Who are the patent attorneys, who needs them, and why are they needed?

A patent attorney carries out business with the Federal Executive Authority onIntellectual Property on behalf of applicants, right holders and other interested citizens and legalentities permanently residing (for citizens) or having a location (for legal entities) in the RussianFederation and abroad, unless otherwise is stipulated by the international treaty of the RussianFederation or the legislation of the Russian Federation.An adult Russian citizen with a higher education, permanently residing on the territory ofRussia and who has a four-year experience in the relevant field can become a patent attorney.The citizens declared legally incompetent and partially legally competent, the state andmunicipal employees, and the citizens, who have been excluded from the Register of PatentAttorneys of the Russian Federation by the decision of the court can not be patent attorneys.To carry out the patent activities it is necessary to be certified by way of passing aqualification exam to obtain a relevant certificate confirming the status of a patent attorney.Under the current legislation, the foreigners can file their applications with Rospatentonly via a particular specialist. This is a patent attorney, and his participation in the process offiling an application by the foreigners is mandatory. If we are talking about a person who has aRussian citizenship (or an equivalent to it), then making a decision on his participation in theprocess shall rest with an applicant. On the one hand, you can save some money by composingan application by yourself. On the other hand, one can obtain the quality of the work performed,when it is done by the professionals in their field. Paying for the services of a patent attorney,will help you to pay back the costs in future.The guarantee of a successful consideration of a particular application is very relevant forboth the individuals and the legal entities. In a certain way, Rospatent or the Patent Office ofanother state? which is carrying out the registration, will study the application with respect to arefusal to register. It is also necessary to take into account the fact that a positive decision madewith respect to the grant of a patent influences the correctness of the formalization of theapplication. This is true not only with respect to the correctness of filling in and filing theappropriate forms. The main thing you need to pay attention to is the correctness of therepresentation of the essence of the application. The saddest thing is that it is very difficult for anon-specialist to understand the decoding of a preliminary search of Rospatent. In the vastmajority of cases, the applicant is not completely sure whether it will be possible to obtain apatent as a result.The cooperation with a patent attorney has a lot of positive aspects. To begin at leastwith, his task includes the control over the consideration of the registration of the applications bythe relevant authority, tracking the incoming correspondence and the timely response to it.

Moreover, in some moments ordinary citizens are not able to influence the process of theconsideration. This is especially true, when it comes about the speed of the consideration of theregistration application. According to the results of the decision made, such specialist will notonly outline clearly the possible prospects, but he will also give a number of recommendations.In addition to the fact that these specialists pass difficult qualification exams, they also have acertain work experience. And the knowledge of the peculiarities of the cooperation with thePatent Office is often a key to a successful outcome of the case.With respect to the advantages of carrying out business via the patentattorneys, it can be said that the patent attorney is an official, who is acting withinthe law ad who is responsible before Rospatent for his activities, the latterexercising control over these activities and has the right to impose punishment onthe patent attorney up to the exclusion from the Register. With this respect, theapplicant can count on the greater responsibility of the patent attorney as hisrepresentative, in comparison with any other person, even if the latter is connectedby an agreement with the applicant. Therefore, the patent attorney who isprofessionally engaged only in his activities should not lose his face, committing theviolations in a professional sphere, what threatens him with a loss of authority andwork. Such loss does not threaten to ordinary representatives. This does not mean,of course, that the qualification of other representatives is always lower than thequalification of a patent attorney, but the thing is just about the responsibility.With respect to other advantages (a qualification, experience, skills, etc.), itcan be said that most of the patent attorneys have come from the Rospatentsystem, what gives certain advantages due to the knowledge of the technology ofthe applications passing, the nuances of the correspondence, the ability to possessmore information, including about the practice of examination at the currentmoment. The patent attorney shall be certified for certain types of activities(possibly also without limitations) by passing the relevant qualification exams.Therefore, as a patent attorney he can act a representative “within thespecialization indicated in the Register of Patent Attorneys” (Article 4 of Law of theRussian Federation on Patent Attorneys No. 316-FZ of 30.12.09). At the same time,he signs all documents precisely as a patent attorney indicating his number in the

Register. With respect to the specialization over which the patent attorney has notbeen certified, he may act as a representative on a par with any other person,without indicating himself as a patent attorney. It should be noted that theexamination of Rospatent checks the powers of attorney and other documents withrespect to the specialization of the patent attorney upon the receipt and/orconsideration of the materials of the applications for the industrial property subjectmatters. Moreover, the examination has the right to request for these documents ifnecessary (for example, if the doubts about the authenticity of the documentsappear), if they have not been received with the materials of the applications,because the patent attorney is not obliged to submit the powers of attorney alongwith the applications, but he only has the right to indicate his details in them (hisfull name, the Register number, the address of the correspondence).Thus, by resorting to the services of a patent attorney, the applicant is safefrom a number of serious errors, which in some cases may lead to a negativedecision.