The Software IP Report
Communications with Patent Agents and Foreign Associates – Recent Developments on Privilege
By Charles Bieneman
Categories: Attorney-client privilege, The Software IP Report
If you are, or work with, a patent agent – or if you are at one end or the other of communications between U.S. attorneys and foreign attorneys and/or patent agents – this recent presentation by my colleague Peter Keros has some useful information. The basic takeaways are these. First, patent agents are treated like lawyers for purposes of privilege – so long as the communications are about what patent agents are licensed to do, which is prepare and prosecute patent applications. Second, communications between U.S. and foreign counsel on patent matters can have different protection depending on what the other country is, and what it’s laws say, as well as on whether the subject of the communication is a U.S. patent or application as opposed to a foreign patent or application.