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

Senior patent counsel, on a fractional basis.

Ongoing patent strategy, structured invention harvesting, and a clear path from disclosure to filing, on a flat monthly fee.

A full-time patent attorney costs $250K to $450K+ a year once you include benefits and overhead. Most growing companies need senior IP judgment, not a full-time salary. Fractional Patent Counsel puts that judgment on a flat monthly fee, 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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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 at preferred 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 & pricing

Start where you are. One attorney who both decides and drafts.

Most models make you choose: a strategist who tells a separate attorney what to file, or a drafter who waits to be told. Here they are the same person, so nothing is lost between the decision and the filing. Every plan is a flat monthly fee; patent filings are quoted separately at fixed fees you approve before any work begins.

Plan 01

Starter

$1,500/ MONTH

For seed-stage companies that need senior judgment in place before they need many filings.

  • Monthly strategy touchpoint
    A brief monthly check-in 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 (up to [2] per month) 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.
  • Patent landscape scan
    A periodic readout of newly published applications and grants in your technology space.
  • Fixed-fee filings at standard rates
    Filings are quoted individually at fixed fees you approve before work begins. Preferred subscriber rates begin at the Counsel plan.
Start with Starter
Plan 02

Counsel

$2,500/ MONTH

For seed to Series A companies putting patent strategy on a steady footing.

  • Everything in Starter, plus:
  • Standing channel with counsel
    An ongoing dedicated channel (Slack, Teams, or email) rather than async-only, for continuous back-and-forth.
  • Deeper harvesting & more scorecards
    Higher scorecard volume and structured harvesting sessions, not just async intake.
  • Quarterly continuation & family reviews
    Every open family reviewed quarterly for claim runway and keep-alive decisions before any window closes.
  • Preferred filing rates
    Every provisional, non-provisional, and office action response quoted at a locked-in fixed fee at preferred subscriber rates, below standard pricing.
Start with Counsel
Plan 03 · Most popular

Portfolio Counsel

$4,000/ MONTH

For Series A to B companies actively building a portfolio and preparing to raise.

  • Everything in Counsel, plus:
  • Monthly strategy session
    Full strategy sessions at a monthly cadence for portfolios and roadmaps that move faster.
  • 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.
Start with Portfolio Counsel
Tailored

Embedded & event engagements

Let’s talk

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
    Defined and priced for the specific event rather than a fixed monthly plan.
Start a conversation

All plans are month to month after a short initial term, or prepaid annually. Scope is set out in a clear, readable engagement letter before anything starts. Patent filings are quoted individually at fixed fees (preferred subscriber rates from the Counsel plan up); 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 startup prices.

Senior 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, for a flat monthly fee, 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 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 a flat monthly fee rather than a full-time salary.

  • RegistrationUSPTO-registered patent attorney
  • 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 a subscription instead of hourly billing?

A flat fee changes the incentives in a way that helps early companies: you can loop counsel in before decisions get made without watching a clock, and our focus is on building systems that protect you efficiently rather than on logging hours. Hourly arrangements work well for discrete, well-defined matters; a subscription fits the continuous, ask-anytime relationship a growing company usually needs.

What does a filing actually include?

Patent filings are quoted individually at preferred subscriber fixed fees, so you protect what matters on your own schedule and never prepay for filings you may not need. Every filing is attorney-drafted with real claims strategy behind it, with prior art review on provisionals, and you approve the flat fee before any work begins. 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 these prices.

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