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I've got a friend who is planning on applying to law school. She's got a master's in civil/environmental engineering from a very strong program, and she'd eventually like to do IP law. While I know law students with electrical/mechanical engineering backgrounds get snapped up, do the same rules apply for civil engineers? If not, what's different?

My intuition is that civil is lumped in with the same category as Mechanical, Aero, Chem. I lump Chem in there because Chem Engg. is very little actual biochemistry, and I know for sure that PhDs in biochem with JDs are 10x more desirable than Chem Engg.'s.

seems to be a two-tier track: EEs, then CompE/CS, then ME/AE/CE/ChemE for the engineerings
For the sciences, its either PhD Bio/Chem/Biochem or bust. The other science PhDs, e.g. Math/Physics are usually lumped in with the engineers.

Is your friend's undergrad also Civil? I'm not sure what "Environmental Engineering" is - my guess is it is kind of outside the ballpark as far as patent litigation is concerned.

Name the 10 civil engineering patented bridges/roads/inventions that happened off the top of your head in 30 seconds.
Name 10 electronic gadgets you use, or 10 pieces of software in 30 seconds. They are all patented/copyrighted.

Now name the last 10 civil engineering IP lawsuits that happened.
Yea, thought so.

Anonymous User wrote:Name the 10 civil engineering patented bridges/roads/inventions that happened off the top of your head in 30 seconds.
Name 10 electronic gadgets you use, or 10 pieces of software in 30 seconds. They are all patented/copyrighted.

Now name the last 10 civil engineering IP lawsuits that happened.
Yea, thought so.

No need for the snark. Civil Engg involves more patentable subject matter than "software" or these other "high tech" patents you're referring to in the first place. It's just that they don't usually involve the bogus patent wars that take place between big tech companies right now. And that could easily be a "right now" thing with defensive patent aggregators and what not. Patent insurance, reform, could actually result in a systemic shift away from patent litigation over time - so I wouldn't hang my hat on EE or CS and think I'm "set."

Everyone knows there's a giant patent litigation bubble and/or patent bubble right now. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Name the 10 civil engineering patented bridges/roads/inventions that happened off the top of your head in 30 seconds.
Name 10 electronic gadgets you use, or 10 pieces of software in 30 seconds. They are all patented/copyrighted.

Now name the last 10 civil engineering IP lawsuits that happened.
Yea, thought so.

No need for the snark. Civil Engg involves more patentable subject matter than "software" or these other "high tech" patents you're referring to in the first place. It's just that they don't usually involve the bogus patent wars that take place between big tech companies right now. And that could easily be a "right now" thing with defensive patent aggregators and what not. Patent insurance, reform, could actually result in a systemic shift away from patent litigation over time - so I wouldn't hang my hat on EE or CS and think I'm "set."

Everyone knows there's a giant patent litigation bubble and/or patent bubble right now. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Hello snark, meet snark.

c3pO4 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Name the 10 civil engineering patented bridges/roads/inventions that happened off the top of your head in 30 seconds.
Name 10 electronic gadgets you use, or 10 pieces of software in 30 seconds. They are all patented/copyrighted.

Now name the last 10 civil engineering IP lawsuits that happened.
Yea, thought so.

No need for the snark. Civil Engg involves more patentable subject matter than "software" or these other "high tech" patents you're referring to in the first place. It's just that they don't usually involve the bogus patent wars that take place between big tech companies right now. And that could easily be a "right now" thing with defensive patent aggregators and what not. Patent insurance, reform, could actually result in a systemic shift away from patent litigation over time - so I wouldn't hang my hat on EE or CS and think I'm "set."

Everyone knows there's a giant patent litigation bubble and/or patent bubble right now. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Hello snark, meet snark.

Fair. Sorry guy.

Anonymous User wrote:No need for the snark. Civil Engg involves more patentable subject matter than "software" or these other "high tech" patents you're referring to in the first place. It's just that they don't usually involve the bogus patent wars that take place between big tech companies right now. And that could easily be a "right now" thing with defensive patent aggregators and what not. Patent insurance, reform, could actually result in a systemic shift away from patent litigation over time - so I wouldn't hang my hat on EE or CS and think I'm "set."

Everyone knows there's a giant patent litigation bubble and/or patent bubble right now. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Work on "bogus" issues should be appreciated, though, because a lot of law is simply fighting over bogus issues, and that is true in almost every field of law.

I would say that Civil Engineering is low on the totem pole for IP, particularly for patent prosecution. Anyone can do patent litigation, of course.

However, Civil Engineering has uses outside of IP law, such as constructions law, and other regulatory law, just like how Chem E might be useful outside of IP for environmental law.

Black-Blue wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:No need for the snark. Civil Engg involves more patentable subject matter than "software" or these other "high tech" patents you're referring to in the first place. It's just that they don't usually involve the bogus patent wars that take place between big tech companies right now. And that could easily be a "right now" thing with defensive patent aggregators and what not. Patent insurance, reform, could actually result in a systemic shift away from patent litigation over time - so I wouldn't hang my hat on EE or CS and think I'm "set."

Everyone knows there's a giant patent litigation bubble and/or patent bubble right now. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Work on "bogus" issues should be appreciated, though, because a lot of law is simply fighting over bogus issues, and that is true in almost every field of law.

I would say that Civil Engineering is low on the totem pole for IP, particularly for patent prosecution. Anyone can do patent litigation, of course.

However, Civil Engineering has uses outside of IP law, such as constructions law, and other regulatory law, just like how Chem E might be useful outside of IP for environmental law.

CR. You won't even have the leg up that the MechE-tier backgrounds have for prosecution to insulate you from not being able to get lit if your grades are bad. Take a look at a few firm (especially boutiques, which are more pros heavy in general) websites and tell me how many Civils you find.