Richard Gardner Eldredge

If you value your IP DO NOT hire this attorney!!! I filed a provisional application on my own and hired him(his firm) to write and file a PCT application. There was a time limit to file the PCT application, which he was informed of. He said no problem, we can have it done by then. The deadline came... and went, but he said no problem, we can file a "petition to restore priority" with the application. I checked it out and it's a real thing. BUT, I stayed in contact weekly through the process and was given one excuse after another. Three weeks before the two month extension period was to expire I lost faith in this guy. I then hired another attorney, and it's a good thing I did! My new attorney had the PCT application filed within two weeks. Eldredge finally filed, but it was two days past the deadline. And there were multiple errors in his submission. I will never use or recommend this attorney or his firm.

I not only recommend attorney Richard Eldredge, but I guarantee once you have used his service you too will look no further. He responds in a timely matter, he is a very knowledge, and a trustworthy person. There is no other attorney that will work as hard for you. I used his firm a few years ago, he... is a wonderful attorney I could not have been happier! I highly recommend.

Firstly, this was all my fault. I saw the red flags but was blinded by taking action to turn an idea in my head into a reality. Jumped right in and paid $5000 in full to start the process. Brandon even encouraged me to start manufacturing my product which included having a custom mold made for $12...,000. Unfortunately the Examiners rejected three applications due to vagueness and my design mirrored an already patented product (which was not found during THEIR initial patent search) based on the vague language the attorney kept using over and over. At the end of the day, I lost $5500 but gained real world experience on the patent process. It was an expensive lesson to learn but would have preferred giving my money and time to a firm that actually SERVED their client rather than USING them to seemingly extort billable hours.

I had a horrible experience with a previous attorney in the DFW area. That attorney was the owner of a small firm and worked by himself. He was also a Mechanical Engineer. The patent application that he wrote was rejected. I found Mr. Eldredge and discussed the case with him. Mr. Eldredge amende...d my application to get it allowed. Now, I have a patent! Could not be more excited. We highly recommend the firm for patent and trademark work.

A big failure and disappointment. I wish I had hired someone else. I hired him because he had a decent rating and he sounded qualified over phone. First, things seemed smooth and fast. He asked few questions and quickly generated the application based on my written description of the design. He... said the idea was worth patenting. A year later, the application was starting to get rejected. He said it was normal and we just had to submit revised claims until they passed. As we worked on rounds of revisions I realized the problems were severe: 1. he submitted 3 claims initially. Those claims were so broadly and simply written that even to a layman they obviously covered a wide range of known products in the market. His claims failed to distinguish my patent from others completely 2. he would make slight modification to the claims each time he resubmitted the claims. The modification was obvious not to qualify the claims enough and sometimes didn’t even come from the specification 3. he would use language from another patent for the claim revisions, which automatically triggered the patent examiner to cite that patent as prior art to invalidate the application 4. it became obvious that he didn't understand or remember my idea because he simply couldn't organize the claim language to relate to my specification closely and distinguish the claims from other prior arts. It seemed that he was writing claims based on a very vague understanding 5. when I tried to discuss these issues with him over the phone, he always made no direct response and then told me to write something for him. After I wrote an elaborate document for him he usually ignored it 6. While on phone, he said, "I'll make small changes until the examiner approves it. If he doesn't approve it, we'll go to court." He relied on the procedure to drag through the process. He didn’t focus on the invention itself 7. the specification he put together for me proved problematic later. He used passages and diagrams from other patents that were similar to mine. But they were often not precise, consistent, or detailed enough. It caused a great deal of difficulty later when the examiner went back to the specification to find support and explanation for the claims. I considered rewriting the specification but it would be another application 8. in the Office Action responses, simple grammatical errors and misuse of words littered. I reminded his office and they corrected most of them but still charged me for the extra time of correction 9. he started dropping the ball later in the process. E.g., he didn't file the RCE though I had been charged the fee. I reminded him twice by phone, one month apart. He promised to do it but didn’t. Around the the deadline, I called his office and a clerk did it in 5 minutes 10. the prior art search he did initially had little overlap with the prior arts the examiner has cited 11. as I got worried about the application and asked him to request an interview with the examiner, he first said the examiner didn't have time. Later, he had a junior attorney interview with the examiner without my knowledge or participation. I discovered it from Public PAIR after it happened. When I asked him to request an interview the second time, he said that he would request it after he submitted the new claims, not before. This was counterintuitive and not helpful 12. another attorney and an examiner have checked this attorney’s application separately. They both confirmed my fear: his work was incompetent and careless In summary, he was fast to get me onboard and generate the initial application. But he doesn't care enough to understand and distinguish the patent. He overly relies on the legal procedure to push through the process. As the application moved to the crucial stages, he makes simple mistakes and displays negligence. If I could redo everything, I would hire a different attorney who can ensure the quality of the work from the beginning.