Aurora Patents is seeking an experienced patent docketing professional to take primary ownership of our U.S. and International patent prosecution docket.
As Aurora's primary docketing professional and authority, you will independently own the integrity, administration, monitoring, and day-to-day operation of the firm's patent prosecution docket. As a core member of our firm's three-person support team, you will be responsible for the firm's docketing system, processes, controls, integrity, and execution. This is not simply a data-entry, calendaring, or niche specialty position. We are looking for someone who understands patent prosecution well enough to independently review correspondence, identify and calculate deadlines, verify the accuracy of our docket, spot inconsistencies, and make sure nothing falls through the cracks, while helping to shape and evolve a critical part of the safeguards that protect our clients' patent rights.
What you'll do.Your primary responsibility will be
owning the integrity and day-to-day hands-on operation of Aurora's patent prosecution docket, including:
- Docket Ownership & Deadline Management. Review and analyze incoming and outgoing correspondence relating to U.S., PCT, and foreign patent prosecution; identify, calculate, enter, update, and clear statutory and procedural deadlines; monitor upcoming deadlines; and proactively ensure responsible team members are aware of required actions. Docket and deadline management is in collaboration with BHIP Hills A.I.
- Correspondence Intake & Triage. Manage the intake and triage of USPTO, WIPO, foreign associate, client, and practitioner correspondence, ensuring information is routed appropriately, docketed accurately, and acted upon in a timely manner.
- Independent Docket Verification. Review prosecution status and official records using Patent Center, WIPO/PATENTSCOPE, EPO Register, foreign patent office resources, and other appropriate sources to verify bibliographic information, priority claims, application status, and outstanding deadlines.
- Quality Control & Auditing. Conduct routine quality-control audits of docket entries, deadline calculations, bibliographic information, and matter status. Reconcile the docket against official records and source documents, investigate discrepancies, and drive issues through resolution before they create risk of abandonment or loss of rights.
- Docket Reporting & Follow-Through. Prepare and maintain useful reports showing upcoming deadlines, outstanding actions, portfolio status, and other information needed by practitioners and management. Follow up when necessary rather than simply generating a report and moving on.
- Matter Intake & Transfers. Establish and verify docket records for new applications, new clients, and transferred matters, including reconstructing prosecution histories where necessary and independently identifying outstanding obligations and deadlines.
- Process Ownership & Improvement. Help us continuously improve docketing procedures, checklists, controls, and workflows. If you see a recurring source of risk or inefficiency, we want you to raise it and help us fix it.
- Patent Portfolio Support. Work closely with our patent practitioners and prosecution paralegals to keep portfolio information accurate and current and help create meaningful portfolio insights for our clients.
- Procure Signatures. Secure signatures on important filing and patent prosecution documents for the filing paralegal and outside law firms associated with our clients.
- Patent Application & Prosecution Filings. As needed, prepare and file U.S. and international patent applications and prosecution documents, including formal documents such as declarations, assignments, powers of attorney, petitions, IDSs, and other supporting documents.
Who you are.You are someone who understands that
a reliable patent docket is a risk-management system, not just a calendar. And you're looking for role ownership at a work home that operates more like a scrappy startup than an oppressive law firm. Ideally, you'll also be a good mix of the following:
- Experienced Patent Docketing Professional. You have significant experience independently docketing U.S. and international patent prosecution matters. Ideally, you have 4+ years of patent prosecution support experience, including substantial responsibility for docket management.
- Deadline Expert. You understand how to identify and calculate patent prosecution deadlines from source correspondence rather than relying blindly on automated docketing rules. You know the difference between a reminder and a statutory deadline and understand when extensions are, and are not, available.
- Prosecution Fluent. You are comfortable with the lifecycle of U.S., PCT, and foreign patent applications and recognize the significance of common prosecution events, including office actions, restriction requirements, notices to file missing parts, allowances, issue fees, continuation/divisional deadlines, PCT national-phase deadlines, priority deadlines, IDS obligations, and related prosecution events.
- Experienced with Official Patent Systems. You know your way around Patent Center and have experience researching matters using resources such as WIPO/PATENTSCOPE, EPO Register, Global Dossier, and foreign patent office databases.
- Quality-Control Minded. You don't assume that an entry is correct because someone else entered it. You routinely reconcile information against source documents, recognize when something doesn't look right, investigate discrepancies, and close the loop.
- Technology Comfortable. Experience with a dedicated IP docketing system is required. AppColl experience is strongly preferred, but we can train an otherwise exceptional docketing professional. Experience with Trello, Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, and modern project-management tools is helpful.
- An Effective Sleuth. You can locate bibliographic and prosecution information from almost any jurisdiction and aren't stopped by incomplete records, an unfamiliar patent office website, or a matter that arrived without a perfectly organized file.
- Hyper-Organized, Crisp Communicator. You can manage a large number of concurrent deadlines without losing sight of what matters most and can clearly communicate issues, risks, and required actions to practitioners and other team members.
- Hungry for Autonomy. You can self-direct, prioritize, follow through, and take personal ownership of results. Prior experience working remotely in a distributed environment is helpful.
- Proactive. You don't view your responsibility as ending when a deadline is placed on a docket. If something appears stalled, inconsistent, overdue, or at risk, you speak up and help drive it to resolution.
- Detail-Focused. You have an exceptionally high level of attention to detail and accuracy. Small discrepancies bother you - in a good way.
- Willing to learn. In a backup capacity, you can learn filing procedures in order to be a support when necessary to meet critical statutory deadlines if there is an overflow of filings or the filing paralegal is unavailable.
- Highly Collaborative and People-First. You enjoy supporting practitioners, inventors, clients, and fellow paralegals; thrive as part of the solution even when things aren't perfect (yet!); and take pride in making the entire team more effective.
Opportunity.This is a fully remote, full-time role with a flexible workweek. The position is salaried for a guaranteed 40 hours per week. Straight-time overtime is paid for any hours above. For the right candidate, we'd also be open to considering a salaried, part-time role.
- Full-time salary range: $85,000-$100,000
- Benefits include 401k with match, paid time off, and profit sharing. We do not currently offer medical insurance.
Focus note: We're looking for a dedicated W-2 team member-not someone seeking overflow docketing work or a contract docketing engagement.
Location Note: Some job boards require us to specify a city, but we're fully distributed, so you can work from any reasonably well-Internet-connected location in the U.S.
