General Admission
The requirements you must satisfy to be registered as a patent or trade mark attorney can be found in Chapter 3 to the Core Regulatory Framework, paragraphs 1.1 – 1.3 and in the Admission and Authorisation Standard Operating Procedure (“SOP”), paragraphs 1 – 20. Before you apply for registration, please see our Frequently Asked Questions which may answer any queries you have.
To be admitted to the patent attorney register or the trade mark attorney register, applicants must:
- complete the qualifying examinations;
- meet the work experience requirements; and
- meet IPReg’s Character and Suitability requirements.
Qualifying Examinations
More information about the qualifying examinations can be found in the tab to the left.
The historic Joint Examination Board examinations and the pre-2013 course offers of the universities of Bournemouth, Brunel, Manchester, and Queen Mary are no longer recognised for the purposes of entry on to the IPReg register(s). If you wish to rely on these historic qualifications, you will need to apply to IPReg for their recognition on the basis of extenuating circumstances. Please see paragraph 12 of the Admission and Authorisation SOP. Annex 1 to the FAQs provides further information.
Work experience requirements
Attorneys must have no less than two years’ full time supervised practice or four years’ full time unsupervised practice in intellectual property with substantial experience in the relevant area of work (patent attorney work or trade mark attorney work). This work experience must be current, i.e. completed no longer than 12 months’ before making the application for registration.
If the work is supervised, the supervisor must be a registered attorney or a solicitor or barrister with substantial experience in patent attorney or trade mark attorney work as relevant. Your supervisor must have understood that they were supervising you for the purposes of your qualification as a registered attorney. Supervision whilst working as a paralegal or member of support staff in an IP team will not usually be considered to be supervised practice for the purpose of the regulations.
Character and Suitability
Registered patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys are regulated legal professionals, authorised to carry on reserved legal activities. As such, they are in privileged positions of trust and responsibility so it is important that those on the register have the character and suitability required of those holding such positions. More information about the character and suitability requirements can be found on the tab to the left.