Keywords: intellectual property, attestation, representation, legal status, patent attorneys
 The article is devoted to the study of the organizational and legal principles of attestation of candidates to patent attorneys in Ukraine. The article analyses formation and development of the institute of patent attorneys in the context of obtaining the legal status of a patent attorney and adducesperiodization of the stages of development of the attestation procedure from 1994 to2022. The possibility is substantiated of conditional distinguishing of four stages. The first stage of formation of legal bases of the institute of patent attorneys in Ukraine (1994−1996) is connected with creation of legal bases of functioning of the institute, definition of standard and requirements for obtaining the legal status of a patent attorney, introduction of procedure of attestation of candidates to patent attorneys, formation of community of patent attorneys. The second stage of the development of the institute of patent attorneys conditionallylasted from 1996 to 2016 and is conditionally characterized as a period of strong development of the patent attorneys community, in particular by regular attestation, the creation of the first professional association of patent attorneys and their active assistance in the development of intellectual property protection.
 The third stage, which has been ongoing from 2017 to the present, is actually characterized by the suspension of attestation and the block of the possibility of obtaining the legal status of a patent attorney. It has been established that the result of the reform of the system of legal protection of intellectual property, in particular the liquidation of the State Intellectual Property Service and the subordination of the relevant sphere of intellectual property to the competence of the Ministry of Economy, was the suspension of the attestation procedure. The exclusion from participation in the attestation procedure of the educationalinstitution, based on which attestation and transfer of the relevant functions to the subordinate enterprise took place, partially complicated the continuation of the attestation procedure. The expulsion from participation of the educational institution in the attestation procedure, because of which the attestation took place and transfer of the relevant functions to the subordinate enterprise, partially complicated the continuation of the attestation procedure. The attention has been drawn to the absence of the corresponding order of the Ministry of Economy on the approval of composition of the Attestation and the Appeal Commission. The authors have described the prospects for the development of the attestation procedure at the fourth stage, which can tentatively begin in 2022.