Our 70/20/10 approach: how we combine automation, controlled AI and accountable professional judgment to handle your IP matters in Argentina.
When you instruct a local firm abroad, what you need most is simple: deadlines met, fees right, conflicts caught early, and clear advice you can pass on to your client with confidence. In industrial property, the costliest problems rarely come from a hard legal question. They come from a missed deadline, a miscalculated official fee, or a conflicting mark published without anyone noticing.
That is why we rethought the way we work. Not to do the same things faster, but to make sure each task is handled by whatever, or whoever, does it best. Internally, we call it our 70/20/10 approach.
Three ways of working, each in its place
Looking at our practice as a rough order of magnitude, not a measured statistic, the work breaks down roughly like this:
About 70% follows rules and is computed. Deadlines, official fees, register checks, and weekly watching of the Argentine Trademark Gazette. These tasks have one right answer. They are handled by rule-based automation that works the same way every time, can be audited line by line, and does not send your data to any AI model.
Around 20% is interpretive. Reading filings, classifying publications, organizing prior art, preparing first drafts. This is where AI adds real value, always under control: every output is checked against its source, and anything that cannot be verified is flagged as unconfirmed.
The remaining 10% weighs the most: the decision. Whether to oppose or negotiate, how broad a filing should be, what to recommend. That decision is made, and signed, by a professional at our firm.
The proportions vary from matter to matter. The order doesn’t.
What it means for you and your clients
We don’t promise outcomes; no serious firm can. What we offer is a way of working that reduces avoidable risk and makes it clear who is responsible for what.
Systematic watching. Every week we review what is published in Argentina, so potential conflicts with your clients’ marks surface in time.
Timely reporting. Deadlines don’t depend on someone remembering them. They are computed and reported in advance.
Fewer avoidable errors. Terms, fees and register checks are handled by rule, not by estimate.
Confidentiality. What a rule can resolve never leaves our office. For interpretive work, we use only the information needed, under professional secrecy.
Reasoned advice. Every recommendation comes with its reasons and sources, ready to be forwarded to your client.
Someone accountable. Behind every decision there is a named professional who answers for it.
Decision support with method: the SPES family
For analysis and interpretive work we rely on SPES, a method for reasoning with incomplete information and structuring a matter before a decision is made. SPES is organized into specialized modules, each with its own method and sources, listed below.
They all share the same discipline. They don’t improvise when data is missing; they say so. They cite their sources. They separate what is established from what still needs to be checked. They lay out the options and their consequences, but they don’t decide. The tool assists; the professional decides.
The SPES tools
These are the SPES tools with a public page today. First, those most relevant to trademark and patent work:
Spes IP. Trademark management and watching: cross-checks every INPI gazette against the whole portfolio, computes every deadline and prepares every filing, with alerts that show why they were raised. ip.spesjur.com.ar/en
Spes Pat. Multi-jurisdiction patent work (INPI Argentina, USPTO, EPO, Brazil and PCT): drafting, prior-art search, patentability analysis and responses to Office Actions. pat.spesjur.com.ar/en
Spes Bus. Trademark search on the Argentine register: identifies prior marks and conflicting signs before you invest in a filing. bus.spesjur.com.ar/en
Spes Jur. Structured legal analysis: turns the facts of a matter into an orderly, traceable analysis that serves the professional’s judgment. spesjur.com.ar/en
The family also covers other areas of legal work, with the same method:
Spes Legis. A map of how the legal order depends on itself: which rule supports which, and what is exposed if one changes. legis.spesjur.com.ar/en
Spes Jurisp. A map of case-law lines: which ruling anchors a line, and what loses support if it is overturned. jurisp.spesjur.com.ar/en
Spes Rex. A methodological assistant for assessing and building extraordinary federal appeals before Argentina’s Supreme Court. rex.spesjur.com.ar/en
Spes Stud. Layered analysis of any work that has to stand up before others: a thesis, an expert report, a legal opinion. stud.spesjur.com.ar/en
SPES. The method underneath them all: reasoning with incomplete information and showing its structure, so the decision stays with whoever has to make it. spes.ar/en
Why the decision stays human
AI is very good at producing the most probable answer. But the most probable answer isn’t always the right one for a given matter, and it never replaces the accountability of the person who signs. In IP, the decisions that matter depend on things no text contains: your client’s business, its competitors, the level of risk it is willing to take.
Our approach doesn’t replace professional judgment; it frees it. When routine work is handled accurately and interpretive work arrives organized and verified, our attorneys can spend their time where it counts: understanding the matter and advising with reasons.
Traceability you can rely on
Every step leaves a record. We can reconstruct what was computed, what was proposed, who decided, and on what grounds. For our correspondents, that means transparency and advice that holds up when your client asks why.
Put us to the test
Machines compute or propose. Deciding is still a craft, and it’s ours.
Have a matter you know inside out, or a decision you have already made? Send it to us as a second opinion: we will show you what our method finds, the grounds we see, and what we would decide. Write to [email protected].
Carlos V. Castrillo, Founding Partner
