Publications

Total Document: 1

 

New System for Regulation of UK Lawyers including Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys

Document No: PUB 13/10 Posted: 14 December 2010

Following a report by Sir David Clementi in 2004, Parliament enacted the Legal Ser­vices Act 2007 to reform regulation of lawyers. The Act has resulted in the estab­lish­ment of regula­tory bodies independent of professional bodies. Thus the Law Society, the Bar Council, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, and the In­sti­tute of Trade Mark Attorneys have each ceased to regulate their respective pro­fes­sions directly. The Act also provides for regulation of private practices con­sisting of different types of lawyer (“LDPs”) and of lawyers and non-lawyers (“ABSs”). 

Most Federation Members have in-house departments of employed patent attorneys and/or trade mark attorneys. The attorneys are now regulated by the Intellectual Property Regu­la­tion Board (“IPReg”), and are bound by IPReg’s Code of Conduct, which came into force in 2010.