Why Patent Attorneys do not sign NDA's ?
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Why Patent Attorneys do not sign NDA's ? Video Transcript
Patent attorneys do not usually sign NDAs because the document that you are asking a patent attorney to write is going to be a public document. Patents become public when they issue. They become public when they get published by the patent office as pending applications. Because the document you are asking the patent attorney to write is going to become public, most patent attorneys are not going to sign an NDA. Furthermore, you should understand that as long as the patent attorney is a member of a State Bar and member of the US Patent Bar, they have a very high ethical requirement to make sure that they hold your concepts in confidence. We have to do a conflict check before taking on any other clients. Most patent attorneys would do that right up front to make sure that they do not represent your competitor already. In addition to that, when we are drafting the case, all the communications between you and the attorney are attorney-client privileged. Therefore, the protection of your idea remains strong between you and your patent attorney during that drafting phase. However, because the document that you are asking us to write is going to become a public document, most patent attorneys will not sign NDAs.