System and method for filing legal documents
AssigneeITIP Development, LLC
InventorThomas F. Quinn, JR.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system is provided that has a filing manager for managing the filing of legal documents in a plurality of offices. The filing manager communicates with a client, and service providers including a drafting law firm, a translation partner, filing agents and designated prosecution agents. The filing manager includes a database for storing data relevant to the filing of a legal document. The filing manager also includes process circuitry configured to compute and execute a routine to manage the filing of legal documents.
Claims36
An intellectual property management system comprising:
- a docketing database for storing docketing data related to a patent application;
- an annuity payment database for storing annuity payment data related to said patent application;
- a filing database for storing filing data related to said patent application;
- and
- process circuitry including a communication link adapted to communicate common fields containing data relating to said patent application between a table in said docketing database and a table in said filing database, wherein said process circuitry is further configured to execute one or more routines to request documents related to the patent application for filing in a plurality of countries, calculate filing deadline dates related to the patent application in the plurality of countries, and manage payment of annuities relating to said patent application in the plurality of countries.
A method of managing a plurality of patent applications, said method comprising the steps of:
- utilizing a patent application filing database, a patent application docketing database, a patent application annuity payment database, and a patent application cost management database in conjunction with one another to simultaneously support foreign filing management, matter management, annuity payment management and cost management for the plurality of patent applications;
- linking each of said patent application filing database, said patent application docketing database, said patent application annuity payment database, and said patent application cost management database to one another by common fields in tables within each of said databases;
- utilizing a unique matter reference in the common fields in the tables to link each of the databases to one another;
- employing the filing database to handle the filing of legal documents relating to the plurality of patent applications in a plurality of countries.
An intellectual property management system comprising:
- a docketing database for storing docketing data related to a patent application;
- a filing database for storing filing data related to said patent application;
- and
- a cost management database for storing cost data related to said patent application;
- and
- process circuitry having a communication link adapted to communicate common data relating to said patent application between said cost management database, said docketing database, and said filing database, wherein said process circuitry is configured to execute one or more routines to generate filing reports containing said filing data to manage the filing of legal documents related to the patent application, generate cost reports containing said cost data to manage costs related to the patent application, and generate docketing reports containing said docketing data to manage the docketing of data related to the patent application.
An intellectual property management system comprising:
- at least one database having a plurality of tables for storing data related to a patent application, said data including annuity payment data related to said patent application, filing data related to said patent application and cost data related to said patent application, at least one query for querying data from said plurality of tables and at least one form for displaying said data;
- a process circuitry having a communication link adapted to relate said plurality of tables contained in said at least one database to one another by a common field, said common field including a matter identifier related to said patent application;
- one or more routines executed by said process circuitry to generate a report including said data related to said patent application.
A filing service system for the filing of patent application documents in a plurality of countries comprising a patent application filing database used in conjunction with a patent application cost management database, a patent application docketing database, a patent application annuity payment service database, wherein each of said databases is a relational database having tables that can be related to one another by at least one common field in said tables, said at least one common field including a matter reference field that uniquely relates to a patent application, and wherein said databases are used in conjunction with one another to simultaneously support intellectual property foreign filing management, cost management, matter management and annuity payment management.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.