Re: Starting a Patent Agent firm

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If by "firm" you mean law firm, you cannot go into business
at all unless you and your wife are both attorneys. It is
illegal for an attorney to own a law firm with a non-
attorney. Attorneys are strictly forbidden from fee sharing
witn non-attorneys unless the person is part of the firm as
an employee, such as a legal assistant or paralegal, etc. I
hope this was helpful. I at one point thought about starting
my own law firm as a solo, working on patents. I quickly
discovered that the large law firms really have the bulk of
the business and have decided to just go to work for a law
firm. Have you considered working for a law firm? Many have
patent agents and pay fairly well, I believe the average is
$70K to start. If you do chage your mind and go to law
school the step up in starting pay is large, $30K increase,
at least. Good luck

On 1/21/04, Adnan wrote:
> Hi,
> My wife are I are both mechanical engineers and EIT's
> (passed the FE exam). We're both currently working in
> industry and both have a few years design experience
(about
> 4 yrs out of college). In a year, we're planning on
having
> our 1st child, after which, my wife will probably not want
> to work outside the house.
>
> Is it feasible to have a two-person Patent Agent "firm"
> with her working full time at it while I would work after
> hours and on weekends (keeping my day job)? We're both
> planning on taking the PTO exam to become agents, but
would
> like to know how difficult it is to run your own private
> patent agent outfit (esp. without doctorate degrees or 30
> yrs experience?). Is this a very crowded competitive
> field, or is it relatively easy to get started.
> What are the liabilities, i.e., can you get sued easy?
> Neither one of us is currently contemplating a law degree.
> Where can I find more information on getting started?
>
> Many thanks in advance.

Re: Starting a Patent Agent firm, 2/28/04, by George.

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