The two second patent chain of title search

Many patent lawyers are still unaware that the assignment records of the United States Patent and Trademark Office are now available, and searchable, via the web.  In fact, just last week I spoke with a patent attorney who told me that his firm still opens new matters for chain of title investigations and still requests physical searches of the records at the Patent Office.  I suppose there might still be a need for this when you have to be absolutely, positively 10000% accurate (or when you suspect there is a conveyance not recorded at the Patent Office).  For most chain of title situations, though, a web search of Office records should be sufficient.

How many firms are still preparing memorandums to clients that parrot back assignment data located in a search simply because they are unaware of the availability of this new web-based resource?  How much money is being wasted by the innovators of the world on these services?

Last week, I had an idea on how to illustrate the absurdity of the situation.  Buzz Bruggeman, everyone’s favorite software evangelist, was at LexThink with me and we were discussing innovative ways to use ActiveWords.  Then it hit me….I would love to have an ActiveWords script that prompts me for a patent number and then passes that number to the assignment search form at the Patent Office.  I hadn’t finished verbalizing my idea before Buzz started tinkering on his laptop.  He literally wrote the script during LexThink (with a little help from his tech support back home) and demo’d it to me later in the afternoon.  How’s that for Texaco-like customer service?  Fantastic.

Now, with the help of ActiveWords, I can have a complete abstract of a patent’s chain of title, based on Patent Office records, in about two seconds.  Seriously.  With a little modification of Buzz’s script, I can produce a .pdf of the chain of title and print it in about ten seconds. A few more, and the .pdf is on its way to my client via e-mail, probably before I hang up the phone from the client’s call with the initial request.

If you’re a patent attorney or other professional that has a need for patent chain of title information, download ActiveWords (if you haven’t already) and send me an e-mail.  I’ll share the script.

If you’re a client of a law firm that still takes days (weeks?) to provide chain of title information, you should ask them why it takes so long.  I’d be interested to hear any answers you get.

And, yes, I have a trademark script as well.