If you cannot trust the person, you should not sign the confidentiality agreement, as it is assumed that the agreement offers you sufficient protection. That won`t be the case. Don`t be attracted to other things like a low price. Just keep looking for someone you trust. You don`t need to get the person to sign the confidentiality agreement. They are already under the obligation of confidentiality by both the State Bar and the USPTO. No, you don`t need to get your specialist lawyer to sign a confidentiality agreement. The state in which they are registered has a rule against their lawyers who disclose private information of clients without their consent. But this obligation is only the reputation that patent attorneys are trying to protect.
To that end, I strongly recommend that you conduct research on the person you will keep to see if you are a serious patent attorney. Many people claim to be a patent lawyer to illegally gain people`s trust. You need to be aware of this and protect yourself from these companies and individuals by carrying out some basic checks. The confidentiality agreement (or NOA) should be in effect if you talk to someone about your invention or if you want to disclose other confidential information. In fact, it is the best practice that the word “should” is interpreted in the previous sentence as “must.” The only time you should consider that it is not necessary to have a confidentiality agreement is when you talk to a lawyer (including a patent lawyer) or a patent lawyer to get legal advice. In the event that you speak with a lawyer or patent lawyer (i.e. a patent lawyer or a patent lawyer) to seek the assistance of a lawyer, the law already imposes strict confidentiality requirements; Requirements that, in fact, are much stricter than any confidentiality agreement. You decide to keep a patent attorney, not a patent lawyer or even an invention promotion company. I think lawyers and the inventors should sign a confidentiality agreement. For patent lawyers, USPTO`s administrative rules impose a duty of confidentiality on patent lawyers. However, state law remains silent on this issue, at least in California.
For companies promoting invention, they generally have a bad reputation, whether or not they are bound to confidentiality. The FTC and USPTO have produced literature on various topics with invention promotion companies. In my view, there is nothing wrong with asking a patent lawyer to sign a confidentiality agreement. This is a very reasonable question for a new inventor. However, it is very unreasonable to expect that person to sign the agreement. Some lawyers will sign it and others will not. There is nothing wrong with both sides. My practice is to keep away customers who require me to sign the confidentiality agreement. I hope that my online profile and the way I do with the person will be enough to earn their trust. Any investigation you conduct into this person should have led you to conclude that the person is the right person and that you do not need them to sign the confidentiality agreement.
Or research will make you doubt the reliability of the person and you shouldn`t even deal with that person. The quintessence is that if you find the right person, you should not have patent attorney to sign the confidentiality agreement. You should find someone you can trust. The relationship between the patent lawyer and the inventor is very close.