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the question

Does the offering of UK lawyers and patent agents provide a  fast growth entrepreneurial company with the best possible support in their endeavours? 

How to choose a patent attorney

My random travels amongst users of IP services highlights the fact that the market for IP services is unsophisticated and lacks objective criteria against which to appraise the quality and value of the services they receive. If you buy fruit, there are different varieties and different suppliers.  You can afford to sample and compare. You can discuss your taste perceptions with others and take informed recommendations and test whether your friend has similar standards to yourself.  None of that works when purchasing in the legal sphere.

Users of IP litigation services judge their advisors "good" if they win the case.  Is a patent attorney "good" if a patent is granted? Taking out a patent on an invention is a once-only opportunity and the fees preclude testing several on the same task. Recommendations are useful but a "frightfully nice chap" or a "charmer" may not be the best advisor. Qualifications help but only to eliminate the complete charlatans and the qualification you want depends on what support you are seeking.

Life is hard enough for an entrepreneur. His life choice requires that he take his own decisions. The mistake is to lean to heavily on support and try to have someone else make hard choices for you. The Chilli carries an article about business support consultants and UK Intellectual Property Office has long warned inventors to exercise caution in using invention promoters and publishes a useful guide.  When buying advice it is essential to establish your needs and ascertain what the advisors really have to offer. Neither is an easy task.

To be continued with a survey of founders of still young entrepreneurial companies about how they chose, what they thought they wanted and what they have so far received.   If you would like to take part contact me.

the commoditisation route

Richard Susskind foresees a future of commoditised legal services in this article from the Law Society Gazette published on 13 April 2006. Commoditisation is not in the interests of brand name large law firms, but young businesses don't have money to spend with large law firms so they have to be "passionate about saving money and doing things quickly and cheaply in a simple way" as Susskind puts it.

There are a number of precedent selling websites including Contract Store run by a former partner from Nabarro Nathanson. Delia Venables has put together a page that provides a more thorough listing than I could contemplate which covers many more both from brand name law firms and unregulated businesses.

One size does not fit all when it comes to forming an entrepreneurial team but the process of working through the issues could nevertheless be commoditised.  If you believe this problem has already been solved do tell but meanwhile you might like to look further at my ramblings here.