The law and regulations regarding Intellectual Property prescribe all sorts of strict official terms or deadlines for filing of subsequent applications, divisionals or a response to an office action. Often, it is not possible to extend such deadlines or extension fees have to be paid in order to extend the deadline.
Term for instructions
To be able to perform the relevant acts well before the official term, we set relatively early terms for instructions in our letters. Late instructions, e.g. later than the term for instructions in our letters, has the consequence that we (and our agents) have to prepare and file documents within the limited time remaining, if at all possible.
Problems
Late instructions result in a number of problems. Firstly, it may occur that the activities for one client interrupt the activities of another client. Often, this also means that activities have to be performed after office hours to meet the official deadline.
Secondly, late instructions often result in extra costs in the form of urgency fees of our agents.
Thirdly, problems in the communication with the patent office or the agent may cause unexpected problems, which in exceptional cases could result in a failure to meet the deadline.
Timely instructions
An advantage of timely instructions is that we will be able to prepare a draft first, that can then be reviewed by the client prior to the filing. Upon approval, the documents can be filed.
We would gladly discuss with you how we could optimize our activities in view of your business organisation, so that we may be able to perform our activities for you timely, with the best quality, and against the lowest cost to obtain maximal protection for your Intellectual Property.