PATENT AGENT is a term defined by the Register of Patent Agents Act, 1907, as meaning "exclusively an agent for obtaining patents in the United Kingdom." The profession of a patent agent has existed in this country during the last eighty years, but it is only since the Patent Act of 1852 that the improved facilities for patenting inventions have produced a sufficient number of patentees to support a more than very limited number of professional agents. Now, however, the patenting public is comparatively so great as to render the profession a secure and lucrative one to its practitioners. A patent agent is necessarily an expert, highly skilled in his particular department of activity. It is not by any means sufficient that he should know only the mere routine of the practice of the Patent Office. He must also have an intimate knowledge of the law relating to patents, and so be in effect a specialised patent lawyer, and as such able to profitably advise and assist his client. But in addition to this he must have a more than passing acquaintance with science generally, and particularly with the chemical, electrical, and mechanical sciences and their special applications in machinery and the manufactures. The modes of manufactures generally are also within his province. Lastly, hut certainly not least from the practical point of view, he must be a competent mechanical draughtsman, so that he can aid his client in any necessary graphic description of a particular invention. From this and much more to a like effect that could be written, it is evident that a casual person who proffers his aid to an inventor is hardly likely to be of much assistance—he is likely more probably to contribute materially to the possibility of the patent being eventually invalidated. The best course an inventor can adopt is to seek the services of an agent who has specialised in the particular class to which his invention belongs.
The Act of 1907 does not prohibit any one, or any class of persons, from acting as an agent for obtaining patents. What it does is to enact that no one shall be " entitled to describe himself as a patent agent,"whether by advertisement, by description of his place of business, or by any document issued by him, or otherwise, unless he is registered as a patent agent in pursuance of this Act or an Act repealed by this Act." Any one who know
ingly describes himself as a patent agent. in contravention of this prohibition is liable on summary conviction to a fine of „P20. From this it would seem that there is ample need to warn an inventor against entrusting his agency. to some unqualified person who only saves himself from conviction by care fully avoiding a contravention of the strict terms of the Act. There are yet a large number of unscrupulous and unqualified men who are able to prey upon the public by merely suggesting that they are in a position to act as agents for inventors.
Patent agents are professionally associated in a society chartered by the Crown, known as the Chartered institute of Patent Agents, and having its offices at Southampton Buildings, London. To this institute has been committed the charge and control of the Register in which patent agents must be registered in pursuance of the Act. An applicant for registration must pass a final examination, prescribed by the institute, as to his know ledge of patent law and practice and of the duties of a patent agent. This examination covers a .wide range of subjects, including patent law and practice, science and its application, and the methods of manufacture. Having duly passed it the applicant is entitled to registration, and then to practise as a patent agent. Before, however, a candidate can present him self for the final examination he must give evidence to the institute either— (a) that.he has passed an examination in general knowledge, such as that for matriculation at a university; or (b) has been for at least seven con. secutive years continuously engaged as a pupil or a.ssistant to one or more registered patent agents; or (c) is for the time being a practising solicitot m England or Ireland, or law agent before the Court of Session in.Scotland. The fee payable on entry for the final examination is .a, 2s. ; for regis.