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Cisco’s guidelines, 70 pages of them, for patent preparation and prosecution

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Striving to codify its best practices for “prep and prosc,” willing to take time to train lawyers and scrutinize processes, setting the stage for offshoring some of its work, Cisco’s patent group maintains what must be a sophisticated and complete guideline. At 70 pages, this form of knowledge management is probably maintained online – it would make an excellent wiki – and undoubtedly it memorializes years and years of experience. It is a good practice for legal managers to set down their practices and procedures for activities that are often repeated with minor variations.

All that I heard about this, from a recent conference, was the length of the guidelines and that they proscribe some billing practices by law firms, notably charging for phone calls, docketing, and “administrative services.” My comments, therefore, extrapolate from a narrow base.

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2 responses to “Cisco’s guidelines, 70 pages of them, for patent preparation and prosecution”

  1. Willem Wiggers says:
    April 22, 2009 at 11:39 am

    For another such set of best practices, I described how the process of ‘upgrading model contracts’ can be optimized, which pitfalls can be avoided and, above all, how improvement of standard form precedents can be accelerated. It is certainly not complete but a broad outline for structuring the process.
    See the Weagree website under FAQ (last item).
    Willem

  2. James Dunning says:
    April 23, 2009 at 7:33 am

    Rees – thank you for posting this.
    My only query is whether, given its length, such guidance would actually ever be referenced by its target audience or instead flicked through, possibly in a seminar, and then placed on a shelf/in a draw to gather dust.
    This is a challenge for any measure such as this and one not easily overcome. I am reminded though of the “defence manual” a major corporate had put together for its various key players to reference in the event of a hostile takeover bid coming in.
    The document was very impressive and no doubt cost a lot of money. Most I spoke too felt that page 1 might as well read “place file in bin and contact advisory team”! Simplistic I admit, and somewhat tongue in cheek, but you get my drift.
    James