[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 37, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 37CFR10.48]

[Page 366]
 
              TITLE 37--PATENTS, TRADEMARKS, AND COPYRIGHTS
 
  CHAPTER I--UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF 
                                COMMERCE
 
PART 10--REPRESENTATION OF OTHERS BEFORE THE PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE--
Table of Contents
 
Sec. 10.48  Sharing legal fees.

    A practitioner or a firm of practitioners shall not share legal fees 
with a non-practitioner except that:
    (a) An agreement by a practitioner with the practitioner's firm, 
partner, or associate may provide for the payment of money, over a 
reasonable period of time after the practitioner's death, to the 
practitioner's estate or to one or more specified persons.
    (b) A practitioner who undertakes to complete unfinished legal 
business of a deceased practitioner may pay to the estate of the 
deceased practitioner that proportion of the total compensation which 
fairly represents the services rendered by the deceased practitioner.
    (c) A practitioner or firm of practitioners may include non-
practitioner employees in a compensation or retirement plan, even though 
the plan is based in whole or in part on a profit-sharing arrangement, 
providing such plan does not circumvent another Disciplinary Rule.

[50 FR 5172, Feb. 6, 1985, as amended at 58 FR 54511, Oct. 22, 1993]