Traditional patent practitioners are attorneys and agents. Registered to practice with the Patent Office to file and prosecute all of the three kinds of patents (utility, design and plant), they possess a technical degree (usually in science or engineering).

That technical degree is all important when an inventor hires an attorney or agent to file and prosecute a patent application for his/her invention through the arcane examination process at the Patent Office. To prepare a patent application, a technical write-up must perfectly mesh with clearly rendered drawings so that the elaboration of the invention is understandable to a person of ordinary skill in the art, enabling this person to make and use the invention without undue experimentation. But there is more to an application. A set of technically accurate claims must be included that 1) specify the subject matter the inventor regards as the invention and 2) both particularly and distinctly point out the scope of the subject matter of the invention. A very tall order! But not too tall for a traditional patent practitioner.

Can you imagine the folly if an inventor with a worthy invention hired someone who couldn’t understand the technicalities of his/her invention?

Enter January 2, 2024, and the newly created design patent practitioner, who merely needs an art degree in any of the following areas: Industrial Design; Product Design; Architecture; Applied Arts; Graphic Design; Fine/Studio Arts; or Art Teacher Education.

This may be good.

Design patent practitioners can only file and prosecute design patents. Both traditional practitioners and design practitioners must pass a Patent Office exam tailored to their practice before the Patent Office. Further, design patents are just a set of drawings, and even the single claim is to that set of drawings. So, it is clear somebody with an art degree and design patent practice know-how could get a design patent for an inventor.

But in the end, it’s likely to be bad.

Most often, design patents arise out of an ornamental aspect of an embodiment in a utility patent application. This entails a comprehension of the underlying functionality of the article of manufacture to elicit its complementing ornamental design. How can a situation such as this be properly handled by someone lacking a technical degree? An art degree alone just won’t cut it.

Fun fact: As of August 7, 2025, the USPTO has 52,454 registered practitioners. Of those 37,946 are attorneys, 14,106 are agents, 5 are design, and 397 have “limited recognition.”