About Patent Attorneys

Patent Attorneys, as the name suggests, are a quasi-legal profession that deal with intellectual property, namely trade marks (names and logos), copyright (in artistic and literary works), registered designs (shapes of articles and the like), plant variety rights (new breeds of plants) and patents (inventions involving new products or processes).

Many patent attorneys in New Zealand are also lawyers as the skills required are essentially legal in nature. Many are also university qualified in specific sciences such as biotechnology or electronics or trained as engineers.

To deal with patents for inventions involving highly technical areas it is obviously essential to have a thorough understanding of the subject matter.

The day to day role of a patent attorney can vary considerably depending on his or her area of specialisation. We do have members who work on their own and could be described as generalists, but most patent attorneys in New Zealand do specialise in either obtaining and enforcing registrations for trade marks or in obtaining and enforcing patents, as well as advising on copyright and designs. Some specialise in litigation (ie disputes over ownership or infringement of intellectual property) and some in even more specific areas such as trade mark oppositions (ie advising clients on cases where one party has applied to register a trade mark and the other party is opposing that registration).

If you are interested in a career as a patent attorney we suggest that you contact a firm of attorneys in your area. Please view our member firms.