What is life like as a high technology patent lawyer?
Sunday, September 28th, 2008 at
10:26 am
Ellie asked:
I know it is recommended that you have an engineering degree for undergrad. My friend is a software engineering major and was wondering if as a patent lawyer you have to spend a lot of time in front of a computer. He would prefer to not be in front of a screen all day and buy generic drugs online was hoping patent law would be a way out of it while still keeping his engineering degree. Does a patent lawyer spend most of his time with clients or computers? What is a “typical” day like? Thanks everyone!
I know it is recommended that you have an engineering degree for undergrad. My friend is a software engineering major and was wondering if as a patent lawyer you have to spend a lot of time in front of a computer. He would prefer to not be in front of a screen all day and buy generic drugs online was hoping patent law would be a way out of it while still keeping his engineering degree. Does a patent lawyer spend most of his time with clients or computers? What is a “typical” day like? Thanks everyone!
Tagged with: Computers • Patent Law • Technology Patent • Typical Day
Filed under: Attorney FAQ
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It depends of course. There also is no typical day.
Are you doing litigation, filing and prosecuting patents, or licensing etc.?
Either way, when you start out, client contact may be minimal. At a Big Law Firm, new associates do a lot of grunt work. In litigation (patent litigation) this is endless document review in front of a computer. For patent litigation, you are unlikely to see a courtroom until at least year 4 at Big Law. For litigation you are unlikely to have much client contact until the same time period.
In filing and prosecuting patents, the same holds true, however, you may get more inventor interaction eariler. The problem is when you say High Technology in a lot of cases, that means a lot of money is at stake, so you will have to progress signifigantly in your career to get client contact.
As an attorney, you are giving legal advice or legal services. If you simply give advice during an interaction, the complexity of the advice is somewhat limited (how much can you prepare or convey during a conversation?). The majority of the advice/service given is detail oriented or involves the preperation of complex documents for use in and out of court or in front of the PTO. Therefore, until you are a big time partner and oversee associates and manage clients, you are unlikely to escape the computer.
It is probably similar with computer engineering. You start out programing. Then writing specs. Then managing those who write specs. Then Managing a programing project.