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The Role of the Patent Attorney in the Filing Process

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Springer Handbook of Science and Technology Indicators

Part of the book series: Springer Handbooks ((SHB))

Abstract

The role of the legal representative in patent filing processes is, so far, under-explored in patent statistics. This chapter addresses the question of the role and the impact of the patent attorney in the filing process. One of the core assumptions is that more experienced attorneys have more in-depth knowledge of the intricacies of the patent system and, thus, are more likely to pursue more elaborate and successful filing strategies.

The results show a high concentration of attorneys and filing action in absolute as well as in relative terms in some countries, namely Germany and the UK, and numbers worth mentioning also in other larger applicant countries like France, Italy, Sweden, or the Netherlands. Explanations for this biased distribution in Europe are language advantages in the case of the UK (and also Ireland) and geographical proximity to the European Patent Office (EPO), as well as economies of scale in the case of Germany.

The experience of the representative has a considerable impact on the outcome. Multivariate analyses suggest that the (financial) resource endowment is a decisive factor in the hiring of patent attorneys. It was shown that the patents of more experienced representatives were significantly more often withdrawn (but neither refused nor granted with a higher probability), and they were less often opposed than the ones by less experienced attorneys.

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Acknowledgements

Parts of this work was funded by the European Commission under the contract number: MARKT/2014/222/B2/SE/LV

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Competence Center Policy – Industry – Innovation, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Rainer Frietsch

  2. Competence Center Policy – Industry – Innovation, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Peter Neuhäusler

Authors
  1. Rainer Frietsch
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  2. Peter Neuhäusler
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Correspondence to Rainer Frietsch .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. ECOOM and Faculty of Economics and Business, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Wolfgang Glänzel

  2. Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Henk F. Moed

  3. Competence Center Policy – Industry – Innovation, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Ulrich Schmoch

  4. Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK

    Mike Thelwall

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Frietsch, R., Neuhäusler, P. (2019). The Role of the Patent Attorney in the Filing Process. In: Glänzel, W., Moed, H.F., Schmoch, U., Thelwall, M. (eds) Springer Handbook of Science and Technology Indicators. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02511-3_35

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