FRACTIONAL PATENT COUNSEL
Fractional patent counsel · AI, software & autonomous systems

Your in-house patent counsel, without the in-house hire.

Ongoing patent strategy, structured invention harvesting, and a clear path from disclosure to filing, on capacity reserved for you.

A full-time patent attorney costs $250K to $450K+ a year once you include benefits and overhead. Most growing companies need in-house-caliber IP judgment, not a full-time salary. Fractional Patent Counsel reserves that judgment for you in defined weekly or monthly hours, and the same attorney who sets your strategy also drafts the applications, so nothing is lost between deciding what to protect and protecting it.

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FORMER USPTO EXAMINER · USPTO-REGISTERED · 15+ YEARS · 500+ PATENT APPLICATIONS DRAFTED · NATIONWIDE
FIG. 1, fractional patent counsel system 100
FIG. 1FRACTIONAL PATENT COUNSEL SYSTEM (100)
The system

Most companies protect IP reactively. We run it as a process.

It's a familiar pattern, and an understandable one: heads-down building for two years, then a scramble to file something the week before a fundraise. We replace that with a system (100) that runs continuously, so protectable work is caught when it happens, not remembered later. The numerals below track FIG. 1.

102 · 104 · DISCOVER

Invention harvesting that actually happens

Recurring, attorney-led harvesting sessions plus a structured async intake draw on your engineering stack (102), turning what your engineers are building into invention disclosures ready for review (104). Continuous discovery tooling that connects directly to your systems is available as an optional integration.

106 · 108 · EVALUATE

Every candidate through one gate

Counsel (106) runs each candidate through one evaluation gate (108), scoring it against a standard rubric: novelty, eligibility, detectability, strategic fit, and continuation runway. The strongest get a one-page scorecard and a clear recommendation.

110 · 112 · PROTECT

The right form of protection

Each candidate is routed to its best outcome: file a patent (110), keep it as a trade secret (112), or hold and watch. Filings begin with prior art review, so claims are drafted with the landscape in view and provisionals hold up when priority matters. Where a trade secret is the better route, we make the call and coordinate implementation with your employment or corporate counsel.

114 · MAINTAIN

Portfolio kept deliberately alive

What is not filed today is held and watched (114), revisited every quarter: family reviews, continuation strategy before windows close, landscape monitoring, and docketing oversight. No family goes abandoned without a documented decision.

What's included

The work of an in-house patent function, delivered fractionally.

01

Patent strategy & counsel access

A standing strategy session plus direct access to your counsel with a defined response window. Ask before you sign, ship, or publish.

02

Invention harvesting & scorecards

Structured harvesting sessions and an async intake process. Every candidate is triaged through our standard gate, with written scorecards for the strongest.

03

Prior-art-informed filings

Attorney-drafted provisional and non-provisional applications, scoped separately at fixed fees quoted before work begins, with prior art review on provisionals.

04

Continuation & family reviews

Quarterly review of every open family: claim runway, competitor product movement, and keep-alive recommendations before issuance closes the window.

05

Patent landscape monitoring

A monthly briefing on newly published applications and grants in your technology space, including named players, and what the activity means for your roadmap.

06

Licensing & assertion positioning

Periodic screening-level ranking of your assets by detectability and market exposure, with a concrete path to making core assets assertable.

07

Docketing & deadline oversight

We watch your deadlines, maintenance fees, and application status across the portfolio and flag everything before it's urgent.

08

Diligence-ready reporting

An annual portfolio letter from outside patent counsel, written to be forwarded to your board and dropped into a fundraising data room.

Plans & engagements

Reserve your patent counsel by the week or the month.

Most growing companies don't need another drafter. They need someone who owns the patent function: deciding what to protect, when, and how, and making sure it actually happens. Every plan reserves a defined block of your counsel's time for the counsel role itself: strategy, invention harvesting and evaluation, portfolio oversight, and direction of outside counsel. Drafting is not part of plan hours; filings are scoped separately as an Application Push or handled by your existing firm under your counsel's direction.

Plan 01

Advisory

20 hrs/ MONTH

For companies that need experienced patent judgment in place before invention volume picks up.

  • Monthly strategy session
    A standing monthly session on what you are building, what to protect, and what not to disclose yet, so patent rights are not lost to a demo, a launch, or a pitch.
  • Ongoing invention harvesting & evaluation
    Async intake for disclosures, with written one-page scorecards for the strongest candidates rating novelty, eligibility, detectability, strategic fit, and continuation runway.
  • Async access to counsel
    A direct line for quick questions, before you sign, ship, publish, or announce, with responses within a defined window.
  • Docketing & deadline oversight
    Deadlines, fees, and application status tracked and flagged before they are urgent.
  • Hours that flex to the work
    Reserved hours apply to whatever the counsel role needs most that month, with usage reported so you always know where the time went.
Discuss Advisory
Plan 02

Counsel

10 hrs/ WEEK

For companies with steady invention flow that want patent strategy on a consistent footing.

  • Everything in Advisory, plus:
  • Standing channel with counsel
    An ongoing dedicated channel (Slack, Teams, or email) rather than async-only, for continuous back-and-forth.
  • Structured harvesting sessions
    Recurring attorney-led sessions with your engineers, not just async intake, and higher scorecard volume.
  • Quarterly continuation & family reviews
    Every open family reviewed quarterly for claim runway and keep-alive decisions before any window closes.
  • Outside counsel direction
    Your counsel sets filing priorities and claim strategy for your outside firms, reviews their drafts, and weighs in on office action strategy, so the work matches the plan.
Discuss Counsel
Plan 03 · Deepest coverage

Portfolio Counsel

20 hrs/ WEEK

For companies actively building or managing a portfolio, or preparing for a raise, acquisition, or licensing program.

  • Everything in Counsel, plus:
  • Weekly strategy cadence
    Strategy that keeps pace with portfolios and roadmaps that move fast, with priority availability.
  • The evaluation engine
    Harvesting and scoring run as a continuous pipeline. This is where a lot of value is won or lost: the decision of what is worth filing can matter as much as the drafting itself.
  • Active continuation strategy
    Ongoing management of continuation runway across the portfolio, timing filings to product and competitor movement.
  • Annual licensing & assertion positioning memo
    A screening-level ranking of assets by detectability and market exposure, with a recommendation for each. Formal charts and opinions scoped separately.
  • Investor-ready portfolio letter
    A concise letter from outside patent counsel summarizing your IP position, to forward to your board or drop into a data room.
Discuss Portfolio Counsel
Tailored

Embedded & event engagements

Custom

For companies near a raise, exit, or an active licensing or assertion campaign, where IP moves the number.

  • Embedded, leadership-level engagement
    Counsel operates as a de facto member of your leadership team on IP: board-ready reporting, direct involvement in strategy, priority availability.
  • Licensing & assertion support
    Readiness assessment and underlying analysis: target identification, claim-chart and evidence-of-use preparation, and strategy, coordinated with separate litigation or licensing counsel who lead any campaign.
  • Diligence & transaction support
    IP due diligence, portfolio positioning, and the IP narrative for a fundraise, acquisition, or IPO.
  • Scoped to your engagement
    Capacity and scope defined for the specific event rather than a standing monthly plan.
Start a conversation
Defined engagements

Need one thing done well? Start with a defined engagement.

Focused, fixed-scope work for a specific need, quoted at a fixed fee you approve before anything begins. A defined engagement is often the best way to see how we work before reserving ongoing capacity.

Engagement 01

IDF Review

You have invention disclosures and need an expert read on which are worth filing.

  • Attorney review of your disclosures
    Each invention disclosure form (IDF) you submit is reviewed by counsel, with follow-up questions to your inventors where needed.
  • Written scorecard for each
    Novelty, eligibility, detectability, strategic fit, and continuation runway, scored against a standard rubric.
  • A clear recommendation
    File, keep as a trade secret, or hold and watch, with the reasoning behind each call.
Scope an IDF Review
Engagement 02

IDF Push

You know there is protectable work in your codebase but nothing has been written down.

  • Focused harvesting sprint
    Attorney-led sessions with your engineering team over a defined window, often ahead of a raise, launch, or public disclosure.
  • Disclosures written for your engineers
    Counsel turns the sessions into complete invention disclosures, so your engineers talk through their work instead of filling out forms.
  • Triage & filing roadmap
    Every candidate run through the evaluation gate, ending in a prioritized roadmap of what to file and when.
Scope an IDF Push
Engagement 03

Application Push

You have a deadline and a set of inventions that need to be on file before it.

  • Prior art review & claim strategy
    Each application starts with a look at the landscape and a claim strategy session, so claims are drafted with the art in view.
  • Attorney-drafted applications
    Provisional or non-provisional applications drafted by the same attorney who sets the strategy, with thorough specifications built to support continuations.
  • Filed to your deadline
    Drawings, review cycles, and filing coordinated against your launch, raise, conference, or bar date.
Scope an Application Push

Capacity plans are month to month after a short initial term, or prepaid annually. Scope, reserved hours, and fees are set out in a clear, readable engagement letter before anything starts. Defined engagements are quoted at a fixed fee you approve before work begins. USPTO fees, drawings, and third-party costs are billed at cost. Continuous invention-discovery tooling that integrates with your engineering systems is available as a separately licensed add-on.

The leverage

Enterprise IP tooling, at a fraction of the cost.

In-house patent counsel usually means a full-time hire at $250K to $450K+ a year, more than most growing companies can justify. Fractional Patent Counsel gives you that seniority, backed by an enterprise-grade IP tooling stack, in the hours you actually need, so you get in-house-caliber patent leadership without the full-time cost.

Counsel

Counsel who ships code.

Fractional Patent Counsel is led by a former USPTO patent examiner and USPTO-registered patent attorney with 15+ years of legal experience and more than 500 patent applications drafted, preceded by nearly a decade of industry engineering experience, across complex electrical and computer technologies: AI and machine learning, software systems, autonomous agents, electronics, communications, and cryptographic infrastructure. That work includes drafting and prosecuting patents for established technology companies, patents that became part of significant commercial portfolios, and responding to thousands of office actions over the course of that prosecution.

That experience is hands-on, not just on paper: it includes building and shipping production AI systems, from an AI agent marketplace to an MCP-based verification protocol. When your engineers describe an architecture, whether it runs in a data center or on a circuit board, nothing gets lost in translation, and that fluency shows up in claim quality, faster disclosures, and strategy that matches how technology products actually get built. Working with a fractional patent attorney means that same senior person handles both the strategy and the drafting, on reserved hours rather than a full-time salary.

  • RegistrationUSPTO-registered patent attorney; former USPTO patent examiner
  • Track record15+ years in patent law; 500+ applications drafted; thousands of office actions handled; ~10 years prior industry engineering
  • FocusAI/ML, software, electronics, telecommunications, autonomous systems
  • ExperiencePatents drafted for established technology companies, contributing to significant commercial portfolios
Questions

The things founders ask first.

Why reserved capacity instead of billing by the hour?

Reserved capacity means your counsel's time is held for you every week or month, so you can loop counsel in before decisions get made, without a new engagement, a new quote, or a surprise invoice. You get a predictable commitment and priority availability, and the hours flex across whatever matters most that period: strategy, harvesting, evaluation, or portfolio oversight. Pay-as-you-go hourly billing works well for discrete, well-defined matters; reserved capacity fits the continuous, ask-anytime relationship a growing company usually needs.

What does a filing actually include?

Filings are not part of plan hours. They are scoped as an Application Push at a fixed fee you approve before work begins, or handled by your existing firm with your counsel setting the strategy and reviewing the work. Either way, every filing has real claims strategy behind it, with prior art review on provisionals. USPTO fees and drawings are billed at cost.

How do you handle conflicts between clients?

We run conflict checks before every engagement and decline work that overlaps an existing client's space. If your technology later converges with another client's, we tell you early and help you transition that matter to trusted counsel rather than pretending the issue away.

What happens to the discovery tooling if we leave?

Your disclosures, scorecards, evaluations, and files are yours. Plans are month to month after the initial term, and off-boarding includes a complete handoff package your next counsel can pick up without missing a deadline.

Do you use AI tools?

Yes, deliberately and openly. Your patent attorney uses AI tools to augment attorney drafting, research, and analysis: the attorney directs the strategy, the claims, and every word that gets filed, and the tooling makes that work faster, deeper, and more thorough than either could be alone. Your confidential information is never used to train third-party models. It's a large part of why enterprise-grade coverage is possible at this level.

We already have a law firm. Does this replace them?

Sometimes. More often we act as your day-to-day patent function and coordinate specialists, including your existing firm, where they add value. Many clients keep litigation or corporate counsel elsewhere and run patent strategy through us.

Who it's for & how it works

Built for companies with real, ongoing IP needs.

From seed-stage startups to established companies building or managing a portfolio, if you have steady invention activity and aren't ready for a full-time patent hire, this is built for you.

Venture-backed startupsBuilding defensible technology and heading toward a raise.
Growing technology companiesWith steady invention flow across AI, software, electronics, or communications.
Recurring patent needsEnough ongoing work to need strategy, not just one-off filings.
Not ready for a full-time hireNeeding senior IP judgment without a $250K–$450K+ salary.
STEP 1
Intro call
A 30-minute fit conversation. No confidential details needed yet.
STEP 2
Conflicts check
We clear conflicts before any substantive discussion begins.
STEP 3
Needs assessment
Once engaged, we review your portfolio, roadmap, and priorities.
STEP 4
Engagement plan
A clear, written engagement letter setting scope and plan.
STEP 5
Ongoing counsel
Continuous strategy, harvesting, and portfolio oversight.

Personalized legal advice begins only after conflicts clearance and a signed engagement agreement. Please don't share confidential or invention-specific details before then.

Get started

Thirty minutes. Bring your roadmap.

An intro call covers where your IP stands today, how the practice works, and whether a fractional model fits how you're building. No pitch deck, no obligation.

Book an intro call

Prefer email? counsel@fractionalpatentcounsel.com