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[Jackie]

           I am a Girl Scout troop in Michigan.  I have a couple of questions to ask you people.  What classes do I have to take in highschool and college?  Do you have meetings?  How much money do you make?  What do you guys basicly do?  Well I have to go.  Please send a letter back to me.  Thank you for your time.


                                                 Sicerely,
                                                  Jackie
                                       

[JimIvey]

What I do:

I write complex technical/legal documents and argue with patent examiners over what my applications can cover.  It's hard work and requires long periods of fairly intense concentration.

How much money we make:

It varies wildly.  Rates charged to clients range from $100/hour to $400/hour.  As a general rule of thumb, the attorney gets to keep half of that as income.  But that rate of profit also varies wildly.  And those hours are billable hours -- billed to a client, no money for lunch breaks, vacations, etc.  1500 hours a year is a fairly comfortable pace, while 2000 hours per year is rather difficult for patent attorneys.  

Oh, and you can discount those rates by about 25% or more for patent agents relative to patent attorneys.

Meetings:

There are conferences that patent attorneys go to from time to time.  Attorneys within the same firm will see each other all the time.

If you're thinking of meetings you can attend, I can look around and see what I can find that's relatively inexpensive and in the Michigan area.  

Education:

You have to have some technical degree to be a patent attorney.  Life sciences are good (biology, chemistry, etc.).  Physics is good to.  Engineering is always good.  I was a computer science major.  At high school and college, you should be working toward your technical degree and ignoring law school until you have your undergraduate degree.  The good news is that you are free to pick a technical discipline which interests you.

I hope that helps.

Regards.

[larkas]

Duties:

JimIvey responded for to the patent prosecution side of things. Some patent attorneys litigate -- go to court -- over patent disputes.  These attorney earn the same as those that write the patent document, but often have higher billable hour requirements -- closer to 2000 hours -- that they usually can easily meet.

Meetings:

A variety of legal organizations (or their sections)  hold meetings related to a patent career. There is the American Itellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), the American Bar Association IP section, many state bar assocciations, and the National Association of Patent Practicioners (NAPP). Also, many private companies offer continuning legal education (CLE) on patent issues (e.g. PLI).

Education:
In addition to the required scientific or engineering education,  I would also recommend that you take classes (or even better real world experience) in scientific and technical writing;  technical writing is probably the most essential skill for a patent attorney/agent.

Links:

This is a very helpful brochure from the ABA IP section that I found useful when I was in high school. It has been revised many times since then.

http://www.abanet.org/intelprop/careers.html


Larry Kasoff