Master Degree for IP Law Forum

[puppytiff]

I have a undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineer and work experience in biotech industry before entering law school. But most of the IP position for biotech industry prefers PhD.

Would it help my chance of landing a job as associate in IP practice if I get a master degree in EE or CS?

[Anonymous User]

It depends. If you're interested in patent litigation or transactional licensing work, a BS is sufficient, though its more common for people in those practices to have also passed the patent bar. If you're interested in prosecution, it's tough to get a job with a stable/reputable firm without a PhD or a significant amount of industry experience.

[Anonymous User]

Yes, it would help

[Anonymous User]

Disagree that it's common to pass the patent bar in patent litigation and in particular transactional IP work, but that probably varies from firm to firm. (I'd say well over half the patent litigators I work with haven't passed the patent bar, and I don't know any transactional attorneys who have except for those who were patent agents before law school.) If you want to do patent prosecution, yeah a PhD is usually desirable, though Chemical Engineering less so than bio/chem. I know plenty of Bioengineering people who got prosecution jobs with just an undergrad degree, for example. While you'd be a crazy desirable hire by an IP lit group with a masers in EE and CS, most of the EE and CS prosecution work is leaving big law for small shops. The question is what kind of "IP" work you want to do, what kind of firm you want to be at, and if it's worth it to get a masters in CS/EE and go to law school? (It's unclear if you are already in law school or not.) Last I checked, most CS/EE masters programs are far from free (as they usually fund only the PhD candidates and treat their masters programs like most universities treat their law schools - as cash infusions). If you are dead set on being a patent prosecutor and want to prosecute EE and CS patents, it seems reasonable. Otherwise it sounds like a nice thing if you could do it for free and actually want to do it, but with a cheme undergrad degree and work experience, you should be able to get an IP lit or transactional job, and possibly a prosecution job.