How to Find Qualified Patent Attorneys
Simply put, patent attorneys possess the specialized qualifications necessary to represent people in obtaining patents. For your cutting edge and razor sharp idea to be successful, it must be developed, and more importantly, protected. For this purpose, you should be filing a patent with the U.S. government. To do this, you need to hire the services of qualified and experienced patent lawyers.
The most important parameter in finding qualified patent attorneys or patent lawyers is to do your homework and research. You should know precisely what or who you are looking for.
Identify Your needs and Do Your Research
There are many legal issues that intellectual property covers, right from copyright and contract law to media and entertainment. You need to begin by assessing your needs before you decide whether you want to work with patent attorneys who can advise you on other relevant areas of intellectual property, or with a lawyer who only handles patents and nothing else.
You may want to consider patent attorneys and patent lawyers if your business deals only with marketing, creating, and selling innovative products. You might need a lawyer who deals in information technology and First Amendment law if your business deals with online pursuits or publishing.
There is a chance that your business may already have legal counsel at the moment. But it is important to assess whether they have the expertise to cover patent as well. Every lawyer has a speciality, and the lawyer who is currently affiliated with your business, may not have the skill or expertise that patent attorneys may bring to the table.
One important parameter in identifying the patent lawyers you should choose, is figuring out how much competition your innovation and your lawyer will have to face from other patent holders. All you have to do here, is run a quick search on the U.S. Patent Office website to get information on your would-be competitors and your market.
If your market seems like an active space, you will have to put in a lot of effort to protect the future of your product. This means that the patent lawyers you choose should have many years of experience in this field and much have some pretty impressive credentials. Also remember, patent lawyers who have higher credentials and more experience will also cost you that much more in terms of billable hours.
Conducting a preliminary interview for your patent attorneys
When you have done your research and identified a list of a few sparkling candidates to take care of your patent needs, contact them to schedule a preliminary interview. An interview is a necessary and supreme way to know that you and the patent attorneys you choose are on the right page. This is someone whose services you are going to be paying a lot of money for, and will determine the success of your venture.
You should view the preliminary interview in the same manner as you would a business partner meeting. Bring along whatever information that might assist the attorney in determining whether working on your case seems like a viable option or not. It is important that this is viewed as the two-way street that it is.
You should have a list of questions prepared to ask your patent attorneys. This should include the following:
- What procedure do you follow to conduct a patent search?
- What are some of the patents you’ve registered in the past?
- How long does the process take?
- How much will this cost me?
- Can you share some references with me?
- Can you share a copy of your firm’s retainer agreement with me?
When you arm yourself with all the possible information that you extract out of your interview with your patent attorneys and patent lawyers, you will be well on your way to securing your patent and heading towards its imminent success.
