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[JimIvey]

It is bad enough having the cheap bastards (attorneys) put is out of work by doing there own illustrations.
 

In defense of my profession and my practice, my job is to provide the best value to my clients.  Period.  Just poke around these forums and you'll see people on all sides of the practice having difficulty with money.  Drafters (here) and searchers and newly minted (and some experienced) patent pratitioners trying to eek out a comfortable living and inventors constantly asking about "poor man's patents."  People on all sides of the issue are feeling a pinch.

When I first started as an attorney, I used a word processor.  Not MS Word, WordPerfect, etc., but a very nice woman who went home at 5pm.  Several decades ago a "computer" was someone who performed mathematical calculations for a living -- in publishing volumes of tables of such calculations.  Am I a greedy bastard for switching from Helen (I think that was her name) to WordPerfect?  Am I a greedy bastard for using a WinTel computer rather than buying large sets of calculation tables?  It certainly put people out of work.  But then I helped the people who make, market, and sell WinTel machines and WordPerfect (more recently, StarOffice).

I'm sorry things changed for you, but it's not because of the greed of lawyers.  

[Isaac]

I am completely empathetic with the poster's frustration over losing his job due to changing requirements, globalization etc.  I've been in that exact position myself.

But practitioners do not do their own drawings out of greed.  Many practitioners are in situations where price competition is a major factor in what they can charge.  When I was doing this on my own, in some cases I was bidding competively for contract work, and I was not doing a lot of cases.    I simply could not afford to pay someone else to do a flow chart or a block diagram when a perfectly acceptable drawing could be done using Word or Photoshop.

 

[IIllustrators]

Out of curiosity, what kind of money can be made as a patent illustrator?

[PatentDrafter]

Sorry, it's been a while since I've looked at this post.  First to address the patent illustrator who has lost his work and obviously upset (Bill)... I'm sorry about what has happened to you (to me as well), but it really isn't the "fault" of patent attorneys as you can read above.  Change happens!  You either go with the flow, adjust what you do, add to your profession or you'll have to find another job.  If you have used on-line travel services such as travelocity because you have greater flexibility and lower costs then you have affected all those that used to be travel agents!  What goes around comes around to you as well.  Attorneys will always look for a better way or service to provide for their clients and we just happened to be in the middle of one of these major changes.

To address how much does a patent illustrator make?  Well, that is very hard to pin down.  An illustrator's pay will vary depending upon if they have their own practise, have employees (or outside illustrators under contract or not), how much experience they have or don't have or think that they have...(can demand more or less), what quality they produce, and do they cut their quality in order to stay competitive, or if they are an employee of a firm.  I have employees who make as little as $24,000 per year and some that can make over $60,000 (all depending upon how much they produce and their experience of course).  If they were on their own they would easily double or triple their income but also would their hours and everything else that would come with owning their own business.  

To start now in this field would be very difficult, as all the professionals that have lost half their work are doing what they can to promote their own business (flooding the market with brochures etc.) just to survive.  The best thing would be to work for someone already in the field and learn as much as you can from them, and help them to succeed.  Over time, they will hopefully help you to take over for them.  But finding someone who is looking for employees will be hard.  I'm not looking and don't think that we will be hiring anytime soon...

Good luck everyone, remember Patent Draftman never die, they just shade away...

[ipillustrator]

Thanks for your input. I am wandering if this may be a profession that would be aound in 15 years or do you think that it is more of a cyclical profession that depends on the tightening and relaxing of rules by the governing authorities. Is this a profession that can be offshored? Or is it necessary for a patent illustrator to live in the US?

[noahnoah]

We have a product we submitted for a provisional patent. Earlier, while drafting 'the whole enchilada', I discovered there was an- etching 'old school' style- of the figures used for visually describing an idea. There is a reason the figure illustrations worked so well, from a line drawing standpoint, the 3D form was described in all it's subltety.

My job throughout the years of design was to visually communicate. So, If there is an interest out there, post your situation and  I'll try to help.

Our product is well on it's way, but if someone out there has a connection with the PWC market, post a reply.