Patent agents
Patent agents helped applicants file patent applications with the government agencies that would evaluate and grant them or not.
The role of patent agents differs by country. It does not appear to vary much by technological field. We have many examples of patent agents from certain countries, notably France, where the practice was to put the name of the patent agent on the patent document itself.
See Category:Patent agents for lists of identified patent agents, both persons, and company/agencies, grouped by country. See patent agent for a very short list of individuals who have otherwise factored into our data in association with patent agent as an occupation.
Patent examiners are an entirely different category of government officials who evaluate the patent applications and decide whether to grant them.
There is also a complex existing between patent agents and at least a significant fraction of the witnesses we usually find on American patents.
Publications referring to patent agent or patent agents
- Casalonga, 1891, Armengaud aîné (Simple title: Armengaud aîné, Journal: Bulletin administratif)
- Casalonga and Joubert, 1893, Armengaud (Charles) (Simple title: Obituary for Charles Armengaud, Journal: Bulletin administratif)
- Galvez-Behar, 2006 (Simple title: Agents de brevets en France (1870–1914))
- Nicholas and Shimizu, 2013 (Simple title: Intermediary functions and the market for innovation in Meiji and Taishō Japan, Journal: Business History Review)
- Hopwood-Lewis, 2013, Griffith Brewer (Simple title: Griffith Brewer, patent management, the Wrights, and the British aviation industry, 1903–1914, Journal: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science)