What Role Does Patent Agents And Patent Attorneys Play In India

There are two separate terms, patent agent and patent attorney, but most of the times, the words are used in place of each other due to confusion. Which means if someone is saying patent agent in India, he or she might be talking about attorney too and vice-versa. There is a significant difference between these two right from education qualification to work responsibility. If you also have confusion, the below post is for you, so that when you say patent attorney in India it means attorney for you and not an agent. 

Patent agent

A patent agent is a person who has the skills to help you in filing a patent application. As a citizen of India, your patent can only be drafted by a legal person. So, a patent agent is the one who has the technical knowledge and legal permissions. The required qualification to work as a patent agent is mentioned in section 126 of patents act. 

➥The person must be an Indian citizen with a minimum age of 21 years. 

➥A degree in the technical or science field is required from a law established university. 

➥Must have passed the Indian patent agent exam.

One thing that you can learn here is that a degree in law is not necessary to be a patent agent, plus a law degree holder cannot turn into a patent agent because a degree in science is essential.

What role does a patent agent perform?

After obtaining a degree in technical field and qualifying the patent exam, a person becomes legally eligible to do the job. According to section 127 of Indian patents act, 1970 a patent agent has to perform the below-mentioned jobs.

The patent agents work under the supervision of the controller.

Completes work that needs to be done before the project passes to the controller such as preparing documents and dealing with business transactions. 

Patent attorney

Looking at the Indian system, there is no such term as a patent attorney. It is sometimes substituted in place of a patent agent in most of the cases. Attorney means advocate and expanding the definition, we see that a patent attorney is a person who holds a legal degree and has been accepted and enrolled by state bar council. The council makes the person eligible to deal with the patent process. So, the difference here is that a patent attorney needs to have a degree in the law field and not necessarily in the science or technical field. 

What role does a patent attorney perform?

A patent attorney is the other name of patent advocates, and an advocate is the one who is associated with legal works. A patent attorney takes the legal proceedings of the patent registration further. The patent attorneys have the rights to represent your case in court which means of an issue arises during the process or someone questions about the application, patents attorney can help but patent agent can not.

Difference between a patent attorney and patent agent

The major difference between the two terms is in qualification and job role. The patent agents need to have a science or technical degree and need to pass the patent exam while a patent attorney needs to have a law degree and must be enrolled in state bar council. The difference in their work profiles is that a patents agent files the application and executes the process because he/she knows the subject area. A patent attorney works for patent litigation and represents the case in court. Both are thus different in every aspect. 

What Are The Benefits Of Getting Your Patent Registered

Patent registration is done to secure your unique innovation.When the patent is approved, no one can use the idea without your permission. According to a patent lawyer in India, people have a misconception about the patent registration process. They think that only science and research documents could be secured by filing a patent application, but the truth is, every creative thought is patentable. The patent is like a legal certificate that tells that thing registered under that name legally belongs to the person and could not be used by other people without permission. The patent attorney in India says that the innovator becomes the owner of the concept for which he files the patent after successful approval. The use of the innovative concept is made with the consent of the owner where he discloses complete information to the person who will be going to take the invention forward.

Who can register a patent application

The person who wishes to file a patent application must come up with an invention which doesn't exist yet. The patent details must be kept private before submitting the patent application so that it stays unique. There should not be any public information about the concept you want to patent. The invention must be something that is not obvious. It should not be the high level of a previously existing skill or something that any skilled person can do. The patent also needs to be usable for in industries so that it has something productive. According to the patent registration rules, the invention must be complete before you proceed on to applying for a legal license to make it all yours. 

What are the benefits of patent registration

Promotes innovation

The new invention is meant to create something better and useful. The patent helps the inventor get benefitted for the time and efforts he/she invested. For intelligent people, their knowledge is their real wealth, and by patenting their work, they make it safe. The new technology that emerges out can lose its importance if not licensed because no one will like to invest without the support of the government. The private investors want acceptance of government so that future hurdles could be minimized. Without a patent, sometimes the invention cannot be prevented from developing, and it will ruin the efforts of the person who invented it plus a new technology will end before even coming.

Stimulates economic growth

The patents attract investment which strengthens the economic level of a company. They can even bring potential foreign investments that are good for the national economic growth of the industry. The strong financial background increases production which further improves exportation. The benefits go on increasing which could be consumed for further research and development processes making the whole scenario better and wide. However, sometimes, the higher fee of the patent can get over all the benefits, and that's what makes the small and medium businesses to step back. Things need to be cleared before proceeding so that there is no confusion and loss.

The spread of knowledge and the efficient use of resources

When the patent is received, it is ready to be used by the public at some cost, and here initiates the sharing of knowledge for betterment. The shared information helps in developing something that benefits the whole society more than keeping the information secret. The disclosure of details helps in making the better use of what resources and ideas are available to us. It also prevents duplication of previously existing information because things that are public are recognized better. The research efforts thus get the best value when shared and not when kept hidden. 

Which One To Choose Between Experienced And Inexperienced Patent Attorneys

It takes a long time to create something unique as an inventor and it heartbreaking if someone claims your hard work as their work. So, getting a patent of your work is essential to secure your efforts. The next process is also complicated, but patent attorneys in India are there to help you with the whole process. Once you are sure of filing a patent, search for a good attorney to help you. You get two options while finding an attorney, either to hire an experienced attorney or an inexperienced one.

There is no doubt that an attorney having years of experience will give you several benefits throughout the application, but it surely doesn’t mean that a less experienced or inexperienced attorney can’t help you. So, you need to after the pros and cons of both types of patent lawyers India before making a final decision. Here are the pros and cons of hiring an experienced and an inexperienced patent attorney separately, to help you with the decision making. After knowing the favorable and opposite faces of both types of attorneys, it will be easy to decide as per your requirements.

Hiring an experienced attorney

The pros of hiring an experienced service: An experienced attorney having years of experience will benefit you with his or her knowledge. The practice of [patent law would have made him or her pro in the field which come to your benefit. They have the understanding of the complete process, and they can even tell you the chances of approval before filing. Since they would have been handling the patent filing process for years, the results will be positive because they know how to represent the application in such a way that it doesn’t get rejected.

The cons of hiring experienced services: Nothing comes for free; in fact, the expense goes on with the rise in the value. The experienced services are no doubt of great importance, and that’s why they charge higher. You should be available with a good budget if you consider hiring them for your project. Also, since they have got multiple projects from multiple clients, you will hardly get personal services. They have to handle all of the hundreds of project they accept, and that’s why it is not possible for them to provide individual monitoring. If you are expecting anything like this, it is better to ask before moving on with them.

Hiring an inexperienced attorney

The pros of hiring inexperienced services: Less experience will simply mean a comparatively lower charge than the experienced ones. The lower the experience, the lower will be the fee. You will save on money for the first thing. The next benefit that you get is they will work with more enthusiasm than an experienced one. They have to succeed in their career, and for that, they will work hard on your project for its success because it is their success too. The most important thing that you merely get from an experienced patent lawyer is personal monitoring, and here with fresher lawyers, you can expect the one on one service. They will do whatever possible from their side to please their clients to build a better career.

The cons of hiring inexperienced services: Since they are new to the profession, there are higher chances of issues occurring during the process. The attorneys might forget some important things about the patent process. Because of small issues arising between and lack of experience, they might take a longer time to complete the patent process. Still, if you research before hiring someone, there are high chances of finding a skilled one because not all fingers are same. 

Hiring The Right Patent Attorney

Buying patents is not an easy thing, you need to search for the right patents and apply for them. Even after that, securing the patents is also a complicated process. An experienced person will never suggest you to apply for a patent because hiring is much more inexpensive and comfortable. If you agree with hiring a Patent lawyer India the below information is for you. Since hiring the right one is also not so easy, the below things must be considered to make the right decision.

Qualification

The patent lawyer whom you are going to hire must have passed both the bar exam of state of practice and the “patent bar exam”. The patent attorneys need to be experts of laws of intellectual property, and at least one technical area so as to understand the requirements of clients better. A bachelor degree in technical or science field will be sufficient. Experience is the next thing you need to consider. The attorney you are going to hire must have knowledge of your invention subject in addition to a few years of experience. It’s your duty to search for someone who belongs to your subject only. 

Cost

The expense of hiring an attorney is an add-on because you are already spending money on application filing. Still, some money can be saved by following some smart ways without compromising over experience and qualification. The first thing you should do is find your attorney in a less exposed area or a small town. Since the salary and rent expenses are less there, they will charge you less. The distance won’t matter because the technology lets you communicate. Also, check if they offer free consultation initially.

Look for a patent agent instead of an attorney if you are tight on budget. More or less, they perform similar duties. The clients who only need someone to file the patent application, an agent will be a better choice. However, if you want someone to represent you in the courtroom, hiring a patent attorney will only work for you.

Value

The attorney’s work is to advise you on everything related to the patent. A good attorney will assist you in checking if the patent you have chosen is patentable or not. From selecting between provisional and non-provisional y to deciding about international protection, the attorney will make sure that you claim maximum possible rights to the patent. The attorney will conduct the research for you so that your application doesn’t get rejected because of novelty issues.

The attorney will improve your application so that it gets approved as early as possible. You will have an experienced person to work on your application making it possible for you to focus on other works. To increase the economic value of your patent after approval, the attorney will help by enforcing your patent rights. Moreover, where the difference between an attorney and an agent comes, is when the patent gets rejected. An agent can’t help you in appealing in court.

Final words

Since an attorney can help you with all the decisions related to filing a patent application and have the solution of all your problems till the final decision, it can be considered as a good investment. An attorney can reduce the time between the grant and increases the chances of approval too. You pay them not only for their efforts but for the knowledge and the experience they had too. Moreover, it is better to have a pre-analysis of the market, because the attorney can help secure the patent, but the profit part depends on your efforts and market situation.