Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Oklahoma

Re: Patent Law

Your Boston-based IP attorney is within the realm of ethical practice to charge you a fee for referring you to another attorney. This lawyer may have had to do some legwork to find an appropriate referral for you. This would have taken some time, and time is what lawyers make a living with. And even lawyers have to put gasoline in our cars and food on our families' tables.

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Re: Patent Law

If the attorney actually spent time then a charge is allowed. As for "accepted practice," most attorneys I know (Oklahoma based) wouldn't charge for a referral unless it actuall did take some time, AND the client knew it would take time, AND the client knew he would be charged for the time.

Re: Patent Law

I normally would not charge just to make a referral -- if legal analysis was involved, then a charge may have been appropriate. If you were charged for the time it took the attorney to make a referral only, that time shouldn't have been more than .25 hours.

Re: Patent Law

Not typically done -- you pay a lawyer for his legal advice. The more standard approach is for the second attorney to pay a referral fee to the first and disclose that to the client, but that would be paid as a portion of the standard fees charged by the second attorney. You should consult with a lawyer with the particulars of your situation (such consultation is ordinarily free).

Best wishes,

LDWG