Successful patent and trademark attorneys in Athens often share several common traits.
There are a fair number of patent and trademark attorneys in Athens, but not all of them share the same level of professional success. Some patents attorneys tend to have more work available, as well as clients willing to pay higher fees for top-notch intellectual property legal work. These types of attorneys tend to have similarities with each other that can help explain their success.
Particular Technical Background
Intellectual property law is a subset of the legal world, but it’s still a large area of legal practice. To become a patent attorney, an individual must have a science or technical background, in addition to a law degree. This allows them to sit for the patent bar exam. But even after passing the patent bar exam, not all intellectual property law has the same level of demand. The lawyers in the higher demand areas will tend to have more business. Some of these higher demand areas include computer software, biomedical and genetics. Having a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering doesn’t guarantee success as a patent attorney, but it can create opportunities not available to others.
Professional Networks
The most successful attorneys in patent law tend to be great at networking. Like any other profession, having a lot of connections can help with finding clients, creating deals and gaining favors. If you come across a successful patent attorney in Georgia, chances are pretty good that they know a lot of movers and shakers.
Great Communication Skills
Intellectual property is a notoriously complex legal field. This is one reason why patent attorneys must have formal training in a scientific or technical area. Good intellectual property attorneys can break down complex ideas into simpler terms for the average person (or the judge without a technical background) to understand. Imagine litigating a patent infringement dispute over a brand new type of computer technology that relies on principles of quantum mechanics. Being able to easily explain a technical concept so a jury can understand it makes it easier to persuade that jury that your client should win.
Client Communication
Keeping a client up to date with what’s going on in a case seems like a no-brainer, but it’s something many attorneys forget to do. Even if there’s little change in the status of a case, clients appreciate their attorney telling them this. Preparing regular status updates is especially important when the client is a company. Company clients tend to have more formal expectations from their attorneys regarding communication, such as special billing and reporting procedures and rules.
Great communication becomes invaluable when the case doesn’t go as well as the client would like. Nothing will upset a client more than knowing nothing about his or her case for a lengthy period of time, then out of the blue, the attorney telling the client that they may lose the case. The client will automatically assume that if the attorney contacted them at regular intervals, the client would have been able to make a decision to prevent the bad outcome. Even if this isn’t true, the client will believe this. By regularly communicating with the client, if something bad does happen, the client will usually be able to anticipate it.
Click to learn more about patent and trademark attorneys in Athens by contacting the Wilbanks Law Firm, P.C. online.