Gideon Eckhouse is an intellectual property attorney with 20 years of experience across outside counsel, in-house, and startup environments. Holding a Master's degree in Biochemistry, he combines scientific fluency with legal expertise in trademark prosecution, patent counseling, and brand enforcement. Gideon has managed portfolios of nearly 3,000 IP assets, advised C-suite executives, and conducted due diligence on nine-figure acquisitions. Currently serving as General Counsel of HeartStamp Inc., an AI-driven greeting card startup, he is licensed in California, Virginia, and the District of Columbia and is a Registered Patent Attorney.
Gideon Eckhouse
General Counsel | HeartStamp
Gideon Eckhouse is a highly-experienced IP attorney who has spent more than 20 years managing IP portfolios of all sizes across both law firms and in-house legal departments. Throughout his career, he has worked with numerous IP docketing systems including legacy software, custom-built internal systems, and even spreadsheets. But like many of our customers, once Gideon saw Alt Legal in action, he consistently turned to Alt Legal and advocated for its adoption at every role through his career. Today, as General Counsel at HeartStamp, an AI-assisted greeting card company with a growing IP portfolio, Gideon is once again implementing Alt Legal based on the strong experience he has had with the platform throughout his career.
The Limitations of Traditional IP Docketing Systems
Gideon has firsthand experience with the shortcomings of many other IP docketing solutions. While some IP docketing software platforms offered useful functionality, he found that many were built primarily for patent management and lacked the flexibility needed for trademark work.
“With other IP docketing software systems designed for patents, I was trying to get that square peg into the round hole. It didn’t have the forms or fields for trademarks.”
In addition to limited trademark functionality, Gideon encountered systems that relied heavily on manual processes, creating opportunities for human error and incomplete reporting. He also found that many platforms lacked collaboration tools and meaningful data visualization capabilities, making portfolio oversight more difficult and time-consuming.
Discovering a More Modern Approach to IP Docketing with Alt Legal
While serving as Chief IP Counsel at Vital Pharmaceuticals (at the time, the makers of the popular Bang energy drink) Gideon was responsible for managing a massive 3,000+ matter IP portfolio with a spreadsheet. Seeking a more scalable and reliable solution, he was introduced to Alt Legal through an unexpected recommendation. “I met Elyssa LeFevre Chayo (CEO, Firm Forward) on top of the Great Wall of China who does legal consulting. I asked her what to use for IP docketing and she said Alt Legal!”
After meeting with the Alt Legal team and implementing the software, Gideon quickly recognized a major difference between Alt Legal and other systems he had used.
“I started playing around with Alt Legal, integrated it quickly, and I loved it!”
Several features immediately stood out to Gideon, including:
- Highly-automated technology that saves time, increases efficiency, and reduces errors
- Daily email updates that provide visibility into deadlines and recent activity
- Dashboards that offer meaningful data visualization and strategic insights
- Easy-to-generate, comprehensive reporting
- Automated dispute docketing and deadline calculations
“Alt Legal is easy to learn and intuitive. The functionality is excellent and clearing and adding items is easy. Alt Legal’s automation is fantastic, especially when it comes to TTAB extension docketing – I can change one date and all the dates change. Alt Legal calculates extensions automatically and is always correct.”
Powerful Automation Backed by Reliable Accuracy
One of the features Gideon found most valuable was Alt Legal’s advanced automation and direct integration with the USPTO and CIPO. By automatically syncing portfolio data directly from official IP offices, Alt Legal eliminated many of the manual tasks traditionally associated with docket management.
In particular, Gideon was impressed by Alt Legal’s ability to automatically identify and add new matters using correspondent email addresses.
“I thought there’s no way that this software can bring in all of the information in my portfolio based on my email address, but it worked! I double checked it in the beginning but I’m confident that the results I’m getting are a true and complete reflection of USPTO and CIPO data. My Alt Legal docket is accurate, up to date and I’m not double-checking anymore.”
Alt Legal Delivers a Stand-Out Customer Support Experience
Gideon has been consistently impressed with Alt Legal’s approach to customer service and support. Beginning with migration, Gideon was pleased to find that Alt Legal offers free, initial and ongoing data migration in and out of the system. Plus, Alt Legal will map the data to your specifications and provide data clean-up – all free of charge. Simply provide the Alt Legal team with a spreadsheet containing your data and we’ll handle the rest.
“It was so great to dump this giant spreadsheet onto the Alt Legal team with a lot of incomplete info and it was migrated at no charge!”
Additionally, Gideon’s interactions with the Support Team have been exceptional. Gideon noted that because the software is so intuitive, he has rarely needed support. However, when questions have arisen, the Alt Legal team exceeded expectations with their responsiveness and professionalism.
“Alt Legal has top notch customer service. It’s always timely, from people who are incredibly knowledgeable, professional, friendly, and care about their jobs.”
Alt Legal is a Trusted Platform for High-Value IP Portfolios
For Gideon, Alt Legal has proven to be more than just a docketing platform, it has become a critical tool for managing complex, high-value IP portfolios with confidence. At Vital Pharmaceuticals, where the company’s IP portfolio was valued at approximately $1 billion, Alt Legal played a central role in helping him successfully oversee thousands of matters efficiently and accurately.
“I was running the IP portfolio on my own from day one. I said to my GC, ‘You gave me the key to a $1 billion car on my first day on the job.’ He said, ‘Yes, because we didn’t know how to drive it.’ Alt Legal was instrumental in helping me drive the $1 billion car. It was the first time I was solely responsible for a portfolio even close to this size and I can’t point to a single time Alt Legal let me down.”
Today, Gideon continues to trust Alt Legal because of its automation, reliability, ease of use, and scalability, qualities that have consistently supported him throughout his career across organizations of every size.
As Gideon says it best, “Alt Legal is intuitive, scalable, and handles things correctly. It’s very user-friendly and cost-effective. Use it!”
