What is a patent agent/patent attorney?
A patent attorney is a member of a profession of around 1,500 members who have a particular expertise in the field of intellectual property. Intellectual property encompasses patents, industrial designs, design rights and related copyright areas, from computer programs to the shape of teapots, and trade marks. Patent attorneys work either in patent departments of large industrial organisations, in private firms of patent attorneys, or in government departments, and their work deals with obtaining and enforcing intellectual property rights. What is a patent? A patent is a right granted by the government to inventors (or more usually nowadays companies) in return for disclosure of an invention. In return for the public disclosure of a new and unobvious invention, the state gives the patent owner the right to stop other people using that invention for a certain period of time (maximum 20 years). Inventions vary from simple gadgets to complex mechanical, chemical, electronic or microbiolog
