Challenge
As innovation accelerated and invention disclosures increased, the company’s IP team faced growing backlog risk, rising outside counsel costs, and mounting administrative demands that threatened filing timelines. Key challenges included:
- Growing backlog of invention disclosures awaiting drafting and filing
- Risk of delayed filings and lost priority due to limited internal bandwidth
- Transitioning prosecution from outside counsel to an in-house model while maintaining quality and compliance
- Managing global patent operations across multiple vendors, increasing administrative complexity
Solution
The customer partnered with Elevate to scale and internalise patent operations while establishing a single-vendor global IP operating model. Acting as an extension of the in-house IP team, we:
- Cleared patent drafting backlogs through dedicated technical drafting support, including structured draft outlines based on inventor recordings
- Transitioned patent prosecution in-house through a hybrid operating model combining technical drafting, paralegal filing support, and office action analysis and prosecution assistance
- Increased portfolio control and reduced legal spend by shifting prosecution activities from outside counsel to the in-house team while maintaining quality and compliance
- Improved prosecution efficiency and governance through centralised docketing and SOP-driven workflows for filings, office actions, and prosecution milestones
- Simplified global IP operations by consolidating patent drafting, prosecution, and paralegal support under a single strategic partner
- Reduced administrative burden on the in-house IP team by managing day-to-day patent operations while maintaining quality, compliance, and lifecycle continuity
