client service - is your patent attorney embedded?

Matt Buchanan over at the Promote the Progress blog riffed today on my recent comment that 

a patent attorney should (1) attend the business planning and strategy meetings of his/her client to more effectively represent the client and (2) be intimately familiar with the business and competitors of the organization.  

I stand by my earlier comment ::: If your patent attorney is not doing these type of things, that patent attorney should be fired.

Matt wrote that, at first blush, my comments may run contrary to Russ Krajec’s post on saving money during patent acquisition. 

Let me clarify a bit and push this even further — these are types of services that the patent attorney/patent firm should be providing at no cost to the client.

Your patent attorney should at a minimum and at their own cost:

• Visit regularly with your researchers, marketing departments, executives and senior management in order to understand the nature, problems, scope and people that form the foundation of your business.
• Walk your tradeshows with you and regularly read industry news sources in order to understand the competitive environment in which you operate.
• Sit in on your research, marketing and corporate strategy/planning meetings in order to understand where your company’s vision and future lies.

I would have to agree with Matt in one respect — such attention to a client’s industry, business and culture would probably result in higher costs if the company is using an an attorney or firm that is tied to the billable hour and/or has mandatory annual billable hour requirements for its attorneys. 

There is no “upside” for this type of attorney or firm to spend “non-billable” time with a client in order to understand the nature of their business, the competitive environment in which they operate or their corporate future.  There is no “billable” to be gained — no income to be immediately derived. 

An attorney or firm tied to a billable hour is not encouraged to do these types of things — in fact, they are punished for doing so.  It is “not in the firm’s best interest” — excellent client service is not rewarded, high billable hours are rewarded.

Matt gets it — he calls it being “an embedded patent attorney.” 

So, I ask again — when was the last time your patent attorney asked for your business plan, let alone attended a corporate planning meeting?