U.S. courts have determined there is no blanket attorney-client privilege between a USPTO-recognized non-lawyer patent agent and his or her client over all intellectual property matters.49 In addition, U.S. courts have held that for privilege to apply to non-lawyer patent agents, the subject of the communication must be for the purpose of obtaining legal advice from an attorney or to assist an attorney to formulate and render legal advice.50 Finally, in the case of foreign patent agents, U.S. courts have indicated that privilege will only be recognized for a foreign agent if the privilege is recognized in his or her own country.51 There is no regime in the United States for registering trade-mark agents.
En outre, les tribunaux américains ont jugé que, pour que la protection s'applique à des agents de brevets non-avocats, il faut que la communication vise à obtenir un avis juridique d'un avocat ou à assister un avocat dans la formulation ou la fourniture d'un avis juridique50. Enfin, dans le cas des agents de brevets étrangers, les tribunaux américains ont indiqué que la protection du secret professionnel ne sera reconnue à un agent étranger que si la protection est reconnue dans son propre pays51.