Documented studies have demonstrated that up to 94% of the granted US patents require corrections to be filed.

Defectively issued patents are not self-correcting – you may end up spending many valuable hours trying to catch errors that are seemingly insignificant, but if left uncorrected can lead to major consequences. There are numerous examples of improper or missing proofreading quality controls that have resulted in disastrous consequences. As an IP Professional, you understand that if allowed claims are not printed, they cannot be enforced. Therefore, many hours must be spent meticulously reviewing issued patents.

In your fast paced environment where billable hours are in conflict with the need to perform non-billable quality control activities, it can often be difficult to dedicate the necessary resources to ensure consistently superior levels of quality. On the other hand, sacrificing rigorous and demanding quality control standards for cost savings inevitably has its own long-term negative impact.

Legal Advantage is equipped to devote the requisite amount of the time and energy to your patent process so that the valued staff at your organization can spend their time focusing on other important issues.

Our staff of trained and experienced professionals can provide you with our patent proofreading service to identify errors and omissions before they become an issue. Our multi-step quality control and quality assurance processes and methodologies leverage our deep industry experience and will provide the highest quality and most cost-effective patent proofreading services.

Our comprehensive proofreading process:

1. Compare the issued patent's front page information with prosecution history.

a) Confirmation of Inventor and Title Information from the Oath/Declaration as filed; if discrepancies exist, ADS, Spec Amendments, Request to Correct the OFR are checked.
b) Confirmation of priority information from the Oath/Declaration and/or OFR and/or the PTO (PAIR) "Continuity Data" tab.
c) Verification of any amendments to the Abstract.

2. Cross verification of references found on Front page of patent with examiner and applicant references (cited in 1449 and (SB08) A/B).

3. Visual verification of the drawing to ensure that correct drawings appear in the issued, as originally submitted and/or any Replacement Drawings submitted.

4. Comparison of issued patent claims with "latest claim amendment filed" including "latest Examiner's amendment".

5. Paragraph by paragraph comparison of the ‘Specification as issued’ and the ‘Specification as filed’, keeping into consideration that any Specification Amendments during prosecution were included in the issued patent.

6. Verification of any Terminal Disclaimers filed, and if so, ensuring that there is a statement on the Front page of the issued patent that says that the "Patent is subject to a Terminal Disclaimer".