Your Strategic IP Partner

What are the benefits of patent protection?

Patents have an impact on the R & D, Finance, Marketing, HR and Legal departments of a company. For R&D, it protects their investment and maximizes ROI. For Finance, it increases the valuation, generates royalties and increases profits. For Marketing, it strengthens the branding, differentiation, and competitive advantage. For HR, it enables a culture of innovation, and helps to retain top technical talent. For Legal, it mitigates IP infringement risks and secures the company's valuable assets.

Which countries should I apply for a patent?

Since patents are territorial/country-specific, the selection of countries/jurisdictions to apply for a patent should be based on which countries are major markets, and which countries the product is likely to be made or used in. Other considerations include, the country of incorporation, likelihood of success in securing patents, ability to enforce successfully, timelines, and costs.

What is an IP Strategy?

An IP Strategy is a systematic roadmap to align a company's business goals with Intellectual Property related initiatives. The IP strategy depends on what stage the company is in, its short and long term goals, its competitive position within the industry, etc. IP initiatives such as IP Audits. Patent intelligence, Freedom to Operate, IP protection, IPR enforcement, IP licensing and IP valuation are conducted at different stages depending on the company's IP Strategy.

How much should I disclose in a patent application?

The extent and scope of disclosure in a patent application should be sufficient to successfully obtain patent protection while also preserving key trade secrets to the extent possible. To obtain a patent grant, a patent application must satisfy novelty, non-obviousness, subject matter eligibility requirements, and enablement. For enablement, every element of every patent claim should be described in sufficient detail to enable a person of average skill in the technical field that the invention relates to, to make and use the invention without undue experimentation.

How can I minimize my risk of IP infringement?

Especially before launching a product in new markets, but preferably even during the R&D stage, conduct a Freedom To Operate (FTO) search in those countries where you intend to launch your product. This helps to identify patents owned by third parties that your product might potentially infringe. Once these patents are identified, analyze the claims of these patents based on the specification to determine their scope of coverage. Then you can reverse engineer your product to avoid infringement, or even look at opposing or invalidating third party patents that pose a significant threat to your business.

What should I look for in a patent firm?

Typically the relationship with an IP firm starts fairly early in the journey, during R&D and product development. At this stage, your company will typically not have an in-house IP department or even an in-house IP counsel. Hence, the right guidance on an IP strategy that aligns your company's requirements with IP initiatives is crucial. Transparency and clarity in communication will help you make informed decisions. Expertise and track record in successfully obtaining IP protection is another key metric to consider. Last but not least, expertise in multiple jurisdictions is critical if you want to build an international patent portfolio

The Patent Process Is Not Easy, But METAYAGE Makes It Simple

Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into sculptures, which many consider complicated. But once mastered, you discover its simplicity and find much pleasure in this art form. Similarly, the patent process is not easy, but Metayage makes it simple.

At the outset, the process of obtaining a patent seems to be a daunting journey, like climbing a mountain. Many have an impression that this process is tedious and lengthy. Some find it overwhelming or lack motivation. Despite being aware of the numerous benefits of getting a patent, they delay or lack the initiative to get started. We are aware of this, which is why our approach is to simplify and assist our clients at every stage of the application process. Hence, clients have told us that we have made the process smooth for them.

By simplify we mean we put in our best effort to work in collaboration with our clients and reduce the burden on them. However, by no means does that mean that we make the patent application ‘easy’ since we obviously cannot change the process or steps, or the obstacles that need to be overcome. What we can do, is make each step less complicated and simpler by offering our expert support and guidance along the journey, which many of our clients have appreciated.

We assess and our experience has helped us to gauge when to give that extra push or take a step back and give our clients space and time. We educate our clients on why, how, and what is required in order to maximize their chances of getting a valuable patent granted. We keep ourselves abreast about the latest technologies related to our client’s Inventions. Much importance is given to team training and learning. This way, when our clients explain their inventions we are able to comprehend as well as ask meaningful and relevant questions. We also do not miss opportunities to educate our clients on the process. We not only hire domain experts, but also have the habit of putting in extra effort to learn about technologies related to our client’s inventions in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, spanning both hardware and software, and in industries such as retail, healthcare, and telecom, due to which our clients tell us that we understand technical details very well.

We start with the Disclosure of the Invention. This is perhaps the most complicated and overwhelming task faced by most of our clients. We provide them with a form that has multiple questions about their Invention. Our clients are expected to fill this form with as much information as possible to help us better understand their invention. We simplify this process for our clients by providing them with step-by-step material to read or watch while they fill out the form. If this does not suffice we get on a call or meet them in person or online and walk them through the process. This first step requires hand-holding and slight nudging from us. There have been instances where our clients who lead an extremely busy life send us details about their inventions in a voice note/ recording and we transcribed that information and use it to fill out the Invention disclosure form, as a value-added professional service. Making an effort to learn about technologies related to our client’s inventions and educating our clients about the patent application process converts a process that could be painful into one that is a pleasure!

Then the next step is a Patentability search and Analysis. We conduct a patentability search and provide a report that lists the discovered Prior Art(s), we help our clients understand this report by extracting points from the search report and presenting it as a summary so that the client can better understand what we discovered, including any similarities of the prior art with their invention. The Search report can sometimes run into many pages and can be confusing, so our exercise of bringing forth important information saves our client’s time and avoids confusion. Furthermore, we explain the impact of the prior art and help our clients articulate the differentiators to circumvent challenges posed by the prior art. That is why our clients have said that we help them by strategically positioning their inventions to improve patentability.

If the client approves continuing with the patent application, we have multiple meetings and discussions. This is to better understand the invention, and the purpose of the patent application and arrive at a strategy that will help our clients to maximize their patents. We simplify this process by engaging in valuable and quality communication. What questions to ask, smoothly direct our clients to think from a patent protection perspective, and proactively be prepared for what a patent examiner or controller may ask for. Clients have improved their invention disclosure and patent application due to our valuable suggestions. We have developed expertise in preparing a draft that captures the invention in a concise manner and in a way that will be challenging if not impossible for competitors to reverse engineer the invention. That is why our clients love our professionalism!

Once the drafting is completed, to ensure a smoother process, the draft goes through internal quality checks prior to being shared with our clients for approval and inputs if any. Once the client approves, we proceed to take care of the paperwork and submit the application. The next step is to appear for a hearing with the Patent Office. We take time to prepare and strategize for the hearing, to present our points and arguments confidently to the patent office.

Our work doesn’t stop at getting a patent grant. With our client’s approval, we also keep track of all deadlines and ensure that our clients do not miss any of the due dates.

Without further ado, here are some client testimonials direct from the horse’s mouth:

“ As a tech company, we really wanted to have IP assets, since we are doing a lot of innovations, as a key part of our Innovation management and growth, it has been a great experience working with them, we have made a total of 5 fillings in the past one year, it was a smooth experience, their team understand tech well, they are very easy to work with, they can translate the technical jargons, the descriptions in a simplified manner”.
-Prateep Basu,
Founder and CEO of Satsure.

“We have been working with team Metayage and it has been amazing throughout. Every team member knows what they are doing very well, they keep track of all deadlines, we never had to ask for any document, and they bring it to us promptly. We got two major patents, one in the US and one in India. I love their professionalism. They also understand technical details very well. It has been easy for us to explain every detail”.
– Rimjhim Agarwal
Co-Founder and CTO,
BrainsightAI

“We would like to also thank you all sincerely for your extraordinary efficiency, professionalism, and representation. It has been a great pleasure to have worked with you. We wish you and your families all the very best”.
– Dr and Mrs Partheban

“I’ve been working with Metayage in filing the patents and getting the grants for Niramai. As a medical Start-up, it was difficult for us to find the right entity because as researchers we innovate many things but don’t know how to file it. So we engaged Team Metayage and we have filed more than 50 patents and have already got 29 patents granted. We got very good help from team Metayage. What I like about Metayage is that whenever we file things, as researchers, we are not sure about the Legal terms and how to defend it legally, and how to respond to the controllers. So they have been very helpful in explaining what is our innovation and how to strategise when we are filing and what is patentable and what is not, They have been patient in sitting with us and understanding the entire Invention and successfully defending the patents.”
– Siva Teja Kakileti
Director, Founding Member, and Principal Research Scientist,
Niramai Health Analytix

“We are very glad that we were introduced to you by a ‘satisfied’ customer. Your help and guidance from the time we shared our Idea to submission of our patent application have been amazing. You are expressive about the entire patenting process and efficient with the execution of the process”.
-Dr. Arvind Singh -MBA, FRCS, Eye Surgeon & Educator

“I have been interacting with Arjun and Metayage since October 2018. Arjun and his team have been quite thorough, diligent, punctual, and critical in helping us file and achieve patent grants to multiple innovations. Arjun and his team especially helped us to carefully draft innovations in AI and retail, both software and hardware. All the processes, right from patent search to final drafts to hearing calls, have been executed with timelines and attention to detail. Great work, Ajrun! “
-Vijay Gabale
Co-Founder, Infilect

“It was a pleasure to engage Arjun and his team at Metayage for my patent application with USPTO. I am extremely impressed with the patent search and later filing services provided by his team. My field of patent was in the area where big international banks and finance companies were dominating this field in risk strategy and technology propriety. His colleagues though took time but precisely understood the technical issues in minute details and in terms of specific features that USPTO will look into for accepting the patent filing successfully. His team also participated with me during a long session for explanations and arguments with the USPTO examiner. Keep it up Arjun!
– Promod Jain
Principal at Astute Consulting

“ I am glad to have associated with Arjun. He was very supportive and helped me in understanding the entire process of Patent filing. The experience of Patent filing was very smooth. From day one, the entire process was clear and time-bound. This helped me a lot in planning what to expect and when.
Arjun and his team have a very strong review process in place. They reviewed my invention disclosure, made sure they understand the idea and the whole context, and gave a lot of meaningful review comments and valuable suggestions that helped me better my invention disclosure form.

They provided quality search results that covered the breadth and depth of the context in which I was filing. The document was very well written and all the points were clearly captured.

One very interesting aspect that pleasantly surprised me was the title of the invention. It was so very well crafted that summarized the entire invention in a few words. Arjun’s team gave a fantastic title to my invention.
All in all, it worked out very smoothly and I am very happy with the work and will continue to associate with Arjun for future Patent filing.
– Vinuth Tulasi
Sr. Cloud Architect, HPE Cloud

Our Purpose

Our Services

International Patent Protection

IP Due Diligence

Patent Intelligence

International Trademark Protection

International Design Protection

Strategic IP Partner

Why Metayage

Metayage puts “Your Strategy First®”

Over 200 US patents granted

Your Strategic IP Lifecycle partner

We help overcome hurdles in patenting

Patent grant success rate over 90%

Best in class expertise in software patents

International patent protection from India

We make the patent process simple

Expertise across technology domains

Patent prosecution specialists

Case Studies

Patent Showcase

What Our Clients Say About Metayage

Siva Teja Kakileti

Rimjhim Agarwal

Prateep Basu

Frequently Asked Questions