PatentFoxSM/TM, LLC (“Patentfox”), is in the Competitive Technical Intelligence (CTI) business. Our focus is on monitoring and evaluating, in real-time, the examination and prosecution of a select number of key patent applications, while they are pending before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). We generate and sell Reports and Postings on pending applications in critical areas of evolving technology. Upon request, we will also provide customized reports and application monitoring to meet the specific needs of our clients. Primary clients may be within the investment banking community, other clients may want to monitor competition or may be concerned with emerging and disruptive technologies.
The current patent application backlog at the PTO is now of “historic proportions” with more than a million patent applications in the queue. The PTO received in excess of 500,000 applications a year, but is able to complete only about 400,000 applications, a shortfall of 100,000 applications that are added to the queue each year. According to the PTO the volume of applications will continue to out pace the agency’s capacity to examine them. Applicants in some high-tech areas may wait up to three or four years before knowing whether their patent is granted or not. Clearly there is a need to identify and evaluate the potential and merit of applications well prior to a final patentability determination by the PTO. Patentfox is uniquely meeting this need. It is important to note that Patentfox does not wait for the application to issue as a patent before identifying its potential. We attempt to anticipate the technological significance of an invention before patenting and thus provide our clients with both timely information and Smarter ways to view technology.™