Re: Starting a Patent Agent firm

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On 2/19/04, Ben wrote:
> 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

Why would any of that prevent two patent agents from going into
business together? You don't have to be an attorney to run a
patent business. Many patent agents are in solo practice. I
don't see any obstacle to two patent agents being in a
partnership. Check out Sperry v. Florida which was decided by
the Supreme Court 40 years ago.

Interestingly enough, the PTO rules state that a practitioner
cannot partner up with a non practitioner if one of the offered
services is practice before the PTO. The PTO rule seemingly
would allow an attorney to partner up with an agent. But most if
not all states do not allow attorneys to practice law in
partnership with non attorneys. It's an open question whether
federal preemption would cancel state law in this area as long
as the attorney limited his practice to patent prosecution.

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

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