Senior Intellectual Property Docketing and Foreign Filing Specialist
Location: Hybrid or remote within approved U.S. jurisdictions.
Job Type: Full-Time.
Compensation: $30–$38/hour, based on experience.
Schedule: Regular availability during Fuller IP’s Arizona business hours is required.
Join a Firm That Protects Innovation:
Fuller IP Law Group is a values-driven intellectual property law firm that helps innovators protect and grow the value of their ideas—from breakthrough therapeutics and medical devices to advanced materials, software, and hardware.
We work closely with our clients to provide practical, business-focused intellectual property strategies, proactive communication, and transparent budgeting.
We are seeking an experienced Senior Intellectual Property Docketing and Foreign Filing Specialist to join our Practice Flow Operations Team.
The two most important qualifications for this position are:
- Substantive, hands-on intellectual property docketing experience.
- Experience managing outbound foreign patent filings from instructions through filing confirmation and client reporting.
This is not a general administrative position. It is an important deadline-integrity and workflow-ownership role for someone who takes pride in accuracy, follow-through, proactive communication, and protecting clients from avoidable risk.
Purpose of the Position:
Protect deadlines and move routine U.S. and foreign prosecution work accurately from receipt through docketing, instruction, confirmation, client reporting, and closure—with clear ownership, documented quality control, and minimal unnecessary attorney involvement.
Key Responsibilities:
- Review and accurately docket incoming USPTO, WIPO, foreign-associate, and other prosecution correspondence.
- Identify and properly distinguish statutory deadlines, client deadlines, internal target dates, and reminder dates.
- Independently verify critical docket entries and maintain documented quality-control procedures.
- Coordinate outbound foreign patent filings from the initial client decision through estimates, instructions, acknowledgment, filing confirmation, reporting, and docket closure.
- Communicate with foreign associates regarding filing requirements, powers of attorney, translations, sequence listings, national-stage entries, European validations, and local formalities.
- Confirm that foreign-associate acknowledgments accurately reflect Fuller IP’s instructions.
- Maintain accurate matter status, ownership, next-action, and waiting-for information in the firm’s systems.
- Prepare daily exception and upcoming-deadline reports.
- Ensure filing confirmations and other client reports are completed within the firm’s two-business-day reporting standard.
- Assist with assignments, declarations, powers of attorney, recordations, and other prosecution formalities connected with docketing and foreign-filing workflows.
- Conduct periodic docket audits and promptly investigate and correct discrepancies.
- Work with the Practice Flow Team to improve workflows, checklists, and appropriate automation.
- Maintain written procedures and cross-train a backup so the function does not depend on one person.
- Escalate legal or procedural questions requiring attorney or patent-agent judgment.
What This Position Does Not Own:
The primary purpose of this seat is docketing, foreign filings, related formalities, and quality control. It is not intended to become the default owner of:
- General firm administration.
- Broad engagement-letter or billing responsibilities.
- Unrelated document-management projects.
- Substantive legal decisions reserved for attorneys or patent agents.
Required Qualifications:
- At least three years of substantive IP docketing experience; five or more years preferred.
- Hands-on experience coordinating outbound foreign patent filings.
- Working knowledge of PCT, Paris Convention, national-stage, European validation, and foreign-associate procedures.
- Demonstrated ability to distinguish critical external deadlines from client deadlines, internal targets, and workflow reminders.
- Experience reviewing docket entries and correspondence for accuracy.
- A reliable personal quality-control and deadline-verification method.
- Excellent organizational, written-communication, and follow-through skills.
- Ability to manage multiple critical deadlines without losing visibility or ownership.
- A proactive and collaborative approach to identifying and resolving problems.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with AppColl or a comparable IP docketing system.
- Experience with USPTO Patent Center, WIPO systems, TEAS, TSDR, USPTO Trademark Search, and related platforms.
- Patent docketing experience is required; trademark docketing experience is helpful.
- Experience preparing docket and portfolio reports.
- An associate’s or bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies, legal studies, or a related field is preferred but not required.
How Success Is Measured:
Fuller IP uses a weekly EOS-style scorecard so every team member knows what success looks like.
This position’s scorecard addresses:
- Deadline integrity.
- Timely and accurate docketing.
- Independent deadline verification.
- Foreign-filing instructions and acknowledgments.
- Client reporting.
- Exception resolution.
- Quality and rework.
The scorecard will be reviewed with candidates during the interview process and discussed weekly in the Practice Flow Operations Level 10 Meeting. We believe performance expectations should be clear, transparent, and discussed regularly—not presented as a surprise during an annual review.
Why Join Fuller IP?
- Competitive hourly compensation of $30–$38, based on experience.
- Comprehensive benefits, including health, dental, vision, and 401(k).
- Professional-development and continuing-education opportunities.
- Hybrid and remote work options, depending on location.
- A collaborative culture that values teamwork, transparency, accountability, and work-life balance.
- The opportunity to help improve and automate systems while retaining meaningful human quality control.
- Work involving innovative technologies and clients around the world.
Our Core Values:
- Open and Honest.
- Team Approach.
- How Can I Help?
- Humbly Confident.
- Live a Fuller Life.
Apply Today:
Also include a short description of:
- The IP docketing systems you have used.
- Your hands-on role coordinating outbound foreign patent filings.
- The quality-control process you use to ensure critical deadlines and filing instructions are accurate.