PATENT LAW FIRMS
Challenges:
Patent law firms are mainly active in the field of patent applications, increasingly also in nullity actions before the courts, as well as in the field of industrial property rights (trademarks, utility models) and, in addition, increasingly in traditional legal fields. Their business model is currently under massive pressure:
- the administration of rights (patents, trademarks, utility models) is being taken over by other providers or the clients themselves; the offices are also helping to make it easier to pay these in automatically.
- the use of foreign attorneys is no longer via the patent law firms that earn money from it, but is taken over directly by the clients.
- patent attorney advice increasingly has to be provided at flat rates, which means a lower margin.
This market is therefore likely to change radically. Similar segmentation phenomena are visible as with commercial law firms.
Due to our knowledge of the particularities of the business model of patent law firms and the changes in purchasing behaviour as well as the threat posed by digitalisation and new competitors, we can provide patent law firms with targeted support in adapting to the changing circumstances.
We first analyse the key figures, as these quickly indicate where a law firm stands in this process. If the margin has fallen below 30 %, the need for action is imminent.
We have been advising patent law firms since 2002 and therefore know the markets and the business model very well. We monitor the changes and can quickly point out the most important issues. In addition, we are familiar with the traditional partnership constitution and bring the partners to a consensus.
Our range of customers
Our clients in the field of patent law firms:
The top 10 large patent law firms that have similar challenges to the large law firms
The medium-sized patent law firms, which have to adapt more quickly in this dramatically changing market, because they have less reputation and can therefore be replaced more quickly.
We can name the following cases from the last 20 years of our law firm consulting, with many examples overlapping; at the core, it is always about culture change:
- Drafting partnership agreements when adding additional partners in large patent law firm
- Strategy process with partner in large patent law firm; trend analysis, internal development of KPIs, decision on focus, client acceptance policy, etc. Focus, client acceptance policy, etc.
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