Compilation of laws and practices regarding the scope of client attorney privilege and its applicability to patent advisors

The laws and practices regarding the scope of client attorney privilege and its applicability to patent advisors are available for the below-listed member states (or territories), including both common law and civil law based systems.

The following elements of laws are reviewed, where available:

• the origin of the privilege and/or secrecy obligation;
• professionals bound by the privilege and/or secrecy;
• the scope of the privilege/secrecy obligation;
• exceptions and limitations to the privilege /secrecy obligation;
• penalties for breach of secrecy; and
• qualifications of patent advisors.

In connection with civil court proceedings, the information as to how such professional secrecy obligation interacts with a duty to testify or to produce documents is also provided, where available. On the cross-border aspects, information regarding the recognition of confidentiality of communications with foreign patent advisors is presented. Depending on the availability of information, the extent and depth of collected information of each country (or territory) is not necessarily the same.