Patent drawing companies are those companies that help patent seekers create an effective and stunning drawing for their ideas and/or inventions. These days, there are plenty of companies that offer patent illustration services to their clients, however, not all are at par with the required standards. And hence, it’s important for companies to ensure right at the beginning that they are partnering with a true patent drawing company, a company that can do justice with their invested money, time and resources.
With the passage of time and advancement of technologies, patent drawing processes too, have gone under major changes, and thus it’s important for relevant stakeholders to adapt accordingly. With this article, we have come up with some facts that will underline qualities a client should seek for while hiring a patent drawing company.
How to judge a patent drawing company
Judge the level of Competency- Creating drawings for patents is not like any typical drawing, as a lot goes on creating them and hence it’s important to judge the competency of a patent drawing company before hiring them. Creating an effective patent illustration requires adequate knowledge of the patent regulatory norms, a fair understanding of the domain which the product belongs to, and prolonged experience in computer aided designing software (in case you don’t want manual patent drawing).
Before you hire a patent illustration company it’s important to ensure that the patent drawing service provider possesses experience in these above three mentioned dimensions.
Understand what technicalities they will add in the drawing- Since, in the arena of patent drawing we deal with patent examiners and patent offices like USPTO, it’s important to understand what technicalities your service provider will add in the drawing that will appease them. For example, what are the various views of the drawing the service provider will use. Whether they will use various possible views like perspective, exploded perspective, cross section, isolated, elevation and plan views and if yes then why is it suitable for the idea in question. Whether they are equipped enough to create relevant screen captures, charts, flow diagrams, biotech, DNA sequencing and micrographs for a drawing. Will they be able to create drawings for complex industrial design as well as soft good products.
Competitiveness of the service provider- Competitiveness is another criterion that should be looked at while going for a patent illustrator. Since there are many companies that charge their clients that are not at par with the standard industry norms, it is important to make it clear right at the beginning.
What method will they implement to create a patent drawing- Patent drawings can be made either manually or by CAD (Computer Aided Designing) methods. Depending on the need of the client the requirement may vary and hence it is important to understand right at the beginning that the service provider has the ability to create patent drawings through both of these methods.
Confidentiality- Ensuring confidentiality of your idea is important while disclosing it to some third party. It’s important for clients to ensure right at the beginning that the confidentiality of the matter remains intact.
Timely delivery of your patent drawing- It’s important for clients to present their idea to the respective patent office at the appropriate time failing which can compromise your business objective, and here comes the importance of timely delivery of patent drawings. And thus, it’s important for service seekers to establish right at the beginning that their drawing will be delivered timely.
Are they equipped in handling office actions for patent drawing?- While dealing with important patent offices like the U.S. PTO we may face various rejections and amendments and thus, it’s important for clients to ensure right at the beginning that the concerned service providers have faced such office actions earlier also. It will help us establish if the service provider is worth investing.
