Mathisen & Macara – Five Reasons to Outsource your Formalities Function

Our Formalities team at Mathisen & Macara have honed the unique discipline of formalities, into an efficient, accurate, and effective ongoing process, which they manage in an organised and communicative manner.

The outsourcing of IP formalities is something that has been widely adopted by Fortune 500 companies in the US and now seems to be making its way over to Europe. With the formalities of IP portfolios often including gruelling processes, outsourcing this to an experienced firm can be transformative to businesses, streamlining their internal IP operations.

At Mathisen & Macara, we give companies the choice to outsource this function to our own Formalities Team. If it’s not something you’ve considered, here are five reasons to do so.

Expertise

At Mathisen & Macara, our team are experts in their field, with some of our Formalities Officers acting as partners within the business. Across the discipline of formalities, our professional team have carved out specialisms and completed an abundance of appropriate training with governing bodies like the CIPA and CITMA.

That expertise also covers the takeover and management of IP portfolios, of varying sizes. We can maintain all aspects of that portfolio, including worldwide filing and payment of worldwide renewals. Mathisen & Macara partner, and Formalities Officer, Sue Stevens, leads the team who specialise in the recording of complex Transfers and Changes of Ownership on all IP (including patents, trade marks, and designs). By outsourcing, you gain the value of this expertise, without having to concern yourself with ongoing recruitment of this function internally – Formalities itself being a niche discipline where the talent pool is limited.

Trust

If you’re outsourcing something as vital as Formalities, you want to know that someone able and reliable is taking caring of the vital deadlines, ongoing renewals, and fees that will keep your patents and trade marks up to date and viable. You can also trust us to communicate with relevant stakeholders, internally and externally, to keep all parties informed and engaged with the latest updates relevant to your portfolio.

Our team are known for their detailed and organised approach – using tried and tested processes and systems to keep on top of the ongoing dates, deadlines, and actions that come with the ongoing management of an IP portfolio.

Approachable partners

Outsourcing any part of your business, will highlight to you the importance of choosing the right partner. Whether you are a lone inventor, an SME, or even an in-house company with a sizeable internal function – you need to be able to have open and honest conversation with your partner of choice.

At Mathisen & Macara, we pride ourselves on exceptional customer service that’s built upon open and honest client relationships. You can be assured that by outsourcing to us, you’ll be working alongside an efficient partner who’s never too busy to discuss your portfolio with you.

Flexibility

You need to know that your outsource partner can fit into any existing processes or team structures that you might have. Similarly, you need to know that your partner has the capacity and skillset to manage as much of the portfolio as you require. Our Formalities Team are comfortable across all aspects of international patent and trade mark law, as well as the systems of management therein. We can offer full service management, or slot in to any existing procedures you may have in relation to the management of your IP portfolio.

Time and cost efficiencies

Perhaps the most important reason to outsource your Formalities function, is the time and cost efficiencies you’ll experience.

As part of IP formalities, the ongoing management of a dedicated database is both time-consuming and, as a result of the time it takes, cost worthy to any business. On top of this, your in-house team need to remain informed and knowledgeable about the latest developments in law and liaise with appointed attorneys which can incur further costs. 

At Mathisen & Macara, we are industry experts who can also handle the ongoing maintenance of your IP portfolio on our database, managing the data itself, monitoring deadlines, and sending reminders when appropriate. The database we use is fully accessible to clients, so they can view their portfolios and produce reports as and when required.

Should you wish to discuss outsourcing your formalities function to Mathisen & Macara, get in touch.