The advisory by a patent attorney essentially refers to obtaining, preserving, defending and enforcing industrial property rights. Industrial property rights include, above all, the patent and utility model for technical inventions as well as the trademark as part of law of marks and commercial designations as well as the design for non-technical innovations.

However, industrial property right is often also effectuated by copyright law and the protection from imitations by competition law, based on which claims can be asserted accompanying or by substitution of industrial property rights, respectively.