Robert E. Phillips

Robert E. Phillips was an American patent agent with registration number 2179, at address 70 Chancery Lane, W. C., London, England. (He is not the only agent in the American roster with address at Chancery Lane.)

We have him handling the American filing for the British inventor Thomas Sopwith. While Sopwith's British filings seem to have been mostly filed by J. D. Roots & Co. we do have one (Patent GB-1916-126031) filed by Phillipss of 70 Chancery Lane. One might certainly suspect a relationship between Phillips and Phillipss but it is difficult to see what would account for the difference in spelling. (One possibility is that that the Robert Phillips in the American roster is different than the attorney signing the American Sopwith patent and the signature is really that of Phillipss. There is a gap in the American patent attorney rosters after 1910 so we can't exclude the possibility of other registered agents with similar names. Meanwhile, Sopwith's Canadian patents were handled by "Phillipss" signed in a clearly different way, with no first name and a strong "P", further suggesting Robert E. Phillips is a different agent, though possibly affiliated.)

Patents for which Robert E. Phillips or Robert Phillips was the patent agent

• Patent US-1917-1239736 (Inventors: Thomas Sopwith, English title: Landing-chassis or under-carriage of aeroplanes and the like, Patent agent: Robert Phillips)
• Patent US-1917-1249535 (Inventors: Thomas Sopwith, English title: Wind-screen for use with aircraft-guns, Supplementary to patent: Patent GB-1916-108598, Patent agent: Robert E. Phillips)