Draft Builders is a scalable platform designed from the ground up as a patent production resource exclusively for law firm patent practices. We use cutting-edge patent-focused technologies to amplify the talents of our network of vetted US-based patent professionals to provide on-demand bandwidth for patent drafting in domains including software, mechanical, electrical, composition of matter, and more.
Our services currently span the preparation of Utility Patent Applications, Informal Patent Applications, and Defensive Publications. While our customers’ attorneys are responsible for directing and overseeing our work, we make it easy with our project dashboard and the underpinning automated workflows, which includes conflicts safeguards and strict quality assurance.
Who We Are
We Are Patent People
We come from private practice at major firms and now focus on improving practice and the practice experience through innovation. We are active in the patent community with thought leadership, trade associations, and pro bono.
Draft Builders provides on-demand patent drafting capacity for law firms that is consistent, high-quality, and aggressively-priced. At the same time, the platform provides an ad libitum way for qualified patent attorneys to monetize their own time and patent skills.
– Ian C. Schick, PhD, Esq, Founder & CEO
How We Work
Leveraging the Best Resources at Every Stage
In practice, our customers (i.e., law firm patent attorneys) send us work orders including an invention title, assignee name, reference number, and due date. We assign the project to a network practitioner with an appropriate technical background and who clears conflicts. Final conflicts clearance is up to individual network practitioners, but Draft Builders streamlines the process by filtering work assignments based on self-reported conflicts data. Once conflicts are cleared, the law firm attorney sends us all project materials (e.g., depending on project type, disclosure materials, office action, etc.).
EXAMPLE: Utility Patent Application Preparation
After reviewing the customer-provided disclosure materials, the network practitioner drafts only certain application components like the background section, the problem/solution statement, a primary claim set, and descriptions of drawings illustrating example embodiments.
Using the practitioner-written primary claim set as input, we leverage proprietary natural language generation (NLG) technology to create “mechanical writing” content for substantial portions of the patent application (e.g., summary, literal support in the detailed description, additional claim sets, abstract, etc.).
Next, taking what the network practitioner drafted along with the auto-generated content and an appropriate application template, we assemble a first draft of the patent application. The first draft is reviewed and bolstered by the network practitioner yielding a second draft that is delivered to our customer law firm for pre-filing review and approval.
Why Choose Draft Builders
Draft Builders for Law Firms
For our customers, law firm patent practices, we provide dependable consistency and quality, while letting our customers’ attorneys focus more on high-value business legal issues. Despite our aggressive fixed fees, Draft Builders is able to leverage elite practitioners who might otherwise be priced out of patent drafting work. Strict document guidelines ensure consistent work product across all of our drafters. We aim to have our best applications be very high quality and to have our worst applications also be very high quality.
Because we lack the traditional law firm overhead, we can prepare patent application documents at substantially lowers costs but with comparable quality and consistency. Perhaps equally importantly, we provide truly flexible production capacity. Customers can spin up patent work without the risks and overhead associated with hiring additional personnel.
Relative to other outsourcing options, we offer several advantages. Compared to offshoring, quality control is much more tightly managed with Draft Builders yielding superior consistency and predictability in the work product. Also, all activities performed by Draft Builders and our network practitioners occur within the US, thus avoiding export control issues. Leveraging the best drafters and the best technology, Draft Builders is the premium alternative to other onshoring options as well.
Draft Builders for Solo Practitioners
Draft Builders brings the gig economy to patent preparation. Qualified US patent attorneys can now get patent drafting work without spending time and resources on business development or other non-billable activities—and take home more per hour than at Big Law. Work from Draft Builders can boost private practices or supplement them during ebbs in workload.
Our patent attorney drafters spend their time on the “interesting” work, not the boring, mechanical parts of the job. We use automation and delegation to offload as much as possible from patent preparation processes so our drafters can focus on the most strategic and nuanced parts.
