Stress may come in the form of long working hours, demanding clients, and tight deadlines, but that is true for any law firm. You may enjoy the job aspect where you interact with clients and their creative ideas, discussing their invention, and researching the likelihood of successfully attaining a patent.
Patent Attorneys Have Disputes with Each Other and Hold Grudges That Are Often Severe and Difficult for the Average Attorney to Understand. Patent Attorneys Tend to Hold Multiple Jobs in Many Law Firms, Switch Firms Often and Also Have Long Periods of Unemployment on Their Resumes.
The patent attorney is the central point of contact for the legal protection of industrial property rights. Patent attorneys advise clients on inventions, designs, trademarks, know-how as well as on how to protect software products and plant varieties.
Patent Attorneys are fully qualified and licensed to practice law the same as any other lawyer, but also have the valuable added asset of being admitted to practice (“registered”) before the United States Patent Bar.
However, going to law school and passing the bar exam leads to an even more lucrative career as a patent attorney. Patent attorneys typically earn more than $133K a year, while the median salary for careers in engineering does not pay anything comparable to that amount unless you are an experienced petroleum engineer.
One of the things that attracted me to the patent profession was the opportunity to work in a wide variety of technological fields, and it has certainly not disappointed. The nature of the profession means that you are learning about new technology on a daily basis.
The most U.S. patent agents in total numbers live in California followed by New York and Texas.
In the United States, a practitioner may either be a patent attorney or patent agent. Both patent attorneys and patent agents have the same license to practice and represent clients before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Of roughly 1.3 million licensed US attorneys,7 United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) records identify only about 34,000 as being registered patent attorneys—less than 3 percent of all licensed attorneys in the country.
Can you become a patent attorney solely with a law degree? No, a law degree alone will not qualify you for this IP career. Patent attorneys require in-depth technical understanding of a patentable field as well as specific training and experience in intellectual property law.
You might not need a law degree, but you do need to practice the law. Without grasping and applying legal principles, a technical specialist or patent agent can inappropriately limit a client's invention, or ruin their chances of winning patent protection.
For example, a patent agent cannot provide the following legal services:Advise a client regarding patent infringement;Represent a client in patent litigation;Provide an opinion of validity of another party's patent;Appeal to the Federal Circuit;Prepare a patent license;Trademark searches;Trademark applications.
Patent prosecution attorneys are mainly in charge of daily processes related to initial drafts, filing, and prosecuting patents and trademarks for clients. They may assist litigators and transactional attorneys in their tasks, as they are trained to be proficient in all capacities.
Patent attorneys have extensive knowledge of both the law and the patent system. They draft patent applications every day and work with inventors and patent examiners. They know the critical language that must be present in patent applications.
A patent attorney or patent lawyer is an advocate. This means that an individual who has a law degree and has enrolled with a State Bar Council is an advocate who can deal with patent litigation and is hence a patent attorney.
Some of the highest-paid lawyers are:Medical Lawyers – Average $138,431. Medical lawyers make one of the highest median wages in the legal field. ... Intellectual Property Attorneys – Average $128,913. ... Trial Attorneys – Average $97,158. ... Tax Attorneys – Average $101,204. ... Corporate Lawyers – $116,361.
When we consider the ways in which we’re a client, and how that might translate to good client service in our own practices and professions, it’s usually the pain points that first rise to the surface:
It’s not just about thinking like a client though – we’re providers of services, and we should think like providers. But more than that, consider how it would feel to be the provider of a client that is YOU.