If you are located in the Pittsburgh area and have an idea for an invention, what do you do next? The most important step is selecting a competent, Pittsburgh patent attorney who can determine if it is patentable; obtain suitable patent protection for the invention; and, through direct entry or licensing, help you get the invention into business.
By using a local, Pittsburgh patent attorney, you’ll be able to keep in touch easily with the steps of obtaining a patent.
The first stage in selecting a patent attorney is obtaining information about attorneys who will provide useful legal representation. By searching the internet you can get a list of Pittsburgh based patent lawyers, or if you have friends who have worked with patent attorneys, this can be a good starting point. Local bar associations can frequently provide information, as can legal directories. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have a journal that lists patent attorneys and patent agents admitted to practice before the office. Yellow-page telephone directories also have listings of patent attorneys.
After obtaining the names of patent lawyers that you may find, the center of attention shifts to what information is needed to make a decision on whether a particular firm or individual can provide the preferred service. A critical factor in this phase is the rapport and how at ease the inventor feels to ask questions.
It is important to know the educational background, as well as legal education and patent experience, of the attorney, both in terms of years and the nature of experience. The attorney preparing and prosecuting a patent application must be admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
It is important to ask about the legal fees; it is appropriate to determine what attorney's fees and disbursements are involved in proceeding with the work. Are there others in the law firm who are capable of doing portions of the job, with or without supervision, at a lesser rate, thus saving the prospective client money?
Since you’ll be working with the patent lawyer for approximately 6 to 18+ months after filing for your patent, the comfort level between you and your attorney or attorneys is very important. Evaluating patentability, obtaining a patent, and licensing the same involves a team project. The degree to which the inventor is able to help and wishes to participate actively is another variable that should be explored in terms of the manner in which the attorney prefers to work. It is appropriate to ask for client references and, to the degree to which client confidentiality is not involved, the opportunity to see examples of the individual's work.
As with everything else, no single set of questions will be fully sufficient for every situation. Questions related to items of particular interest to the potential client and items that provide unique circumstances for the case should be considered. In any event, it is critical that the potential client do a thorough job of asking all questions of interest and reach a comfort level with a particular attorney before entering into an attorney-client relationship.
If you are looking for a Pittsburgh Patent Lawyer, The Law Office of David P. Gaudio, P.C. formed The Inventors Network, Inc. with one purpose in mind: TO ASSIST INVENTORS! We are able to accomplish this in various ways, one of which is through education of the patent process.
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