Where renewals are managed in-house, one or more people are needed to follow up local law firms, set reminders, monitor deadlines and so on for multiple marks in multiple countries around the world. It makes sense to shift this administrative burden to an outside provider, freeing up in-house resources for higher value work as long as there are measurable benefits. Outsourcing can save you time in two principal ways.
- Providing a single senior point of contact who takes an active role in managing your renewals and to whom you can delegate responsibility with confidence.
- Giving an online platform that provides you with an ‘at a glance’ view of progress, with all your renewals and from which reports can be generated easily. You can save money as you benefit from the volume-based discounts negotiated with a selected external counsel networks. Without exception, clients make an overall cost saving by moving their in-house renewals administration.
Now let’s talk about how you can make sure you’re spending the right price for the service you’re getting. For example, how will you know whether you are being charged correctly? If invoices have a single amount for each renewal with no breakdown of official fees, external counsel fees and providers service fee, then how can you check whether a charge is correct for those clients who want to be able to audit invoicing a complete breakdown of charges for each renewal should be provided? Regarding foreign exchange charges, external counsel and official fees are treated as disbursements. As a consequence of this, the costs are represented by what was initially paid when the disbursements were settled.
Lastly, many companies worry about outsourcing trademark renewals because they want to have ready access to documents and information without being charged and it’s perfectly OK to think about that.
What you need to know is that our online platform, as others available on the market, makes all data available to you at all times, showing you the status of renewals and related documentation which can be downloaded as needed and without any further charge.
