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Long time forum stalker, relatively new poster.

I have a degree in Industrial Engineering, and will have about a year of work experience as a "project engineer" at the time of applying to law school (applying for fall 2013). I know the engineering degree allows me to sit for the patent bar, but I am curious about what sort of job prospects exist for a person with such a background. I know I will definitely go to law school, the question I am asking is whether all the pro-IP talk is geared towards PhDs and comp sci etc? All opinions welcome.

anybody have any opinions? anybody?

I'm applying in 2013 as well, my degree is also in engineering. So everything below is from reading and asking people and not actual experience.

From what I've gathered, the PhDs are required for hard science (chem, bio) and usually needed to prosecute life-science and pharma patents. EE/CS are the most in demand since a lot of patents filed now in electronics and related to computer science.

The other niches in patent law are mechanical patents, and chemical patents which are handled by mechE's and chemE's, respectively. However, I believe an bachelors engineering degree is sufficient to find placement in IP after law school. If you look through websites biglaw firms, you'll see associates with a variety of different engineering backgrounds.

I know a few industrial and other random engineers doing patent work, but they're all older and started working a long time ago. I think it will definitely be an uphill battle finding a patent job as an industrial engineer, but possible. Some small prosecution boutiques will take random backgrounds and just have them do a variety of easy technologies it seems.

clintone88 wrote:I know a few industrial and other random engineers doing patent work, but they're all older and started working a long time ago. I think it will definitely be an uphill battle finding a patent job as an industrial engineer, but possible. Some small prosecution boutiques will take random backgrounds and just have them do a variety of easy technologies it seems.

It really depends on the firm/office. Being an engineer is the floor of hiring requirement. So when there are not enough suitable candidates for a certain need (like EE/CS) firms will look at any engineer or students with a tech bg. But of course they would probably pick the specific background to fit their needs when they can. I don't think most people get hired only to work in their expertise, you have to be comfortable working with other technologies. So being an industry engineers may not be as marketable, but you are still above the hiring floor.