Daily Life of an IP
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 11:26 am
Hey I'm a student learning about being an IP. Could someone describe what you would do daily?
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A bit of wrong information in the post above.Thom wrote:If you mean intellectual property with patents courts (includes copywrites and trademark I believe too) then the good news is the license is good nation wide (since it's own court) bad news is a very low pass rate on its own additional bar exam plus even lawyers need a STEM undergrad degree so for many it's already too late unless they backtrack a bit. I considered it myself at one point but my undergrad wasn't applicable.
Thanks for the extra details. Do you think the income levels are higher enough to justify someone getting a JD if all they wanted to do with the stuff that didn't require a JD?QContinuum wrote:A bit of wrong information in the post above.Thom wrote:If you mean intellectual property with patents courts (includes copywrites and trademark I believe too) then the good news is the license is good nation wide (since it's own court) bad news is a very low pass rate on its own additional bar exam plus even lawyers need a STEM undergrad degree so for many it's already too late unless they backtrack a bit. I considered it myself at one point but my undergrad wasn't applicable.
The "patent bar" - see https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-reso ... gistration - is only required for those seeking to practice in patent matters before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This basically means: 1) Patent prosecutors (i.e., the folks who draft patent applications and "prosecute" them before the USPTO to get an issued patent). And 2) Patent litigators who do post-grant work (IPRs) before the USPTO.
The following do not need to pass the patent bar (though doing so may be advantageous for job prospects, as passing the "patent bar" in addition to a state bar allows one to market oneself as a "patent attorney"):A J.D. (or admission to a state bar, for that matter) is neither necessary nor sufficient to confer eligibility to take the patent bar. Rather, eligibility turns on whether one has taken a sufficient number of qualifying college-level STEM courses.
- Copyright & trademark (colloquially "soft IP") lawyers, including copyright & trademark lawyers who practice before the USPTO.
- Patent litigators who only practice in the federal courts, including the Federal Circuit.
- IP transactional lawyers who handle IP-related corporate work.
It is entirely possible, and in fact, quite common for non-J.D.s to take the patent bar. If a nonlawyer passes the patent bar, s/he is then eligible to register to practice before the USPTO as a patent agent. The scope of their practice is restricted to patent matters (no copyright or trademark matters), and to matters before the USPTO (no handling appeals to the DDC or the Federal Circuit). Passing the patent bar does not confer eligibility to practice before any court. It only confers eligibility to practice before the USPTO.
(Conversely, lawyers cannot practice before the USPTO in patent matters until and unless they qualify for and pass the patent bar.)
The only "stuff" you can do without a JD is patent prosecution. Salaries vary wildly, but an experienced patent agent with the right degrees is usually in the $100-125k range. By comparison, a full patent attorney might start in big-law, then move in-house somewhere and make $180-250k.Thom wrote:Thanks for the extra details. Do you think the income levels are higher enough to justify someone getting a JD if all they wanted to do with the stuff that didn't require a JD?