If you are in-house patent attorney/agent prosecuting cases for your employer-client, do you still need to file a power of attorney? I’m finding that a good percentage of cases have a registered patent professional listed as the correspondence address within the Application Data Sheet, and that individual is being allowed by the USPTO to prosecute the case no behalf of its client. However, no power-of-attorney is on file with the USPTO.
My question above is focused on in-house counsel. I’ll note that I’m also finding that this practice is quite common even in cases where outside counsel represents the patent applicant (~10% of applications).
Examples:
- Application No. 16/381,289 — Barnes & Thornburg prosecuted this patent application to issuance on behalf of the applicant (Hill-Rom). The file does not show any power of attorney or assignment document filing.
- Application No. 14/986,530 — Infinera’s in-house counsel prosecuted this application. No power of attorney on record.
- Application No. 16/381,279 — Iandiorio Teska & Coleman prosecuted this patent application on behalf of the applicant (National Lumber). No power of attorney on record.
- Application No. 16/340,010 — Budzyn IP firm has been prosecuting this application on behalf of the owner (Armstrong Flooring). No power of attorney is on record in the case.
(Note – these were just the first few cases that I randomly pulled-up).
