Motorola Moves I/P Work to the Suburbs

According to an October 31, 2005 article in The Lawyer, Motorola has slashed its legal budget by $200m (£112m) and halved the number of law firms it uses:

"Motorola went through some difficult times about five years ago. We've taken a very sharp pencil to our patent-generation costs and developed a number of low-cost sources for our legal work," said Motorola global general counsel Peter Lawson

The company has outsourced its in-house patent-generating work to small Indian firms and is increasingly hiring regional firms such as Hammonds and Osborne Clarke. The company produces around 1,000 new patents a year.

UK head of legal Palwinder Hare was promoted to head the Europe, Middle East and Africa department last week. He said the company did not consider City firms to provide "value for money". Hare claimed: "We don't go straight for the big City firms because we don't feel their fees are justified."