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Becoming a Patent Agent/Lawyer / Re: fresh Ph.D in Industrial Engineering looking for IP technology specialist
« on: 10-06-11 at 12:52 pm »
Thanks for all the replys. They really help a lot.
As far as my understanding, IE is definitely not a plus for career path of patent law. But anyone with strong "engineering" thinking that can understand other's invention quickly and express it in an appropriate way should be qualified. EE is preferred because everybody assumes all EEs have been trained well to have the strongest "engineering" sense among all the engineering majors. Of course, "engineering" sense if only one aspect to be successful in patent law and only part of "how much engineering sense you have" is really from your background, either EE or IE. IE is same as any engineering because we are inventing things too, maybe not a real product but a system. In my opinion, patent law doesn't care what you can invent, but the process and idea of "invention" is important. So I still believe a good IE can be good in patent law, because we have most of the same abilities EEs have, and we are doing better when looking at the big pictures.
I think my best option is to do a test drive to see if I'm truly love this career path and if I'm able to do that. Is that common in this field to find an internship (maybe unpaid :-() first and make the decision after that? Or do you think my resume will be killed directly when the firms see "IE" in my background? If that is the case, it really disappointing but actually make things easier for me.
btw, how bad does the "English is not my first language" affect my patent law route? Thanks.
Thanks again for the help. I really learned a lot.
As far as my understanding, IE is definitely not a plus for career path of patent law. But anyone with strong "engineering" thinking that can understand other's invention quickly and express it in an appropriate way should be qualified. EE is preferred because everybody assumes all EEs have been trained well to have the strongest "engineering" sense among all the engineering majors. Of course, "engineering" sense if only one aspect to be successful in patent law and only part of "how much engineering sense you have" is really from your background, either EE or IE. IE is same as any engineering because we are inventing things too, maybe not a real product but a system. In my opinion, patent law doesn't care what you can invent, but the process and idea of "invention" is important. So I still believe a good IE can be good in patent law, because we have most of the same abilities EEs have, and we are doing better when looking at the big pictures.
I think my best option is to do a test drive to see if I'm truly love this career path and if I'm able to do that. Is that common in this field to find an internship (maybe unpaid :-() first and make the decision after that? Or do you think my resume will be killed directly when the firms see "IE" in my background? If that is the case, it really disappointing but actually make things easier for me.
btw, how bad does the "English is not my first language" affect my patent law route? Thanks.
Thanks again for the help. I really learned a lot.
