Fish & Richardson P.C. (F&R) is a highly respected national law firm with over 350 lawyers in ten offices across the U.S. F&R is one of the largest firms practicing intellectual property, litigation, and corporate law and the only firm with a truly national intellectual property practice. The firm helps its clients capture the value of their intellectual property through patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret protection. Founded in 1878, the firm has represented a number of well-known clients, including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and the Wright Brothers. Today, the firm defends the intellectual property of many of the nation’s largest technology companies.

On average, F&R files more than 4,000 patent applications each year. Of these applications, F&R obtains more than 1,500 patents each year. Not surprisingly, F&R handles massive amounts of print documentation related to all aspects of the patent application process.

The process used by F&R to manage its paper documentation required much time and effort. When print documentation arrived at F&R via mail or fax, F&R’s support staff needed to manually review and route the paperwork to the appropriate staff members. Often, multiple copies had to be made and distributed to the appropriate lawyers and other personnel. This process added an extra day or two to the distribution process. In addition, when an email arrived, it needed to be routed to the appropriate staff and there was no way to easily access and sort through all emails.

To facilitate the exchange of information among offices and streamline procedures, F&R sought to better manage its incoming volumes of print documentation by switching to an electronic system for content and document management. F&R worked with a few systems integrators to develop a solution, and had created an interface for their system. However, the firm found that it was in need of a higher level of customized support, and decided to partner with a new solutions provider.

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