Company: Law Firm
Industry: Intellectual Property
Client Background
Our client is a New Jersey-based intellectual property law firm serving inventors, entrepreneurs, and businesses across the United States. With more than two decades of experience, the firm provides specialized guidance across patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other areas of intellectual property law.
As the firm’s client base grew, timely filings, accurate docketing, proactive reminders, and effective communication became increasingly critical to protecting clients’ intellectual property rights. The firm had been working with an offshore vendor for nearly nine years, but recurring resource changes over the previous two years had begun affecting service quality and deadline management.
Missed filing deadlines created significant business consequences. In some instances, patents and trademarks approached expiration, requiring the firm to incur extension fees and other costs to protect its clients’ rights. Concerned about service continuity and client retention, the firm decided to transition its IP back-office operations to OBS.
Client Challenges
- Frequent Resource Changes: The previous vendor had experienced frequent resource turnover, resulting in inconsistent work quality and a lack of process continuity.
- Risk of Missed IP Deadlines: Delays in filings, payments, docketing, and reminders created the risk of missed patent and trademark deadlines, potentially affecting the firm’s client relationships.
- Limited Business Continuity: The client needed a support model that would ensure work continued even when a primary resource was unavailable due to leave, resignation, or other unforeseen circumstances.
- Complex Multi-Department Workflow: Patent and trademark operations involved several interconnected activities, including filings, fee payments, docketing, reporting letters, reminders, and recurring reports. The existing distribution of responsibilities was creating workflow bottlenecks.
- Incomplete Transition Handover: OBS was initially provided with a two-week handover period. However, the transition was more challenging than anticipated, with limited availability from the outgoing vendor and insufficient time for comprehensive process documentation and training.
Scope of Work
OBS was engaged to support two core IP functions: Patents and Trademarks.
Patent Operations
- Patent filings and fee payments
- Docketing
- USPTO correspondence and reporting letters
- Client reminders for upcoming payments and foreign filings
- Weekly, biweekly, and monthly docket reports
- Process monitoring and deadline tracking
Trademark Operations
- Docketing
- Reporting letters
- Weekly, biweekly, and monthly reports
Transition Journey
Following the engagement, OBS requested a comprehensive process walkthrough from the outgoing vendor to ensure a smooth transition. The original plan was to complete the handover over two weeks.
However, the transition presented several challenges. The outgoing team had limited availability for training sessions, and key processes were not fully documented. The initial training session was limited to approximately 30 minutes, while subsequent sessions were repeatedly postponed because of operational commitments and resource unavailability.
Recognizing the potential risk to the client’s operations, OBS took a proactive approach rather than waiting for the handover process to improve.
Our team adjusted working hours to align with the outgoing vendor’s schedule, enabling greater overlap during the transition. When it became clear that critical processes, including weekly docket reporting, had not been adequately covered, OBS escalated the matter to the client and worked with them to secure additional training time.
Despite the limited handover, OBS successfully reconstructed the workflow, identified gaps in the existing resource structure, and designed a more resilient operating model.
Our Solution
- Dedicated Supervision and Quality Control: OBS initially deployed a full-time supervisor and dedicated quality analyst alongside the operational team. This additional oversight ensured that transition-related gaps did not affect the client’s ongoing work.
- Redesigned Resource Structure: After reviewing the workflow during the initial weeks, OBS identified that the previous allocation of responsibilities was contributing to bottlenecks. The team redesigned the structure and added additional capacity where required.
Patent Team
- 1 FTE: Docketing
- 1 FTE: Filing and fee payments
- 1 FTE: Reporting letters
- 1 FTE: Reminders and weekly, biweekly, and monthly reports
Trademark Team
- 1 FTE: Docketing and reporting
- 0.5 FTE: Reporting letters
- Business Continuity Through Backup Resources: A key part of OBS’s operating model was the introduction of backup resources at no additional cost. Shadow resources were trained alongside primary team members from the beginning, ensuring that planned leave, unexpected absence, or employee turnover would not interrupt the client’s operations.
- Standardized Reporting and Workflow Controls: OBS also redesigned recurring reports and workflows to consolidate more relevant information into a single view, making it easier for attorneys and management to monitor upcoming deadlines, outstanding actions, and overall IP activity.
Results Achieved
Within just 45 days, OBS successfully stabilized the transition and transformed the client’s IP support operations into a structured, deadline-driven workflow. Every core task was brought within a 24-hour turnaround framework, while critical filing and payment deadlines were proactively managed.
Patents
- 100% of patent filings and fee payments were completed on time, with filings and payments targeted at least one week ahead of the applicable deadlines.
- Zero late fees or extension fees were incurred by the client for patent services handled by OBS after the transition.
- Same-day docketing was established, eliminating the backlog that had previously accumulated when docketing resources were also responsible for preparing reports.
- USPTO correspondence and reporting letters were processed within 24 hours of receiving the relevant activity.
- Proactive client reminders were introduced at 3, 2, and 1-month intervals for foreign filings, annuity payments, and maintenance fees, significantly reducing last-minute deadline risks.
- Weekly, biweekly, and monthly reports were redesigned to consolidate additional information and provide attorneys with a more complete view of upcoming actions and deadlines.
Trademarks
- Same-day docketing was established, eliminating the backlog created by limited resource capacity.
- Reporting letters were delivered within 24 hours of receiving the relevant correspondence.
- Three-stage reminder cycles were implemented, beginning three months before applicable deadlines to provide clients with sufficient response time.
- Weekly, biweekly, and monthly reporting was enhanced, bringing more relevant information into centralized reports for easier monitoring and decision-making.
As a result, the firm gained:
- Greater confidence in deadline management, with proactive processes designed to prevent missed filings and payments.
- Stronger business continuity, supported by trained backup resources available whenever primary resources were unavailable.
- Faster turnaround across critical IP workflows, with core activities consistently handled within 24 hours.
- Better workload distribution, reducing bottlenecks and eliminating the backlog caused by overlapping responsibilities.
- Improved visibility into patent and trademark obligations through enhanced recurring reports.
- Reduced financial and reputational risk associated with missed deadlines, late fees, and emergency extensions.
- A more scalable IP support structure capable of accommodating increased workload without compromising service quality.
Expansion of the Partnership
The success of the transition created a strong foundation for a broader relationship. Within 60 days of onboarding, the client expanded its engagement with OBS beyond legal back-office support.
OBS was subsequently entrusted with additional Finance & Accounting and Digital Marketing services, demonstrating the client’s confidence in OBS’s ability to manage critical business functions with consistency, accountability, and operational discipline.
What began as a high-risk transition from a long-standing vendor evolved into a broader strategic partnership. By combining proactive supervision, better resource allocation, business continuity planning, and disciplined IP workflow management, OBS helped the firm protect critical deadlines, improve service reliability, and build a stronger operational foundation for continued growth.