Do patent attorneys have the necessary resources to run litigation?
Even if patent attorneys are able to develop skills relevant to litigation through their usual patent prosecution practice, the question remains whether patent attorneys have the resources to litigate. In part this is a question of size. The patent profession is a small one, there being only about 1,500 qualified patent attorneys in the country. [9] As a result there are very few large patent firms. Only a handful of patent firms exist which have in excess of 20 fee earners in the same office. Even these larger firms are quite small when compared with the monster firms of solicitors with hundreds of partners. When faced with patent litigation it is therefore impossible for a firm of patent attorneys to throw vast armies of articled clerks at a problem in the way that a giant law firm could. But then again, the problems arising from lack of size must also be put into perspective. Although in terms of money and costs there may be no such thing as a small patent case, some cases are large
