Reply to DD with PhD suddenly interested in becoming a patent attorney

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[quote=Anonymous]My husband has been a patent attorney for 20 years, and before that worked as an examiner at the USPTO (while going to law school)

The only way a patent attorney is making that much is if they’re a litigator at a top firm, or at least a partner somewhere with a lot of your own clients.

So after the LSAT, 3 years of expensive school, the bar exam and the patent bar, she’d have to find a big law job and compete with other attorneys to be on the litigation side of things. Guess what—you don’t have to be a patent attorney to litigate—so you’re competing with the extroverts who like to litigate.

Patent prosecution (obtaining patents for clients from the USPTO) is a grind at the big firms that pay well. It’s hard to get your hours because firms promise large corporate clients to get patents without billing a lot of hours. In house is better but the odds of making 500k are low.

Not a good idea.

Now, if she just wants a change and is interested in patent prosecution, with her education she could work as an examiner at the USPTO or take the patent bar and become a patent agent.  Some specialty IP firms also hire phds as technical experts.

Alternatively, we have a friend with a PhD who worked at the USPTO and then emigrated to New Zealand—you can be a patent attorney there without going to law school. He’s been there for a long time so I don’t remember all the steps he took to get there, but it worked out really well for him. [/quote]

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