Gunnercooke is the fastest-growing corporate law firm in the UK. Rosie Burbidge is a Partner at Gunnercooke and an English qualified lawyer specializing in intellectual property. She joined the firm in 2018 and uses Alt Legal to manage the firm’s docket of over 2,000 trademarks and designs. Gunnercooke had been using another IP docketing system but was ready to make a change. The decision came down to Alt Legal and another trademark-focused competitor in the IP docketing space. After comparing the two systems, the team chose Alt Legal for many key reasons.
Rosie Burbidge
Partner | Gunnercooke
Gunnercooke is the fastest-growing corporate law firm in the UK, with offices across England, Germany, Scotland, Hungary and, most recently, the US. Their team of over 500 professionals has specialization in nearly every area of law. Gunnercooke represents over 30,000 clients, including Google, YouTube, BAE Systems, Santander, Nike, Mercedes, DHL, and more. Innovation is at the core of Gunnercooke’s business, and the firm continually invests in technology to meet the needs of clients and partners.
Rosie Burbidge is a Partner at Gunnercooke and an English qualified lawyer specializing in intellectual property. She joined the firm in 2018 and uses Alt Legal to manage the firm’s docket of over 2,000 trademarks and designs. The firm’s portfolio is composed primarily of international trademarks, and they manage a sizable number of US trademarks as well.
Gunnercooke had been using another IP docketing system but was ready to make a change. The decision came down to Alt Legal and another trademark-focused competitor in the IP docketing space. After comparing the two systems, the team chose Alt Legal for many key reasons.
What Were the Primary Differences Between Alt Legal and the Other IP Docketing System?
Choosing the right software for your organization can be a challenge. When selecting IP docketing software, it’s helpful to identify the features that matter to you the most. For Rosie and her team at Gunnercooke, some of the key features she was looking for in her IP docketing system include:
- Advanced automation
- Modern interface
- Ease of use
- Unlimited user access
- Excellent customer support
- Free, seamless migration
Here’s how Alt Legal stacked up against the competition for these criteria.
Advanced Automation
One of the key features that Rosie wanted in her IP docketing software is advanced automation. Many IP docketing software vendors claim to be automated, but their automation falls short. Rosie commented, “In Alt Legal, you can enter the mark and the country, and it automatically connects. By comparison, the competitor’s process to update international marks appeared cumbersome. You had to scroll down an old-fashioned dropdown list to get to the right registry. It appeared to be an error prone and time-consuming process.”
Having a highly-automated global IP docketing system like Alt Legal helps Rosie’s team save time and increase accuracy. “The process of adding an international mark in the competitor’s system may only take an extra 10-15 seconds. But those seconds add up, and each time it creates a less pleasant vibe. There’s also a much higher likelihood of the relevant team member clicking incorrectly and things not connecting properly.”
Rosie wasn’t just impressed with Alt Legal’s international automation, but she also found that Alt Legal’s USPTO automation won against the competition. “Alt Legal is way ahead of the other docketing platform I was evaluating because of Alt Legal’s connection to USPTO data. Being able to get all of the office actions automatically added to the relevant matters and having all of the US key documents automatically available in the system is really valuable.
“Alt Legal’s automation is so powerful that sometimes we’ll find something has happened on the file through Alt Legal before it’s even reported to us!”
Modern Interface
Another key feature Rosie was looking for in her IP docketing software was a modern interface. She loves Alt Legal’s fresh, clean appearance. “For me, a good user interface is really important. Alt Legal’s interface was a massive selling point for me. I find it clear and easy to navigate, and there are lots of ways to customize the appearance.” Rosie also really likes how Alt Legal presents information clearly: “I like the way that things are stacked and that we can use table format if needed. There’s a lot of customization for what goes into the table.”
A nice user interface isn’t only important for aesthetic purposes. Rosie pointed out that less clean and efficient interfaces could lead to docketing errors. “When an interface is bad it is not a pleasant experience for anyone. It’s simply not something I’m willing to inflict on my team! It’s important for me that my team enjoy working with their IP docketing software. If they don’t enjoy it, there is an increased likelihood that they will make a mistake. Put another way, if docketing is an unpleasant task, it’s likely to be avoided and not done properly.”
Ease of Use
Ease of use was of utmost importance. For Rosie, two key factors gave Alt Legal an edge over the competition: the way Alt Legal organizes and displays matters and the daily update emails.
Alt Legal categorizes and displays data clearly so that it’s easy to find. “I really like the way Alt Legal organizes matters. It’s very easy to click through to things.” She also likes how simple it is to filter when searching for information: “I really appreciate having the filters on the left side and ordered in a way that makes a lot of sense for trademark practitioners. It makes it easy to quickly find the data that you’re looking for. The other system I was evaluating did not have this set up in the same way, and it was not as easy to use.”
Another feature that stood out to Rosie in terms of ease of use is Alt Legal’s daily docketing emails. Alt Legal sends automated daily or weekly emails containing all upcoming deadlines and IP office updates so users don’t have to login to the docketing system to know what’s happening with their portfolios. Alt Legal’s daily email updates are a unique feature; neither Rosie’s prior IP docketing system nor the system she was evaluating Alt Legal against offered daily emails with the same level of customization. “I love the daily emails. I missed that with my prior docketing system: there was no automatic way to receive these updates. You had to login to the site, whereas the Alt Legal emails make it so much easier. I don’t want to have to login to a website every day, but I do want transparency over what’s happening and what the deadlines are.”
Rosie recognized that Alt Legal’s daily email updates made docket management much easier. “The other system I was evaluating didn’t have daily update emails with links so I could check and see what changed overnight. This is a feature I really value in Alt Legal. It helps us to automatically become aware of changes to records, which we really like because it’s a huge hassle and a lot of responsibility to track changes to every detail.”
Additionally, Rosie worked with Alt Legal’s Customer Support team to customize the daily emails, making them even more useful for her and her team. “One of the developments I’ve appreciated is the customization of daily email so that we can prominently identify our deadlines. We implemented a color-coding system which has made it much easier to skim and identify key deadlines over the next month or so.”
Unlimited User Access
Rosie quickly identified one of Alt Legal’s most unique features—unlimited user access—as something that gave Alt Legal a major advantage over the competition. With Alt Legal, subscribers do not need to pay for additional users or “seats,” and they can determine who has read-only and edit-only access. Alt Legal also enables subscribers to provide clients with read-only access to their specific matters so that they can access their dockets anytime to find the information they need. Alt Legal’s simple and all-inclusive approach to pricing helps customers receive maximum value from their subscriptions without feeling like they’re being nickel-and-dimed for every feature.
The competitor that Rosie was evaluating did not offer unlimited user access and would only provide her a few seats with her package. This became a point of negotiation. “Alt Legal’s unlimited user access was a big selling point for me. Unlimited seats and client access is something I value, and it’s nice to offer. I like not having to worry about providing organizational access.”
Rosie very much appreciates the practicability of having unlimited seats and its impact on organizational workflow. “With Alt Legal, there’s no need to reassign who has access or to choose who has access. In another system where seats are limited, I might decide it’s not worth me having access to the docket, but then I’m having to ask loads of questions to the team instead of being able to look the answers up myself.”
Excellent Customer Support
When evaluating IP docketing software, Rosie was particularly looking for a company that offered superior, high-quality customer service and that didn’t charge extra for basic support. “It’s very important to have unlimited customer support. When you’re migrating to a new docketing system, you don’t know how long it will take and what the integration will be like.”
Rosie was very pleased to learn that Alt Legal provided completely free and unlimited customer support, whereas the competitor offered limited support options. Rosie finds that Alt Legal’s customer support team is exceptionally good at troubleshooting. Users can contact our customer support via phone, email, and live chat, and all are free and unlimited. “It’s great that we can handle smaller inquiries through the chat function and bigger things in email. I can’t express enough how grateful I am for Alt Legal’s customer support. They’re always really friendly, super helpful, and responsive.” Rosie was particularly pleased with how Alt Legal handled her inquiries and requests: “Alt Legal’s customer support is very quick to solve problems or provide a timeline to solve the problem. Alt Legal will never tell you, ‘No, we don’t do that.’ They will always provide an explanation if something isn’t possible and a recognition that it is an issue and something that they’re considering putting into the roadmap. I really appreciate that Alt Legal takes a human approach to problem solving.”
“Alt Legal’s Customer Support team is incredibly friendly, responsive, kind, and positive. It’s nice speaking with them!”
The other IP docketing system that Rosie was considering did not offer the same type of customer service as Alt Legal. While Rosie did not have the opportunity to assess the level of support the competitor provided, she did learn that the competitor would only provide a limited number of hours for training and support. When users exceed the allotted support time, they are charged extra. Rosie commented, “This concerned me because I know that migration and getting started in a new system takes a lot of time. There are a lot of unknown factors. The transition process involves a lot of things related to getting used to a new system, and I don’t think you should charge a customer for these things.”
Free, Seamless Migration
Migrating to a new IP docketing system can be difficult and time-consuming, so when evaluating new IP docketing systems, Rosie wanted to ensure that the migration process would be as smooth and painless as possible. She was pleased to learn about Alt Legal’s free, streamlined migration process that includes bulk updates, data cleanup, and customizations.
Rosie describes the migration process to Alt Legal positively: “The migration went really well. It was fast and easy, and the spreadsheet process was very helpful. I liked that we had the spreadsheet to see the data that was being imported and updated. It also really helped to reduce duplicate entries and inconsistencies.” Rosie also really appreciates the human touch that Alt Legal’s Customer Support team lends. “The support team was helpful in highlighting issues and identifying things we might want to change. They helped make the migration and onboarding process very well-structured and clear.”
The competitor that Rosie was evaluating offered a migration process that would take several months and require a lot of complicated back-and-forth in order to get the data set up properly. Plus, the competitor charged a 5-figure fee to complete the migration process and charged extra for data cleanup and customizations.
Additional Key Features
When evaluating Alt Legal, there were a number of other important features about the software and the company that really stood out to Rosie.
Reports
Rosie enjoys Alt Legal’s powerful, customized reporting tools that are remarkably easy to use, “The formatting and style is much better in Alt Legal. The competitor’s report style is very 1990s, whereas the reports from Alt Legal look much slicker and prettier. If you must edit a report before sending it to a client, it leads to inconsistency because everyone on the team will do it differently or perhaps not at all. Alt Legal’s reports are already in perfect condition to send to a client.”
Modules
Alt Legal doesn’t charge extra to docket different types of matters, which Rosie appreciates. “The competitor requires you to pay extra for modules such as registered designs, and this was definitely a drive toward Alt Legal, which includes all modules/matter types as well as custom matter types.”
Simple Pricing
Rosie values Alt Legal’s clear and transparent pricing structure, “This was a big selling point for me for Alt Legal. The competitor classified each matter and client as an entry, which I find very odd. I have several relatively small clients, so one trademark filing in the competitor’s system would cost me two matters. The pricing didn’t have a logical basis and appeared to penalize working with small businesses.”
Customization
The Alt Legal team worked with Rosie to deliver a customized experience. Because Alt Legal was built using the most modern technology and is constantly innovating, we are often able to provide system customization at no charge. Rosie has been very happy with this offering: “The customer support team has been able to customize a lot of things during our migration process. We added a lot of bulk updates and cleaned up our data. I also find customization of tags really helpful.”
Alt Legal Community
Alt Legal is distinguished from its competitors because it is more than an IP docketing software company. Alt Legal is a company that cares about building the Alt Legal Community, spreading knowledge, and creating free, high-quality resources for trademark professionals.
Rosie has taken full advantage of the Alt Legal Community resources. “Alt Legal Webinars offer very useful and interesting information from different trademark lawyers around the world. Alt Legal Webinars cover everything from quirky, unusual topics to day-to-day updates. I especially enjoy everyone’s questions, which help improve the whole community’s knowledge.”
Additionally, Rosie is a big fan of our weekly I ♡ Trademarks Newsletter, which contains humorous summaries of the latest IP and trademark law news. “I love the newsletter! There’s always something interesting there, and I love the puns. Bri, Alt Legal’s Head of Education and Community, is great at keeping the Alt Legal Community connected.”
Rosie Made the Right Choice With Alt Legal
Since switching to Alt Legal, Rosie and her team at Gunnercooke have been thoroughly pleased with their new IP docketing system. “I 100% recommend Alt Legal! The most important thing for me about IP docketing software is that it is constantly improving, and Alt Legal absolutely is doing that. If you want to work with a system that is designed to keep improving into the future, there’s no better place than Alt Legal!”
While evaluating IP docketing software can take time, doing a thorough investigation about the software features and the company’s offerings can help ensure that you’ve selected the right system for your organization. If you have any questions about how to choose the best IP docketing software for your organization, our knowledgeable team is here to help. Reach out to us at [email protected]. Also, we would be pleased to offer you a free trial or demo of Alt Legal IP Docketing Software. To sign up, click here.
