Patent Attorney

[Laserxenon]

I have my BSME (graduated 1 year ago) and have recently been thinking about going to law school and pursuing a career as a Patent Attorney.

If anyone has any advise about this, I would love to hear it. Thanks!

 

[KENAT]

Take a good look, I think this came up before, or maybe I'm thinking of sales engineer.

Either way do a search, I get these results from a simple search I'm sure you can do better.

thread731-187363
thread731-184611

http://www.google.com/custom?domain...000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;&hl=en

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[cedarbluffranch]

Sure, do it if your interested.

One cheap way of doing it is work at a company that pays for education and go to night school. My company does this and I know of people who now have law degrees paid for by the company. Sweet deal.

 

[dvd]

If all you want is to do patent work, then look into becoming a patent agent. If you can get on with a law firm as a patent agent, they may pay for your law school later on.

 

[Bribyk]

Are you an insomniac or something?

 

[Dirtguy4587]

A good friend of mine has 2 engineering degrees, went back, got his law degree, and is now practicing in patents/intellectual property. He loves it, and it sounds like very interesting work.

 

[COEngineeer]

The only way to be a "patent" attorney is if you have an M.S. So it sounds like you are on the right track. You will probably take almost the same classes as any other attorneys. So you can also practice something else if you cant find a job as patent attorney. I dont think you choose what kind of an attoreny you want to be when you go to law school.

Never, but never question engineer's judgement

 

[Transient1]

COengineer,

Why do you say you need an M.S.? I don't think that's true.

 

[Laserxenon]

Thanks everybody for the thoughts...

As Transient said, do you need a masters? I wasnt aware of this.

 

[COEngineeer]

Im sorry.. i mean BS. Not BA.

Never, but never question engineer's judgement

 

[GregLocock]

COEngineer- Your sig is currently looking rather ironic. It is also absurd.

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I have friends who LOVE patent law and others who wish they could find something more exciting. To each his own...

 

[Sideswiper]

I've looked into this and, if I were to pursue it, I would take the Patent Bar first. Passing that, I would try to get a start as a Patent Agent. A Patent Agent can represent a patent with the patent office, and can do everything a lawyer can except draw up contracts (or really work out anything that isn't directly between the patent requester and the patent office). Getting the law degree would come AFTER all of that. If you don't like the career you can stop before spending $$$ on law school.

That Patent Bar looks pretty hard... not on a technical level, but on a "memorize all rules about patents" level. Check out a sample test.

http://www.uspto.gov/go/dcom/olia/oed/pastexams.htm

It would also be a good idea to get your start working as a patent examiner for the patent agency.

When I had no engineering experience I got a cold reception from firms. I think they are looking for some real world experience from their Patent Agents. Maybe it is best to try to find a patent agent or lawyer and offer them lunch, and just ask?