Choosing the right field Forum

[ashep232]

I’m currently a rising junior pursuing two degrees, Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science, with a minor in international business. I have been interested in going into patent law but I’ve heard that you have to have an engineering degree or computer science degree in order to do so. My degrees are specifically Marketing and Integrated Strategic Communications. That being said, I was wondering if anyone knew any other areas of law that pertained more to my undergraduate studies. I am still really interested in IP and Patent law, so any advice on that is welcome to.

[BigZuck]

I’m currently a rising junior pursuing two degrees, Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science, with a minor in international business. I have been interested in going into patent law but I’ve heard that you have to have an engineering degree or computer science degree in order to do so. My degrees are specifically Marketing and Integrated Strategic Communications. That being said, I was wondering if anyone knew any other areas of law that pertained more to my undergraduate studies. I am still really interested in IP and Patent law, so any advice on that is welcome to.

Why not change one of those to STEM (ideally whatever major firms care about for IP bros) and take another year to graduate or whatever you gotta do to get that done?

Ideally you could get a solid job and not even have to go to law school.

[arklaw13]

Have you ever read a patent?

[twenty]

If you want to do IP/Patent law, then yes, you'll need to be in one of those majors. Keep in mind that if you do computer science, you won't still qualify for the patent bar unless the CS program is ABET accredited -- and there are only 265 programs in the country that are ABET accredited.

[skri65]

If you want to do IP/Patent law, then yes, you'll need to be in one of those majors. Keep in mind that if you do computer science, you won't still qualify for the patent bar unless the CS program is ABET accredited -- and there are only 265 programs in the country that are ABET accredited.

Having qualified for the patent bar and have a CS degree from a program that was not ABET-accredited, I can say this incorrect. You will not be able to qualify for the patent bar through Category A unless you received a degree from an ABET program, but you can still qualify to take the patent bar through Category B, as I did.

[SDviaVA]

You should look at some of the patent associate job postings to get an idea of what you will need to be a patent attorney.

Electrical and Mechanical engineering, and CS undergrad majors are in high demand. Some other degree such as Computer engineering and physics are also accepted as substitutes for these majors by most firms.

Biology/Chemistry majors are also in demand, but to a lesser degree than the ones mentioned above. Also you will almost always need a M.S. or a Ph.d in these field to seriously be considered for prosecution work.

If you stick with your current major you may be able to convince employers that it is equivalent to an engineering degree but it will difficult, and given the saturation of the legal jobs market, most employers would pass.

[twenty]

If you want to do IP/Patent law, then yes, you'll need to be in one of those majors. Keep in mind that if you do computer science, you won't still qualify for the patent bar unless the CS program is ABET accredited -- and there are only 265 programs in the country that are ABET accredited.

Having qualified for the patent bar and have a CS degree from a program that was not ABET-accredited, I can say this incorrect. You will not be able to qualify for the patent bar through Category A unless you received a degree from an ABET program, but you can still qualify to take the patent bar through Category B, as I did.

Keep in mind you're playing with a very narrow window here. USPTO requirements for Category B's CS:

Also, under Option 4, computer science courses that stress theoretical foundations, analysis, and design, and include substantial laboratory work, including software development will be accepted. Such courses include the representation and transformation of information structures, the theoretical models for such representations and transformations, [etc.]

A lot of non-ABET accredited programs won't meet this requirement because they're basically glorified IT management programs.

[SDviaVA]

I'm not sure what Integrated strategic communications coursework entails, but given your other major/minor, you may want to look into international trade and export control law. There is a lot of regulations that require an attorney in this field to know technical computer specifications.

[skri65]

If you want to do IP/Patent law, then yes, you'll need to be in one of those majors. Keep in mind that if you do computer science, you won't still qualify for the patent bar unless the CS program is ABET accredited -- and there are only 265 programs in the country that are ABET accredited.

Having qualified for the patent bar and have a CS degree from a program that was not ABET-accredited, I can say this incorrect. You will not be able to qualify for the patent bar through Category A unless you received a degree from an ABET program, but you can still qualify to take the patent bar through Category B, as I did.

Keep in mind you're playing with a very narrow window here. USPTO requirements for Category B's CS:

Also, under Option 4, computer science courses that stress theoretical foundations, analysis, and design, and include substantial laboratory work, including software development will be accepted. Such courses include the representation and transformation of information structures, the theoretical models for such representations and transformations, [etc.]

A lot of non-ABET accredited programs won't meet this requirement because they're basically glorified IT management programs.

Not to go too far off topic here, but yes some CS programs are glorified IT management programs, but there are also a lot of legit CS programs that for whatever reason have not bothered to become ABET accredited, although this number is shrinking recently...the bottom line being that just because the OP's future CS program may or may not be ABET accredited does not necessarily mean they will not be able to take the patent bar.

Case by case basis.

[pfunkera]

I work in an IP department for a pharmaceutical company - its interesting work and caused me to move away from my science background enough that I will be entering law school in the fall.