Patent Law with No Science Degree Forum

[tealkat]

Hi guys,
I'm a recently graduated college senior with a double major in Psychology and English, and I'm very close to qualifying for the patent exam with the number of my science courses.

1. How employable would I be as a patent lawyer without even a BA/BS in science?
2. I can get a 3rd BA in Biological Sciences this year while applying to law school - will this give me enough chances at Patent Law?
3. Is it true that for Biology, you need more of a Masters/PhD to be competitive as a patent lawyer?

I scored a 168 on my first practice real LSAT administered in real test conditions; I have a 3.7 GPA. I can still improve my LSAT score. I have a decent shot at T20.

[rinkrat19]

Dude. You don't need to post the same thing in 3 separate forums, including one (Employment) that 0Ls aren't supposed to post in.

[tealkat]

Real sorry about that, new to the forum and realized I might have posted in the wrong place when I realized 0Ls weren't supposed to post in the first one I posted in...I really need an answer though, so I just tried to make sure it went in the right place somewhere.

[top30man]

For a firm to hire you for patent law you need a science background. Engineering is usually preferred depending on the practice area. Biology is patent law eligible though.

[clintone88]

Almost no chance at prosecution. Even if you can technically pass the patent bar with a few extra classes, it will be nearly impossible to find a job. The BA in biological sciences will not be worthwhile I don't think. For prosecution jobs a BS in bio is very often not enough (need MS/PhD), I don't think a BA in bio science will be enough either. For lit, I suppose you have a shot, but no more than anyone else since you won't have any sort of boost from a tech background, so probably not fantastic coming from a T20.

Out of curiosity, why do you think you're interested in patent law?

[SLim1124]

I'm not familiar enough with patent employability to say for sure whether you could get by with a BA, but it isn't tough to get a MA and if it would help you out further down the line it is worth it. I got my MS in biopharmaceuticals from a Uni of London in 1 year. With your GPA you could probably get into Imperial, UCL, or even Cambridge without having to take the GRE (they pretty much just have a GPA equivalent requirement. No testing, recommendations and essay they just consider fluff). Consider it and pm me if you have other questions or concerns.