A practitioner may be a patent attorney or patent agent. Both patent attorneys and patent agents have the same license to practice and represent clients. Both patent agents and patent attorneys may prepare, file, and prosecute patent applications. Patent agents and patent attorneys may also provide patentability opinions. Specifically clarifies that patent agents may not provide an “opinion of validity of another party’s patent when the client is contemplating litigation and not seeking reexamination” because such activity “could not be reasonably necessary and incident to the preparation and prosecution” of a client’s patent.
“The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.”
-Elbert Hubbard
A patent is a grant from a Government body given to the inventor that prevents others from using, making, selling or offering an invention for sale for a fixed period of time. The inventor is expected to file an application with the Government for the same. A patent application is a set of papers that describe the invention in detail and is suitable for applying for a patent on the invention described. There are two kinds of patent applications that can be filed by patent attorney, namely, Provisional Patent Application and a Non Provisional Patent Application. A provisional patent is generally filed in order to block an earlier filing date for a non provisional patent application. However, if a non provisional patent application is not filed within a year of filing a provisional, the application is then abandoned.