Dark Patent Law Firm
During the pandemic, Dark Kitchens became mainstream – kitchens that rely solely on online platforms for orders and deliveries and direct resources only to the preparation of food.
Towards the end of 2019, S&Z trialed the first Dark Patent Law Firm. S&Z:
- partnered with an online platform, GlobalIPCo;
- reduced its service offering only to what was necessary to support the online platform;
- reduced staff numbers by 55%; and
- zeroed its advertising and marketing spend.
Over the next 3 years, S&Z’s patent filings increased 1300%, growing from 347 patents in 2019 to 4,521 patents in 2022.
According to Anthony van Zantwijk (partner of S&Z), “Looking back, we used to:
- spend most of our time offering B2C services that were neither profitable, nor scalable;
- waste resources on marketing unprofitable and unscalable B2C services that generated no repeat business;
- neglect the profitable and scalable core B2B services.
By focussing solely on core B2B services, automating these services and reducing the cost to provide them, we are now able to invest the majority of each day marketing profitable and scalable core B2B services that generates repeat business.”
The “Dark Law Firm” is an evolutionary step that will affect the shape of the legal services industry.