We emphasize the interaction and communication with the inventors.  Inventors may not always appreciate the patentability of their creative ideas, but an unprotected disclosure may cause irreparable loss to a business.

Many patent properties are lost when inventions are not identified in time to beat the deadlines. Although many corporations have efficient programs to cover the initial identification of disclosures, sometimes help is needed for a limited time, or for a specific part of the group.

Very few law firms have experience in this particular area, but ours does: during Robert Groover's tenure at Texas Instruments, he ran three of TI's ten patent committees simultaneously, and developed great relations with the operations managers in his areas. This continues to be an area of high interest, and his article on "Patent Productivity Management" presents many ideas for disclosure extraction, some original and some gleaned from various sophisticated patent-owning companies he has worked with.