Large patent law firms generally consider patent application work as necessary to enable future litigation business which may result, and as such the small business and individual inventor is not a high priority. A significantly higher fee policy may be used by larger firms to exclude individual inventors and small businesses. Further, with a larger law firm, the application is likely to be handled by more than one attorney, with the inefficiencies associated with further explanation of the invention to the attorney who will perform the work. This inefficiency is significant and costly. The inventor or small business is effectively paying for this time, including the communication time between the attorneys.
Patent agents occupy the other end of the range of choice.
Many practice part-time or as a source of supplementary income. The quality of work may vary more significantly among patent agents. Since agents are not attorneys, they cannot provide full service to the client. For example, agents are not permitted to express legal opinions about patentability and infringement. In addition, the technical expertise and experience of the agent as it relates directly to the invention should be carefully examined.