As a trademark administrator, you are an essential member of the trademark team who knows the ins and outs of every matter and keeps everything running smoothly. You deliver reports, keep up with deadlines, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. If you’re like many of your peers, you are faced with ever-growing amounts of work and pressure to do more with less.
Fortunately, new technology for intellectual property professionals, particularly modern docketing software, can help streamline some of your most tedious work. Naturally, the notion of switching to a new docketing system can seem like a headache, particularly if you’re picturing a painful, expensive, and time-consuming migration followed by hours of “how to” videos, training, and user manual review, only to be left with a system that doesn’t seem too different from your prior system. Typical buyer’s remorse.
But switching to a new docketing system doesn’t have to be like that anymore. With modern IP docketing software like Alt Legal, migration is free, painless, and typically completed in less than a week. You’ll find that the best docketing systems like Alt Legal are designed to be easy-to-use and require minimal training. Best of all, with Alt Legal, you’ll be able to save time and focus on higher value work. Making the switch to Alt Legal is quick and easy, and we’re certain that you’ll find that it’s a much more automated and streamlined system than what you are currently using.
Let’s explore why it’s worth making the switch to Alt Legal.
(1) Take on Higher-Value Work and Advance Your Career
Your unique skill set and deep trademark knowledge is exceptionally valuable, and you should be seen as more than the “Keeper of the Docket.” You probably spend a significant portion of your time tied up in the docket, inputting data, updating matters, running reports, and more. With a more modern, automated docketing system, you’ll be able to reduce or eliminate mundane tasks and free up time to focus on billable work, making you even more indispensable to your team. Ultimately, being highly-skilled at non-docketing tasks positions you for career advancement, more responsibilities, and higher salaries.
You’ve likely noticed in recent years many firms have begun asking paralegals to do work outside of their original and usual job responsibilities, and everyone is expected to do more with the same amount of time in the day. Here are just some of the tasks that Alt Legal’s clients have said they’ve being asked to do, many of which may look familiar:
- Assist with oppositions, cancellations, and other matters before the TTAB.
- Assist with IP litigation proceedings by preparing filings, evidence, correspondence, etc.
- Assist with trademark enforcement activities, including investigation and preparation of cease and desist letters.
- Prepare and file assignments of IP rights.
- Assist in conducting due diligence for IP matters in connection with mergers and acquisitions.
- Support licensing review.
- Convey and draft instructions to foreign counsel.
- Coordinate with different in-house departments or with outside counsel on trademark matters.
- Complete initial review of trademark monitoring reports and background investigations.
- Conduct trademark clearance research and provide initial review of results.
- Assist with domain registrations.
- Assist with U.S. Customs and Border Protection recordations.
- Support anti-counterfeiting efforts.
All of these tasks are substantive, billable tasks that provide direct value to the firm and help you acquire new skills and knowledge, so it’s to your benefit to take on these new responsibilities. The less time you spend managing a manual docketing system, the more time you can spend on these types of tasks. Also, by eliminating tedious data entry and automating deadline reminders you’ll feel more focused and less pressured and stressed when working on these more complex matters. Alt Legal allows you to have more ownership over your work and ultimately, your career.
(2) Alt Legal is Simple, Easy to Learn, and Completely Different
When you switch to Alt Legal, you’re getting all of the latest technology and functionality in a system that could not be easier to learn. Imagine getting all of the gadgets and features of the newest “smart” range with an Easy-Bake oven. Technology is supposed to make your life easier, not more complicated, and that’s the goal at Alt Legal.
You’ll be delighted when you log into Alt Legal and see how easy it is to use. Alt Legal will simplify your day-to-day docketing work while you continue to impress the attorneys you work with by providing them with the same high-quality work they’ve come to expect from you. The attorneys will never know that the super-complicated report you created took you only one click! You could even teach your attorneys to run their own reports – it’s truly that simple!
While Alt Legal is user-friendly and intuitive, we are always happy to provide unlimited, personalized training to you or any members of your team, even when new team members join, at no additional cost. We’re available to help with any questions via email, phone, or live chat. Our team will also assist you at no charge with large uploading projects, for example, when a new client comes aboard with their trademark portfolio, or a new attorney joins the firm. With Alt Legal, there’s never a bill if you ask for help, need us to do something for you, or if you get confused, and there is no way to incur a fee when using the site (even if you try).
(3) Be Ahead of the Technology Curve
It’s important to accept that advanced technology is coming to law firms – automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. The best paralegals will be the ones who embrace this movement and learn to use technology to improve workflow and ultimately increase the firm’s bottom line. Paralegals who understand how to manage automation, AI, and machine learning for a firm and can guide a law firm in selecting the best software will be valuable assets to their organizations.
Consider how much technology has changed over the last 20 years. Many of us had points in our lives where we had to look up information in a phone book, but now a simple Internet search will give us a phone number, address, directions to where we’re going, and where to get gas and good coffee along the way. We also remember the days where we would carry a camera, phone, calculator, and a day planner in our bags. Now all of that is replaced by a basic smartphone. Docketing systems are no different, and Alt Legal is at the forefront of providing better technology to trademark professionals like you.
You are no stranger to adopting technology. Remember learning to conduct online clearance searches, to use computerized docketing software, to file electronically with the USPTO, etc.? Some of these tasks have been easier to learn than others, but the point we want to emphasize here is that as a trademark paralegals, you are one of the most technologically-adept paralegals out there. While you may initially hesitate to adopt new technology, you’re ultimately very agile with learning new skills.
Choosing to switch to Alt Legal’s automated docketing system is choosing to put your career first. You’ll find it’s extremely easy to use and master (there’s a reason we don’t have a 200 page user manual). Before you know it, you’ll be up and running with Alt Legal and you won’t even remember what it was like docketing in an outdated manual system, just like you’ve forgotten how long it took to compose a text on a flip phone! Making the switch to a new docketing system can feel daunting, but you can rest assured that when you switch to Alt Legal, we make everything about the transition painless, training is quick and easy, and we guarantee that you’ll be up and running in no time and enjoying all the benefits of a fully-automated trademark docketing system.