chemistry patent law Forum

[senorhosh]

Do chemistry (biochemistry) students have a disadvantage against chemical engineers in the patent law field?
I read for chemical engineers a masters or PhD will not do much, but for plain chemistry/biochemistry a masters is required. Is this true and why is that?

Also..
I've fulfilled all the requirements for pharmacological chemistry, biochemistry, and environmental chemistry at my college (they're all chem degrees, just different subdivisions). I have one more year of school for raising my GPA and taking GE's so I can declare any one of these as my major. Do any of these degrees have an advantage over another in patent law (or affect it in any way)?

[vb007]

the fields within patent law you can go into are different for ChE vs. chem. i think ChE is more versatile, but you will be out of the running for hardcore chemical patents unless you have a graduate degree. i might be biased since i have a ChE degree, but i think an equivalently trained (BS level, MS level, etc) ChE major can do anything the chem major can do and more.

[Element]

Do chemistry (biochemistry) students have a disadvantage against chemical engineers in the patent law field?
I read for chemical engineers a masters or PhD will not do much, but for plain chemistry/biochemistry a masters is required. Is this true and why is that?

Also..
I've fulfilled all the requirements for pharmacological chemistry, biochemistry, and environmental chemistry at my college (they're all chem degrees, just different subdivisions). I have one more year of school for raising my GPA and taking GE's so I can declare any one of these as my major. Do any of these degrees have an advantage over another in patent law (or affect it in any way)?

I've been researching a lot of IP firms, and some of them require a graduate degrees for chem/biochem majors. I haven't seen any such restrictions on ChE (my UG degree). I'm not sure how much it will matter once you're practicing, but it might limit your options a bit when searching for a job.