Can Rightly transform IP Law Firm revenue models?

We bring people together to make a difference in the world. We’re down for helping to make a difference in any sphere of life but our specific passion is for the world of IP. It’s what we created Rightly for.

We bring people together to make a difference in the world. We’re down for helping to make a difference in any sphere of life but our specific passion is for the world of IP. It’s what we created Rightly for.

Rightly is the place where automation, IP law business models and innovation meet.

Traditional methodologies and processes leave IP Law Firms in a challenging circumstance. To take on more business, you have to hire more lawyers. The ebb and flow of new and recurring business means that sometimes you are paying people to get really good at solitaire. Or look at pictures of cats. Between offices, wages, bills and insurance, your overheads are high. And growing.

At the same time, out there in the marketplace, client education and motivation is a substantial and evergreen issue. Questions as to whether clearance or registration is really necessary are common. There’s a reluctance to monitor marks until a damaging infringement has already taken place. You’re doing your best to zealously protect your clients while defending the necessity of it. Client demand drives fees lower and lower and your margins slowly get thinner.

There’s a ray of hope in all this – referrals. The territorial nature of IP Rights means that there is a healthy, active need for referrals to (and from!) law firms in other countries. Being lawyers, the competition for these referrals and the associated new business is fierce. To gain that new business, you need to be known.

So your lawyers get out there, networking and shaking the trees. They join organisational bodies, attend conferences, write papers, publish incisive case law observations, give speeches and presentations and all the time you look at the associated bills and wonder if it wouldn’t just be cheaper to pay them to look at pictures of cats some more.

In truth, while some lawyers are natural marketers and salespeople, very many aren’t. You begin to realise that you need dedicated staff to generate enough business to wean the lawyers off solitaire. You hire some legally inclined marketers and send them out to shake the trees instead. This works wonderfully and you are thrilled. You plan to celebrate with an actual night’s sleep.

But your marketers encounter the same issue that your lawyers did. Differentiation is difficult in the land of IP law and without strong Unique Selling Propositions to attract new business to your firm, long, laborious and expensive networking and promotional activities are required. To gain more business, you need to hire more marketers.

No amount of Ambien will change the fact that in the practice of IP law, without shifts to sustainable and scalable business models that serve client interests and increase revenue, the race to the bottom is on.

This is the difference that Rightly wants most to make in the IP world – engineering smart, collaborative solutions that turns the traditional model on its head and opens doors for every law firm to be empowered to grow and scale their business.

Pretty awesome, right?

But even within the practice of IP law, law firms vary wildly in their practice areas, specialities, focus and needs. How can you tell which is the right solution for you? Try them:

And in case you're not ready for that, here’s a picture of a cat: