CPI runs your docketing and renewals. PracticeLink runs the operations on top of your CPI docket, with no migration. See where each one fits for a firm.
If you're comparing Quartz IP and CPI, the first thing worth untangling is that CPI does two different jobs. Computer Packages Inc has built IP docketing software since 1968, and it also runs an outsourced patent-renewals service. For a patent or trademark firm, the part you're weighing against us is the docketing software. And here's the part that changes the question: PracticeLink runs on top of your CPI docket. It doesn't replace it.
So this isn't really CPI's features against ours. It's a docketing system of record and an operations layer that sits above it. Here's the honest breakdown, from the team that builds PracticeLink.
What are you actually comparing?
CPI is two offerings under one roof. Its patent and trademark systems are the docketing software: they hold your dates, your portfolios, your USPTO forms, and your matter records, with automated docketing that pulls incoming data straight from the patent offices. Separately, CPI runs a patent-annuity service that pays your renewal fees across more than 100 jurisdictions. Those are different products for different jobs, and the comparison only works if you keep them apart.
The docketing software is the piece that overlaps with the question people ask about Quartz IP. So start there. CPI's patent system is cloud docketing software with a built-in API. PracticeLink is the IP operations platform that connects to that docket and runs the operational work around it. Different layers. In most firms, you want both. (The renewals service is a separate matter, and we'll get to it.)
How do they fit together?
CPI and PracticeLink sit at different levels of the stack. The table makes the split concrete.
| CPI (Computer Packages) | PracticeLink (Quartz IP) |
| What it is | Cloud IP docketing software (plus a separate renewals service) | An operations layer that runs on top of your docketing |
| What it handles | Docketing: dates, portfolios, USPTO forms, automated docketing. Renewals (separate service): annuity payments | Mail intake, IDS and forms prep, cross-tool workflow, client portals |
| Built for | Firms and corporate IP that want a docketing system and/or renewals | Patent and trademark law firms specifically |
| Your docketing system | This is it | Keeps your CPI docket and connects to it, no migration |
| How they meet | Offers a built-in API for integration | Uses that API to sync with the CPI docket |
| The vendor | Privately held, family-run, in business since 1968 | IP operations only, partnership model with operations advisors |
Keep CPI, add the operations layer
If your firm runs CPI for docketing, the system of record is handled. Your dates are tracked, your portfolios are in one place, and CPI's automated docketing pulls new data straight from the patent offices. That part works. The real question is whether the operational work around the docket runs as well as the docket itself.
The gap is rarely the docket itself. It's the work stacked around it. The mail that lands overnight and has to reach the right person. A matter that has to move from the inbox through three systems before it's filed. The client who wants a current status without someone rebuilding a report by hand. A docketing system is built to hold dates and records. Running the operational work around those dates is a different job.
PracticeLink plugs into your CPI docket through CPI's own API. From there it runs the operations layer CPI wasn't built to cover: mail captured and routed automatically, office actions carried through a response workflow, filing packages and IDS assembled from the data already on the matter, and client reporting that goes out on schedule. The dates never leave CPI. Adding an operations layer isn't a migration, because your dockets don't move. There's configuration to do, like any new system, but that's setup, not a rip-and-replace. Five of the top ten US patent filing firms run PracticeLink this way, on top of the docketing systems they already trust, CPi included.
If you want the longer version of that argument, you'll find it here: why your docketing system needs an operations layer.
What about CPI's renewals service?
CPI is also a long-standing name in patent renewals. Its annuity service pays maintenance fees across more than 100 jurisdictions, and it's a genuinely separate product from the docketing software. Quartz IP doesn't do renewals at all. That isn't our category, and we won't pretend it is.
So if you use CPI to pay your annuities, PracticeLink changes nothing about that. You can run CPI renewals, CPI docketing, and PracticeLink's operations layer at the same time. They don't compete. That distinction matters, because "CPI" in a renewals conversation and "CPI" in a docketing conversation are two different comparisons, and only the docketing one is about us.
An incumbent you can trust
This part is less about features. CPI has been around since 1968, it's privately held and family-run, and it makes a point of no long-term contracts and no forced upgrades. For a firm that puts a premium on a stable, independent vendor, that's a real draw, and we'd never tell you otherwise.
Quartz IP is a different kind of company doing a narrower thing. We build one operations layer for patent and trademark firms, with more than 150 combined years in IP operations, and clients work with operations advisors, not just a support queue. We publish a support and product-lifecycle policy so firms know what to expect year over year. Neither model is better in the abstract. They're different relationships, and for a firm the relationship is part of what you're buying.
When CPI is the better fit
We'd rather point you to the right fit than close a deal that isn't one. CPI is genuinely the better call in a few cases.
If you want one vendor for both docketing and renewals under a single roof, CPI does both and Quartz IP does neither half of that pairing. If a long track record and an independent, no-lock-in vendor matter to you more than anything else, CPI's decades in the business and private ownership are exactly that. And if what you need is a solid docketing system of record and not much around it, CPI on its own may be all you need.
Where Quartz IP fits is the firm that has the docket handled and wants the operational work around it to finally run as well as the docket does. Still weighing options? Here's a checklist for evaluating IP operations platforms, and if you're looking at the bigger suites too, we compared Anaqua and Clarivate.
Frequently asked questions
Is CPI a docketing system or a renewals service?
Both. Computer Packages Inc sells IP docketing and management software, and it separately runs an outsourced patent-annuity service that pays renewal fees. For a law firm, the docketing software is the part that compares to Quartz IP. The renewals service is a different product.
Do I have to replace CPI to use PracticeLink?
No. PracticeLink runs on top of your CPI docket through CPI's built-in API. Your docketing team keeps working in CPI, and PracticeLink adds the operational layer around it. There's no migration.
Does Quartz IP do patent renewals or annuities?
No. That's out of our category. If you use CPI to pay annuities, you keep doing that. CPI renewals, CPI docketing, and PracticeLink's operations layer all run together without conflict.
What does PracticeLink add that CPI docketing doesn't?
The operational work between deadlines: sorting and routing incoming mail, assembling forms and IDS packages, moving a matter across your systems, and reporting to clients. CPI holds the dates and records. PracticeLink runs the work around them.
Does PracticeLink integrate with CPI?
Yes. It connects through CPI's API, so matter data and docket dates flow into PracticeLink while the dates themselves stay in CPI. No migration, and no change to your CPI setup.
Is CPI or Quartz IP better for a law firm?
They're different layers, so the honest answer is usually both. CPI holds your docket. PracticeLink runs the operations on top of it. You'd pick one over the other only if you wanted a single vendor for docketing and renewals, which is CPI, or an operations layer that keeps your existing docketing and connects your whole stack, which is Quartz IP.
Who owns CPI?
CPI is privately held and family-led. Computer Packages Inc was founded in 1968 and has stayed independent since, which the company points to as a core part of how it works: no long-term contracts and no forced upgrades.
Related: How Quartz IP Compares.