The effort to increase vaccine availability and production has gained traction when the United States last month backed a temporary suspension of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccinations.
The US has cautioned that vaccine disparities between countries have allowed COVID-19 to propagate and raised the likelihood of variations arising that will elude the present vaccine generation.
Different methods have been taken by world leaders to the problem of vaccinating communities that lack vaccination doses.
Last September, South Africa, and India proposed to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that rules on intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines and other coronavirus-related medical equipment be temporarily suspended, arguing that allowing patents to be waived would allow more countries to produce much-needed COVID-19 vaccines.
The new coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the economy in a way that hasn't been witnessed since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The unemployment rate in the United States has risen by a magnitude since the crisis of 2008.
Despite COVID-19, some firms are thriving (Amazon, grocery stores). Other firms have closed their doors (restaurants, live music venues). However, practically every business is affected in some way, even those who consider themselves to be "completely risk-free."
According to Patexia, a patent research organization, the global economic slowdown could result in 2-4 percent fewer patent applications in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the downturn. So, how can patent attorneys withstand this epidemic? Let's find it.

Human & Customer Relations

It should be a top concern to keep strong customer relations. Your customers are genuine people who are going through difficult times in their lives. Monitoring with them can assist develop such relationships by demonstrating that you care about them as individuals, not just as a source of cash.
This is also a wonderful moment to assess your overall customer service. Customer service is an area where many law firms can improve significantly. What is the nature of your customer intake procedure? How long does it take for someone to respond to someone who leaves a voice mail or fills out a web form seeking clarification? Within a day, web forms should be responded to, and phone mails should be returned that day. If somebody is eager enough in your business to leave a voicemail message or fill out paperwork, they most likely have an issue that you can assist with. You want to respond to them before they respond to others.
Consider the initial impression someone has of your company. Nowadays, it'll almost certainly be your website. Is it portraying the picture you want? Is it modern, or does it appear to have been designed 20 years ago and hasn't been changed since? Is it simple to locate pertinent information?
Customers are also influenced by how your phone is answered. As a preliminary stage for calls, many, if not all, law firms now use an auto-attendant system. Is your communication professional-sounding, free of "ums" and "aws"? When someone presses the key to be linked to a human, are they linked to a human immediately and continuously?

On-Point Approach & Critical Thinking

Every company may be concerned about saving money right now since there is so much ambiguity about just how long the coronavirus epidemic will endure and how long it will take for the economy to function. However, the business school teaches that when the economy is down, it is a great time to invest in things that will pay you when the economy picks up. When you gain your market share with a lesser investment – such as in a weak economy – it will be easier to maintain that market share and expand quicker when the economy recovers.
During normal business hours, many organizations are likely to be too preoccupied with their patent portfolio to devote much effort to it. This is a wonderful opportunity to encourage your customers to take a step back and reconsider their patent approach. Are there any patents they could submit that would give them a leg up on their competition? When customers are short on funds, it's also a good idea to go through the portfolio and identify inventions that are inadequate or have little economic value, which the client might want to consider surrendering rather than paying the patent office maintenance costs.

Relatively Low Costs

Cost savings are a natural result of the above-mentioned process optimization efforts. The operational modifications that have occurred in most law firms since the outbreak of the coronavirus can also hint at significant cost savings. Many law companies are discovering that their legal employees can work just as well from their homes as they do in the workplace. In terms of the physical facility, it may be conceivable to reimagine what a legal office looks like. If employees can work remotely for the majority of the semester, you may reduce the amount of space required, which can result in a variety of cost savings in addition to the reduced rent. Another thing to think about is patent illustrations. You may be spending too much if you pay more than $30-$45 per drawing.

Improvised Techniques

It's also a good idea to take a strategic look at your own business. Customers, money, work, and staff are all managed through a variety of systems in every legal company. It's human nature to overlook procedures as long as they're running smoothly. All too frequently, we focus on process improvement only after a tragedy has occurred. During a slow moment, such as during a pandemic, it's a good idea to be preemptive and look for methods to improve your procedures so that they're more cost-effective or produce better results.

Every quarter, new and enhanced solutions for accounting, billing, practice administration, records management, digital discovery, and other legal functions are released. AI-driven automated contract review is one of the newest areas. In general, computerized contract review does not replace the services of a lawyer, although it can help speed up the process by highlighting paragraphs that need to be reviewed.

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Related Links :

1.The Importance of Patent Drawings for Low-Tech Products
2. What patent should we apply A Design or Utility Patent? And how is Design Patent different from Utility Patent?
3. What can Patent Attorneys do in COVID-19 Pandemic disruption on the patent filing?