Shin KOIZUMI Kazuhiro KITAZAWA
The work environment of a patent attorney differs considerably from that of other professions. Normally a patent attorney works together with the heads of the intellectual property division in a company who have considerable experience in and knowledge about intellectual property or may even be in-house patent attorneys. Also the relationship between the patent attorney, who is a legal expert, and a non-legal professional commissioning the patent attorney for legal advice or to assist in a legal process is entirely different from the relationship that exists between a patent office and a corporate client.
A patent attorney's office works in collaboration with the client, the two complementing each other with the shared goal of meeting the client’s needs. By entrusting work to a patent attorney's office, a business client is expecting not only that their burden will be reduced, but also that the arrangement will bring better results.
To this end, we at Kitazawa & Koizumi tackle all matters of importance, such as patent filing and intermediate processes, using a partner system. When filing a patent application, for example, two members of our firm participate in informational meetings with the inventors to discuss the invention and, after completing these preliminary discussions, decide which one of them will be responsible for drafting the specification and which one will check the draft. If a notification of rejection (Office Action) is received from the examiner, both partners discuss the content of the argument and what amendments are required, in some cases consulting with another patent attorney, before preparing the final proposal.
The same partner system is employed when preparing English specifications for filing overseas. At the very least, both partners are involved in drawing up the claims section, with one person preparing all the claims and the other carefully checking the first person’s work. At times, both partners will work on the claims together at the same computer.
Good administrative work in the patent office is also critical for reducing the client’s burden. When filing applications overseas in particular, a large amount of communication is exchanged with the representatives overseas, resulting in an increased number of reports that must be sent to the client. Our administrative division performs detailed and accurate administrative work, ensuring that there are no errors in documents being sent to the overseas patent office. We also document all updates that occur during the application procedure as footnotes in our reports sent to the client to ensure that there is no confusion at any step of the procedure (applied only to domestic clients).
We take great pride in our track record of client satisfaction over our nearly 30 years in business. We will continue to handle each and every case with the utmost care and make every effort to provide the highest level of service to our clients.
Founder and Advisor/Consultant
Kazuhiro KITAZAWA
Shin KOIZUMI