How do I evaluate an intellectual property attorney?

Align the attorney with the asset: trademark, copyright, trade secret, and patent work are distinct practices, and only a practitioner registered with the USPTO may prosecute patent applications, verifiable in the USPTO's public practitioner roster, alongside a State Bar of California license check for legal work in the state.

Evaluate on three axes: qualification, asset fit, and approach. Qualification is public record, active licensure through the State Bar of California for California legal work (Business and Professions Code section 6125), and for patent prosecution, USPTO registration, which requires a technical background and a separate federal exam; the USPTO publishes a searchable practitioner roster. Asset fit means the practice handles your kind of property: trademark clearance and prosecution, copyright registration and licensing, trade secret protection, and patent work are different disciplines, and a candid attorney will say which they do daily. Approach shows in the first conversation: whether filings are flat-fee and what the fee includes; what a clearance search covers before a brand is adopted; how enforcement runs, from takedown notices and demand letters to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board or federal litigation; and, for patents, who drafts the application and how office actions are billed. Ownership paperwork, assignments and license terms, is where cheap work gets expensive, so ask who reviews yours.

Authority: Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6125; State Bar of California