits the consideration of other intellectual property rights - most particularly trademarks and designs - in this paper, even though similar issues arise in relation to the registration of trademarks and the registration of design rights.
Susskind predicted that by 2005 most major law firms would be using ICTs to provide clients with a wide variety of services online. That has not been fully realised, despite clear benefits to firm and client. This is as true for patent and trademark agents as for other providers of legal services. Unless there is customer demand for such services, or a competitive edge to be acquired, drivers for change to implement such technologies and to provide such services are unlikely to arise. That is not to say that ICTs have not made any kind of impact in the domain of patent and trademark agents. Like other professional legal service providers, they are under similar pressures to implement ICTs to manage and deliver the services they do provide.
We have elsewhere been variously involved in considering the use of ICTs in the management of legal services and the automation of the legal office. The most observable driver for change in general terms was the internal dynamic of the firm and that, in turn was influenced by the need to acquire competitive edge, to improve the service to the client. Even where we have also been involved in project work dealing with the interface of the law office with other, notably government agencies there was little to suggest that there was much pressure for this beyond that internal dynamic, whether from clients or the agencies themselves. [...]"
The article describes many aspects of current electronic filing technology from a UK / European perspective but is somewhat silent on some very important specific issues, i.e. cross-plattform inter-operability (Microsoft Windows only policies etc.) and reliability issues.
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Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney),
European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of:
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