During the month of August, John Hackett, brand ambassador at Sortify.tm and a globally renowned trademark attorney, conducted a survey to find out what trademark professionals are up against in their day-to-day work.
John asked his extensive network to answer a series of 5 questions on LinkedIn, posted individually and a few days apart. A total of 114 trademark professionals from 36 countries responded. Here’s what’s on their minds.
The most common client demand: do it cheaper
When it comes to client demands for trademark work, the results show that the primary challenge for a staggering 63% of respondents is to do it cheaper. Keeping clients updated came in second place (19%), followed by doing it faster (11%) and doing it better (7%).
The biggest challenge for trademark practices: wasting time on admin or non-billable tasks
When asked about the challenges within their trademark practices, 59% of respondents selected wasting time on administrative or non-billable tasks as the primary challenge, while 21% said they had too much work and too little time. Making budget followed in third place (16%) with only 4% selecting embracing new technology as a challenge.
The aggregate of the top two responses to this question shows that 80% of respondents are pressed for time.
Using technology as a solution to trademark challenges: integration, collaboration and accuracy sought
John asked two separate sets of questions focused on technology as LinkedIn polls don’t allow for more than 4 answers to choose from at once. As the respondents partly differed from one question to another we didn’t aggregate the results below.
From the first set of questions, it is clear that respondents are keen to integrate all their systems (55%). The ability to file internationally online comes in second place (19%), to get infringement alerts fast in third (14%) and to access IP Office trademark data fourth (12%).
The responses to the second set of questions were more evenly split, with respondents looking for technology that could help increase accuracy and enable team collaboration (equally at 31% each). Then 21% of respondents would leverage technology to improve quality and save time, and 17% to get practice performance data.
Technological solutions for trademark problems
As trademark professionals, we recognise that we have to innovate to meet the changing demands of our clients, who want us to reduce costs, while delivering accurate, efficient services in record time.
It’s encouraging to see that only 4% selected embracing new technology as a challenge, as the legal profession is often accused of being “slow to adopt change”1 and lawyers seen as stuck in their ways.
At Sortify.tm, we see that competitive, forward-thinking trademark practices of all sizes are leveraging our technology to solve some of these challenges – improving their efficiency, and increasing productivity and profitability.
Contact us to find out more about the Sortify.tm Attorney suite of tools.
1. NZ Legal Firms Behind the 8 Ball in Innovation, accessed 4 September 2020.