VICTORIA YOUNG: Baldwins, AJ Park and the decline of the patent lawyer

Fri, 03 Jul 2020

The folding of Baldwins into AJ Park is a symptom of a much bigger problem for New Zealand's innovation economy - the decline of the local patent attorney. Patent attorneys are the elite uber geeks of the legal world - most have two degrees, with one usually up to doctoral level and in a scientific or technical field.Baldwins founder Ernest Smith Baldwin was an engineer before qualifying as a patent attorney and setting up a partnership in Wellington in 1896, as was AJ Park’s Andrew John Park when he qualified as a lawyer in 1891...

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