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Skipper2014

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Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 12:46 am

Re: 2yr Exp. Software Engineer =Help Patent Attorney Employment?

Post by Skipper2014 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:36 pm

I'm currently working as a recruiter for SWEs and honestly, unless you absolutely HATE your job and won't be satisfied with anything but IP law...DO NOT LEAVE. Move to (or stay in) the Silicon Valley, enjoy a cushy 40 hour work week with telecommuting options and have a life. We place engineers with 2 years of experiences for over 100K all of the time - obviously depending on education, experience, etc. Based on the current trends the demand for engineers is only going to increase over the next several years. STAY.

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erico

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Joined: Sat Nov 07, 2009 1:56 am

Re: 2yr Exp. Software Engineer = Help Copyright law Employment?

Post by erico » Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:39 pm

Julio_El_Chavo wrote:
TheTopBloke wrote:Honestly, no, it won't.
CR

Patent Prosecution shops only care about (in order of importance):
1) prior prosecution experience (especially experience dealing with Office Actions from the PTO)
2) patent examiner experience (valued slightly less than actual prosecution experience)
3) whether your tech background fits their client needs
4) law school prestige, law school grades, other stuff

they really don't care at all about engineering or other work experience

signed,

2L
i think work experience is more important than you give it credit. esp relevant work experience and esp when you just have a bs.

1L

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zreinhar

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Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 12:15 pm

Re: 2yr Exp. Software Engineer = Help Copyright law Employment?

Post by zreinhar » Sat Mar 12, 2011 5:39 pm

You're thinking a little too hard. Algorithms like: Take this picture, make it smaller, store the picture, then access it. A lot of the higher level stuff isn't all that mathematical. ( can't patent math anyways) I won't say that that your degree is worthless just that your expertise may be a little less broad, thus making an EE more desirable, and in an economy like this that can make things difficult. FWIW a lot of the other examiners in my class have BSCS+ JD. Albeit from lower ranked schools. PM me if you want any specifics or had any other questions.
SOCRATiC wrote:
zreinhar wrote:Either I missed it, or you didn't specificy what area of IP you want to go in to. For someone who has a technical degree that is typically prosecution. There aren't a whole lot of SW patents per se. It's more algorithms. It's also confusing as hell. I'm a fresh patent examiner at the PTO who has some FW/EE work experience and got put into the image analysis group which is almost entirely software-type patents. (more algorithms though) The patenting of these algorithms leads to the cases that paratactical probably sees where a company sues another company because they are infringing on their pantented algorithm using a different source code, etc.

So back to your original question. SW exp can help, but most firms will want an EE for prosecution because they have enough software know how to write a patent for an algorithm as well as semiconductors, transmission lines, etc. (more bang for the buck) If you want to go into litigation, it might help, but then again most litigators don't even have tech backgrounds and went to Top law schools.

Also as mentioned I would be very sure you want to go down this road, a SWE can have a pretty nice QoL working in SW. So I guess it's really up to you.
When it comes to whcih field of IP, I'm interested in ANY field that would let me apply (directly) my CS background.

When you say "algorithms", do you believe that the business process type of algorithm is reviewed more frequently than the usual SW algorithms? I've taken a graduate CS course in algorithms and what not, and I feel pretty comfortable about analyzing and understanding them. But what i'm worried about is the Numerical Analysis type algorithms; I really haven't taken any numerical methods coursework, nor do I have any experience in it.

CS isn't really considered a "tech" degree, right? and if physics majors or engineers are capable of accomplishing similar tasks as me (analyzing algorithms) I can pretty much see how my CS degree is virtually worthless for patents. But maybe, just maybe... I have a shot if I get into a good school and end up in a large law firm that has some pretty good software clients.. I still gotta think about this a lil more.

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