Many Australian patent attorney firms are now part of public companies.

Over the last couple years the patent attorney profession in Australia has taken a rather strange and unprecedented turn of events. Many practices have been bundled up and sold to corporate entities listed on the stock exchange. Interestingly, the individual practices retain their original trading names. For example, the practices which trade as Spruson & Ferguson, Griffith Hack, Fisher Adams Kelly, Callinans, Pizzeys and Cullens are owned by a single company called IPH LImted (ASX:IPH). There two other such companies (Xenith IP and Qantm IP) that own various Australian patent attorney practices. The three companies between them control a very sizable portion of the Australian patent attorney services market

Is this a problem? That is up to a client of any other these practices to decide. One concern that has been raised (and is under investigation by the government patent attorney registration body) is the problem of conflicts of interest arising between practices which are owned by an parent company.

On a more basic level, a client may prefer to work with a practice that is actually fully owned and operated by registered patent attorneys. The idea of public and powerful institutional shareholders calling the shots in the practice to which a client entrusts its work may not be acceptable to some.

While Flux IP is a new way of patent attorneys doing business, we are proudly independently owned an operated by registered patent attorneys.