The cost of asking outside counsel a question
Most claim chart questions that land on an in-house IP desk are informational. Is this competitor product covered by our claim 7? Does this third-party patent that just landed read on our roadmap? Should we worry about this letter we received from a licensing entity?
Sending each of those questions to outside counsel is expensive and slow. Not sending them creates blind spots in the portfolio review. Most in-house teams handle this trade-off by triaging with a quick internal read and escalating only the ones that look serious. The quick internal read is the workflow PatentFlare is built for.
Evidence-backed analysis, not a black-box opinion
PatentFlare does not produce an infringement opinion. It produces a chart scored at the phrase level that maps each limitation of the claim to verbatim quotes from the product evidence you provided. Every cell of the chart cites the document and page where the quote came from.
A second pass reviews each disclosed finding before the chart is finalized, so the output is a chart you can read, verify, and use as the basis for a decision about whether to escalate.
Output that travels to outside counsel
When the in-house analysis indicates the question is serious enough to escalate, the chart you generated in-house is the starting artifact for outside counsel. DOCX export with the standard claim chart formatting. Excel export when the analysis needs to be pivoted across multiple claims or products. Source citations that outside counsel can verify directly.
The chart is consistent with how an outside firm would have started the same engagement. The hours that would have gone into the first pass become hours the firm spends on legal judgment instead.
Predictable budget without seat economics
Most claim chart tools are sold on a per-seat license model that assumes the buyer is a litigation firm. An in-house team that runs a handful of charts a quarter pays the same as a litigation department that runs hundreds.
PatentFlare is pay-per-chart. Your first chart is free. After that, $129 per chart with no subscription. Charts can be expensed individually or absorbed under a single budget line. There is no seat license to true up at renewal and no procurement cycle blocking an urgent question.
What it does not replace
Privileged legal opinions, freedom-to-operate clearances of record, and litigation strategy remain with qualified counsel. PatentFlare produces a verifiable claim chart. It does not provide legal advice and the output is not a substitute for an attorney's opinion.