CHICAGO, March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Onerous, time-consuming, often expensive. It is often necessary or desirable to monitor the status and on-going activity of pending patent applications or the patents, applications or reexamination proceedings of potential competitors, a task which can be quite burdensome. Inventors and businesses, but more commonly, patent attorneys, monitor on-going activity using the United States Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) public Patent Application Information Retrieval system, known as public PAIR, which is available via the Web. However, the public PAIR system does not allow for automated downloads of information and more importantly, only provides access to limited information related to patent applications that have already been published or issued.

"Our firm is pleased to offer our clients a new service which will monitor granted patents, pending patent applications and pending reexamination proceedings in the USPTO PAIR system," said James L. Katz, a shareholder and chair of the Docket Oversight Committee at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the United States. "In contrast to other systems available at a cost of up to $16 per month per application serial number, the Brinks system, offered exclusively to our clients, does not rely on an outside vendor nor does it rely on the limited capabilities of the publically available PAIR system."

To date, other services are limited in the amount and types of data they can retrieve through the public records only. According to Mr. Katz, the Brinks system is able to monitor and provide more detailed information available only through the secured private PAIR system, utilizing the private PAIR's unique capability to provide information in an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format, and is able to monitor both clients' confidential patent applications being prosecuted by Brinks as well as any publically available granted patent, published application or reexamination proceeding.

Mr. Katz explained that Brinks' advanced monitoring capability is one component of an advanced docketing system which produces comprehensive and efficient results for its clients. Other components include efficient correspondence handling and comprehensive auditing capabilities.

"Our U.S. docket automatically collects correspondence from the USPTO electronically the next business day after this information is made available," said Mr. Katz. "This allows us to efficiently handle our high volume without relying on the postal mail system or on the USPTO's electronic office action program."

The Brinks system handles a high volume of data with a greater degree of reliability and efficiency thus reducing docket processing time and significantly shortening the delay between the mailing of USPTO correspondence and the delivery of that information to the attorneys' desktop.

Further, on a monthly basis, the Brinks U.S. docket staff audits the entire pending case load against the PAIR system to ensure that critical activities are docketed.

"Our capabilities, in concert with our multi-faceted state-of-the-art docketing system, offer the combined advantages of near real-time monitoring of our clients' own portfolios while keeping tabs on their competitors' patent activities," continued Mr. Katz. "This is a value-added service we are pleased to offer our clients."

The Brinks patent monitoring system was developed by Mr. Katz, Brinks attorney Michael G. Dreznes and Travis Tran of Brinks Information Services Department.

Founded in 1917, Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione is based in Chicago with five other offices across the country serving the intellectual property needs of clients from around the world. The firm is one of the largest IP law firms in the country, with more than 170 attorneys, scientific advisors and patent agents specializing in intellectual property litigation and all aspects of patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, intellectual asset management, and technology and licensing agreements. Brinks routinely handles assignments in fields as diverse as electrical, chemical, mechanical, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, nanotechnology, Internet and computer technology, as well as in trademarks or brand names for a wide variety of products and services. For more information, please visit www.usebrinks.com.

    CONTACT:
    Sydney Iglitzen
    (312) 840-3163
    siglitzen@usebrinks.com

SOURCE Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

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