Patent ID: 7680733

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for managing patent and trademark fees comprising: inputting identification information for a patent or trademark matter of a client of a law firm and a requested fee associated with the matter for payment to an agency as data representing the identification information into a computer system; deducting a charge for the requested fee against a client account maintained at least in part by an organization separate from the law firm for the client, the client account initially funded by the client such that the client account has a positive balance; the organization generating a fee invoice to the law firm for the requested fee and transmitting the fee invoice to an accounting computer system used by the law firm; generating a client invoice from the accounting computer system including a charge to the client for payment of the requested fee, wherein the payment of the requested fee is used to replenish the client account maintained by the organization, wherein the client invoice corresponds to the fee invoice to the law firm such that payment by the client to the law firm for the client invoice provides funds to replenish the client account; and replenishing the client account with the funds collected from payment of the client invoice for the requested fee.