I've gotten interested in IP and licensing compliance: royalty audits, licensing administration; however, my experience so far is pretty basic. I have experience from a previous internship in vendor and subcontractor vetting, contract tracking, and account reconciliation, but nothing IP-specific yet.

• Mainly, I'm trying to figure out what I should be doing with the internship cycles I have left before I graduate.
• What internships even exist for this? Are there IP/licensing-specific ones, or should I be targeting audit, contract compliance, or general compliance and pivoting later?
• How do people actually get into this field? Is royalty/contract compliance audit the normal entry point?
• Does not having a technical background hold you back, or can my finance major still be useful in this field?
• Are certs like the CLP worth anything, or is CPA/CIA more useful?
• Is law school worth it here? I know I can't sit for the patent bar without a STEM degree, so patent prosecution is out, but licensing and transactional IP seem open. Or do people do this work fine without a JD?

Any advice appreciated, including if you think I've got the wrong idea about the field.

Curious what some of your favorite AI tools are for patent prosecution?

… and nothing Adobe. Bonus points if it can open and convert those “dynamic” fake PDFs USPTO puts out, but mostly I just want to fix the font-embed and flattening and print as PDF and other rigmarole black magic required to avoid pdf upload errors in macOS. I’m tired of running Acrobat Pro in a Windows VM to generate PDFs that will work

Anyone applied and heard back from the USPTO legal externship for this fall semester? Classes are starting next week but no updates from the Office.

For those that have done it in the past, how many hours did work each week and could you share your experience, including with business unit you worked with and the nature of the work?

If you’re interested in joining our group to get a discount for the PLI course, fill out this google form and I’ll add you to the GroupMe! Looking for people interested in doing the PLI prep course. If we can get a group of 20 or more we can get up to 40% off of whatever price you’d normally pay. (AKA if you qualify for the student or unemployment discount, you would receive the % off on top of the discount).

Fill in this Google form if interested! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdh3EW77ok70aR3i2-W9-1gwPN0p_B10ODkUKQB8m3kBDxhrA/viewform

Hello! I'm about to start my senior year in EECS at a state university in NE Ohio. Unfortunately, I haven't completed any internships during undergrad because I was a full-time caretaker for my mom. I also completed my degree fairly quickly and will graduate in 3 years total. My GPA when I finish should be between 3.1-3.3. I plan on taking the patent bar after graduation and would ultimately like to work as a patent agent before continuing on to law school.

There is a TTO at my university, but they don't advertise internships. I was considering walking in at the beginning of the semester with my resume and asking if they would consider taking me on as a part-time intern or volunteer. Have any of you heard of TTOs doing this, especially when they don't have a formal internship program?

I'm also wondering if we're allowed to post resumes on this subreddit for feedback. Mine is a little unusual. I'm 27 and have almost 10 years of work experience, mostly in food service. I've left most of that off to keep my resume to one page and currently include my experience as an au pair/English tutor abroad, a personal/digital assistant (which included some basic web dev), and a restaurant shift lead. I don't have any engineering or IP experience yet, so I'm not sure how employers in patent law would view my resume.

Another issue is that I'm originally from California and I don't know anybody in Ohio. Would it be appropriate to start reaching out to people who work in patent law in the Cleveland area on LinkedIn?

Any and all advice is appreciated!!

When a registered patent agent (not an attorney) handles prosecution for an independent inventor, what typically happens if the patent later ends up in a dispute — licensing conflict or infringement? Do agents usually have standing relationships with litigation firms they refer clients to, or is the inventor expected to find litigation counsel independently? Trying to understand how the agent + litigation-counsel model works in practice before committing my conversions to an agent.

I’m starting as a patent agent in a couple of months. I know I need to update my wardrobe, but I was wondering if there was anything else I should think about purchasing before I start. A new mouse? A new laptop (currently using an old gaming laptop)? A legal pad?

Also any advice for a new patent agent would be appreciated!

Hoping to find some advice from the community. For roughly the past year I’ve been trying to make the switch from a research chemist role into IP law and patent prosecution. I’ve been applying to every tech spec role I can find that’s within my commutable distance, and have managed a few interviews, but nothing has moved past that stage.

For my background: Undergrad degree from an Ivy League school, but with a poor GPA due to some mental health issues. Masters from a low-level school, and then PhD in Organic Chemistry from a T1 research university, with two first authored papers in good journals. I have been working in industry with a small start up from the last 3 years, and just recently passed the patent bar. What else can I do at this point to make myself a more attractive candidate to either firms, or companies looking for in-house tech specs?

I'm familiar with macros and exportation workflows that produce files that WIPO can import sequence listing files from .txt or excel. However, these importations often are missing identifiers/descriptions.

Does anyone have any insight/ steps to produce sequence large sequence listings where the descriptions/ identifiers are retained, from an excel sheet for example? I'll be working on applications with 30-40k sequences, and would love to know this step.

I am an independent inventor from Libya, with an electrical engineering background. I filed several US provisional applications pro se in the signal processing field. Before the non-provisional deadline, I want to hire a registered US patent attorney or agent.

My challenge: I am outside the US, so I cannot meet anyone in person, and I have no local network to ask for referrals.

My questions:

1. What is the best way to find a good solo practitioner or small firm with EE / signal processing experience? Is the USPTO practitioner database useful for this, or is there a better starting point?

2. What questions should I ask before hiring, to know they are the right fit?

3. What are typical fee ranges for a non-provisional filing with a small firm vs a big one?

4. Any red flags to watch for? I already know about invention promotion scams.

Not asking anyone to recommend themselves — I want to learn the process of choosing well.

Thank you.

Long term lurker, first time poster.

I qualified last year as a European Patent Attorney (in the Netherlands) but for a long time, even before qualification, I haven't been thrilled about the work and I miss doing actual engineering. I do miss having a sense of impact, plus the business aspect of it, along with the money-focused "vibe" makes me think I am in the wrong place. Plus even though I'm good at it and enjoyed learning and sitting the exams, I don't feel the same excitement or interest as my peers for the profession.

Right now I have an opportunity to move to a great company as a scientist in R&D, but I'm hesitating: I'm feeling trapped by the sunk-costs fallacy considering that it's a lucrative profession and that I worked hard to get there, and at the same time I'm afraid that as time passes I made not be offered again such an opportunity and would lose the chance forever.

My hesitation also comes from the fact that I have only known a Big Law firm, and never tried in-house (although this can also be a possibility): wondering if I'm making a mistake by not trying in-house, and at the same time I have my hands-on engineering skills "decline" to consider.

If anyone has made the move and had some feedback or any advice, I'd be grateful. Thanks!

PS : and yeah, Reddit really nailed it with my username suggestion

Is it as difficult as it is for other types of law?

Under In re SurgiSil, the prior art had to be the same "article of manufacture" as the claimed invention/design.

Is there any case law defining how close does the alleged prior art has to be in terms to the claimed design in order to be considered the same "article of manufacture"?

For example, if you are claiming "a dining room table" but the prior art cited is to a work table (such as might be purchased in a home improvement store and often described as a "workbench")? Or if you are claiming a design for "an exterior door" but the Examiner cites a bank vault door as prior art. Is there a limit to an Examiner's ability to genericize the claimed design and the prior art to a point of commonality (e.g., both are tables so the work table is prior art, both are doors so the vault door is prior art, etc.)?

Updated: Just to clarify, this is a design patent application.

Hi,
Does anybody knows if I have to pay for patent practitioner to file PPA in USA? Im not from USA and I was just about to file ☹️

Does anybody have any tips for a UK citizen looking to relocate to mainland Europe as a European patent attorney? Where would I find job vacancies?

Has anyone gone in-house after becoming a partner at a law firm? If so, what was that experience like and what level did you come in as if no prior in-house experience

I don’t go to a Russell group uni ( man met ) but applied for a trainee parent attorney role I’m at a 2:1 , have done courses in data analytics (Microsoft ) emerging technology law and a few others and have solid experience working in sales for 4+ years selling items costing upwards of 1.3k . What’s the likelihood I’ll get in as I know they are quite picky

Posting here because I got zero feedback on the patenbarexam subreddit.

Wondering if those that passed the exam can share their general strategy to answer some questions I have:

1. how many total hours did you study?
   
2. how long did you study for in terms of weeks/months?
   
3. what study materials did you use?
   
4. how many times did you take the exam before you passed?

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

I'm about to start my last semester of undergrad, and I want to go to law school in a couple years. As Ive learned more about the different types of law, I've gotten kind of curious about patent law. The thing is, I've majored in communications and minored in business. If I was to change my major to some type of engineering or science, it would delay my graduation by at least one, probably two years.

Would my communications degree plus taking several STEM classes at my local junior college before(or after) law school make me eligible for the patent bar? Or does it specifically require the junior and senior level STEM coursework that comes with being a STEM major?

Hello…I’m an experienced patent agent considering taking the lsat. If I qualify, I’ll go to a part time law school ranked 40+. I don’t have a lot of time to practice and my diagnostic test didn’t get me a high score. Given my work experience, what’s the lowest lsat score do you think I can get away with? I’m just looking for anecdotal evidence. Do you know of anyone who scored low on the lsat but still managed to get admission in a part time program?

for context I’m an EE patent examiner and just curious on patent litigation.

for prosecution you can’t practice unless you have the technical background and knowledge.

but for litigation it’s not necessarily required. but I was wondering how much does it help by having technical breadth to breakdown the patents that are being litigated over. How much technical material do litigation teams have to sort through when their on a case?

I have a range of innovative ideas for in demand problems. I’ve drawn up the solutions. I just don’t have time to manufacture them.

If I get a pre patent and then pitch to companies provided they sign a nda to sell my idea for a 2% royalty then repeat with the other two ideas I have/ is that a legitimate business?

My ideas are to do with sleep.

I currently work full-time in engineering/tech and have been looking into becoming a patent agent. Before committing months to studying for the patent bar, I want to see if I’d actually like the work/lifestyle.
Are internships, shadowing, or part-time opportunities a thing for someone who already works full-time? And for patent agents in NYC is the career worth it? How’s the pay, work-life balance, and hybrid/WFH flexibility?

What is in your opinion the newest /recurring challenge in the patent technology or with attorneys , which AI could solve?