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[JTripodo]

Hello,

I am currently in the process of getting into Law School and was hoping to get some advice before I make the leap. I have a B.S. in Physics and have worked in R&D mostly in optical and electronics while helping to write two patents in my early years after college. For the past 12 years I have been working as an independent software developer and have decided that I had better make a career change due to the eventual extinction that is happening due to outsourcing.  

Two questions that I have are:
1. How is the job market for Patent Attorneys with Physics and Software development experience?

2. How difficult will it be for me to make this transition due to my age (currently 45 and will be 48 upon graduation)  

My plans are to volunteer to work with a local law firm that specializes in patents during the summers but I still worry if I'm getting a little too old to be making this major of a career change in my life. Hopefully someone out there has made this change later in life and can shed some light on it.

Thanks in Advance,
John

[Isaac]

If you are concerned with outsourcing, you might want to do
some research into outsourcing trends involving the legal
community in general, and with respect to patent work in
particular.

[JTripodo]

Thanks, but I have long ago decided that little can be done to stop the mass exodus of programmer’s jobs in this country (other than a serious deflation of the American dollar).

Also, I am actually excited about changing careers and to at least be working in a field that puts me closer to the R&D community than I have been as a software developer all these years.

Thanks for the input!
John

[Lois Matelan]

Gee, John,
I hope your plan is a good one, because I am already in the middle of executing it, except I have 10 years on you in addition to the BS in Physics and MS in CompSci. Law school is fascinating and exciting; we'll see if age turns out to be a problem when it comes to employment...

[JTripodo]

Lois,

Glad to hear someone else is going the same direction as I am planning. I have found many listings in Silicon Valley for this type of work and since that is exactly where I would like to end up, I believe it’s a wise choice.

Best Wishes!
John  

[JimIvey]

That's more or less the path I took 13 years ago and at a somewhat younger age.  I can't say what the forecast looks like now for that path; I'm a bit insulated from that marketplace (self-employed and experienced).  I have to admit that my phone is a lot less busy from recruiters than it was in the 1990s.  Perhaps they figured out I was happy.  Perhaps the job "inventory" shriveled up.

Keep an eye out for positions in IP transaction work while you're in law school.  We appear to be a dig-out phase (post boom and bust -- and a bit slow in the digging out) of the Internet boom-bust-digout cycle.  What I hear about is a imminent flood of mergers and acquisitions in software/Internet companies with the software assets being possibly tainted with open source licenses.  The ability to speak with software engineers to determine flagged instances of potential OS taint is a delicate task nd requires valuable skill, based largely on being able to get the technical respect of the engineers.  Former software engineers are particularly valuable in that role.

So, pay attention in Contracts.  Maybe take some advanced courses in IP transactions if any are offered.  If you meet some nice people from a firm that does a lot of transactional work for software clients, consider that as a viable alternative to patents.  I believe that type of work will be a growth industry in the next few years.  Of course, I've thought many other things that never came to pass, so take my guesses for what they're worth.

If I'm right in listening to economist mapping out the boom-bust-digout cycle, there may be some growth in software patent work as well.  However, you should be aware that every patent attorney thinks they can do software patents, even though most of them can't.  But don't tell them they can't do software patents during an interview.  Get the job first, then tell them.  Better yet, show them.  That's what I did.

Regards.

[JTripodo]

Actually, I never thought about going that path! I always considered just the patent side of things and never gave contracts a thought with regards to software.

Thank you for your detailed opinion of the marketplace and I will definately include this in my future plans.

Sincerely,
John Tripodo

[patent_type]

John:

I think you missed the point that Isaac Clark was making -- outsourcing is not just a problem for technology industries, but also for the legal community.  

US companies are starting to send patent drafting and prosecution work to India, where an application can be
drafted at a fraction of the cost.

In other words, shifting to a patent attorney career may not entirely insulate you from the outsourcing problem.

PT

[JTripodo]

You are correct; I did not fully understand his point. Thank you for clearing that up.

One can only hope that U.S. Companies will not want to take IP on the cheap for fear of something going wrong and losing everything they have built.

As a software consultant, I can safely say that the work that has come from overseas is not of the same caliber as U.S. Software Developers. Generally what happens is software is received from overseas and then U.S. Consultants are brought in to correct defects or performance problems.

Since correcting Patents is more difficult than software, and so much is riding on them, companies will hopefully think twice before saving a buck.