Is a patent attorney better than a patent agent? Whats the difference anyway?
In the U.S. system a patent attorney is a patent agent who holds a law license in one or more states. Patent attorneys and patent agents must pass the exact same examination given by the Patent Office. The most obvious difference is that the attorney can represent you in court, but the agent can only represent you before the Patent Office, including its appeal board. All agents and attorneys registered with the PTO must have a technical background — usually at least a bachelors in engineering, biology, computers, etc. Patent attorneys must also have legal training and be registered to practice law in at least one state or D.C. An agent may be a college graduate in biology, computer science or engineering, for instance, with precious little training in law, which means most patent agents don’t know how the law and courts work as well as most patent attorneys do. However, many patent agents were once patent examiners and they know how the Patent Office works better than a lot of attorne
