Program agenda:
- Highlight the various options for annuity management, including:
- Internal
- Service Providers
- Law Firms
- Discuss the pros and cons of each option in terms of:
- Time cost
- Finances and budget
- Staff allotment
- Best practices for managing international annuity payments (EPO, Asia)
- Insight into how University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign’s Office of Technology Management:
- Maintains and manages its patent annuity payments
- Lessons learned, do’s and don’ts
- For university systems:
- Manage each campus individually, or centralize?
As worldwide annuity payments consume a greater and greater portion of the patent budget for many TTOs, it is imperative to be able to accurately forecast and budget for these expenses — and keep them from spiraling out of control. Equally critical is making sure your staff doesn’t spend too much time tracking and managing annuity deadlines and payments, while also ensuring timeliness and 100% accuracy given the potential for surcharges, late fees, and even loss of patent rights.
For many TTOs, their outside law firm is still the default choice for handling annuities, but a growing number of offices are opting for less expensive options, including third-party providers and in-house management systems. To help you weigh the options and determine what’s right for your organization — and potentially save tens of thousands of dollars across your IP portfolio — we’ve teamed up with Gregg Banninger, Patent Coordinator in the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign’s Office of Technology Management, to lead this essential program.
Mr. Banninger will look at the specifics, the costs, and the pros and cons of the various patent annuity management and maintenance choices available to TTOs. You’ll walk away with a wide range of options, so you can choose the strategy that suits your office and budget best.
