I agree with ChiefJRoberts comment:
guysmiley go solo e-mail/fax your resume to all the local patent prosecution firms in your area. In your cover letter ask if they have any overflow work. Then followup with a phone call. Don’t listen to the non-sense that the market will recover anytime soon. We are at least a year or more away from any recovery.
Do what you have to do . . . as ChiefJRoberts correctly stated this economy sucks!
Greediness and short sightedness killed this area of law. Not the Subprime Lenders, not Bernie Madoff.
Over the past couple of years regional GP firms absorbed small patent prosecution practices thinking that these practice groups could become anchors in rough times. After getting settled in, these new practice groups found unbearable pressure from senior non-patent group partners to over bill their clients. Let’s face it our clients have no loyalty and the competition is out their is more than willing and ready to under bid. Two years ago we were dealing with patent attorneys working out of their home office’s offering to do an application for $3,000 each. Now I hear those same individuals will do the same work for under $2,000.
At the same time, the senior non-patent partners at these GP firms failed to appreciate the specialized qualifications required for patent prosecution staff. For example, non-patent partners in tough times decided that an experienced paralegal (say with ten years experience handling litigation support) could easily handle both her non-patent support tasks while at the same time lend a hand with the patent group. Hence they fired the costly patent paralegal and kept the cheaper litigation paralegal. This decision likely caused a problem (i.e. simple tasks such as entering office actions into CPI can have costly consequences if done incorrectly –say the paralegals fails to understand the difference between a final office action and a FOAM).
In other words, how do GP firms hold on to clients when the work product tanks while at the same time billing increases? Well the solution is to hire technical advisors to ghost write the applications and amendments for the greedy partners. That is likely how you and many others associate lost your jobs. Of course those greedy partners are starting to see that most major companies are not sending anything out anymore due to the poor work product and why you are starting to see job postings for in-house.
Maybe try for one of those few in-house spots too?
Author
Topic: Advice - Laid off patent attorney can't find job (Read 3331 times)
