The Patent Career Guide

Intro

This is a guide to beginning a career in the patent field. This is the resource we wish we had when we were navigating the path from clueless engineering graduate to a rewarding career that utilizes our engineering background.

As engineering graduates nobody told us about the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Nobody explained that an engineering degree could be leveraged into a $200,000 starting salary within three years. We didn’t even know what patent lawyers did.

Unless you know someone currently working in patent law, you are not going to find the answers to your questions about how to get there. We created this guide because we believe that a rewarding career exists for those who do not want to take the traditional engineering route. The path to that rewarding career can be difficult to navigate without help and we found that most information online is simply wrong. We believe the reason for this is because so few people actually go down this path and the information necessary can only be learned from experience. You cannot read or fake your way to becoming a patent professional.

Please skip around the guide as is helpful to you. We designed this to help people at many different stages of obtaining a patent job. If there is anything else you have questions about please send us a direct message on twitter @PatentCareer or email guidetopatentcareers@gmail.com.

Table of Contents

1. Is Patent Law right for you?

2. The Patent Bar

3. Intro to Various Patent Careers

4. Patent Agent

5. Technology Specialist

6. Patent Examiner

7. Patent Attorney

8. Litigation or Prosecution, which one is for you?

9. Undergrad Degree

10. The LSAT

11. Applying to Law School

12. 1L Year

13. Loyola

14. 2L and 3L Years

15. Should you get a clerkship?

16. Paying for Law School

17. Where to Work First

18. Pay

19. Myths 

About Us

The combined experience of the authors includes work for multiple biglaw firms, patent boutiques, and in house positions. All of the authors graduated with honors from their law schools and had multiple patent related internships and externships while in law school. We worked in major cities. Some of us are published. All of the information in this book comes from our own first hand experience.