What are the qualifications and realities of working in a patent law firm?

[theallknower]

you know that place where you come with your invention,ideea,brand or anything else and make it oficialy your creation? well,I'd like to work there as the guy who verifies if the product works:)
my questions would be:
what do I need to study to get there? (I am in the 11'th grade at a metrology high school-that's metrology,not meteorology,and I simpley love physics,and enjoy chemestry,biology and psyhology)
and what do you think about this job?

 

[TMFKAN64]

you know that place where you come with your invention,ideea,brand or anything else and make it oficialy your creation? well,I'd like to work there as the guy who verifies if the product works:)

I think you mean the Patent Office, http://www.uspto.gov, unless you mean a company that works with independent inventors to rob them blind, er, help them bring their inventions to market.

The Patent Office isn't quite what you think, though. They don't actually verify that anything works, except perhaps that you aren't proposing a perpetual motion machine. Other than that, their only concern is if someone else proposed something similar before you did.

I would guess that most of the work on both sides of the desk is done by patent lawyers. A technical background in addition to a legal degree would be a plus.

 

[theallknower]

The Patent Office isn't quite what you think, though. They don't actually verify that anything works, except perhaps that you aren't proposing a perpetual motion machine. Other than that, their only concern is if someone else proposed something similar before you did.

so if I come up with an invention,I only get a paper that sais I'm the creator of my invention?
what if my invention dosn't work? I imagined a bunch of physiciens,medics,engineers,and so on,that analises if the invention works...besides the fact that someone verifies if you're the first who invented that...
I was thinking to be one of those physiciens that verify if something works or not...

 

[ephedyn]

Well, look at it this way... as an inventor, would you spend money filing for a patent for an invention that does NOT work?

For instance, say I have an idea... a device disguised as a piece of chalk, the size of a few galactic clusters, that operates on a certain set of mechanical principles that can destroy pulverize the entire Earth.

If you can imagine that, you should be able to understand why the burden of proof lies in the inventors' hands.

 

[TMFKAN64]

so if I come up with an invention,I only get a paper that sais I'm the creator of my invention?
what if my invention dosn't work?

Then you won't be able to make a profit from it when you try to sell it.

The point of having a patent is if you *are* making a profit, no one else can copy it without your permission. It's a big club you get to wield for 40 years. (Or whatever the lifespan of a patent is.)

The people in the patent office try to make sure that you really were the first, and that's about it. And honestly, they don't do much more than a quick keyword search for that.

If there is some dispute about who invented what and when, it is generally resolved in a court, not by the patent office.

 

[theallknower]

oh,well the point was to be kept on date about the new things that apeared,couse as a normal person it would take like 10 years for the info to reach me...but I gues this job failed the test...
this was suposed to be a "secondary" job,the primarley job was to be...something like what was Einstein,but for that I will open a new thred,so that I don't get anoter point:)

 

[theallknower]

I was wondering...can I,a simple man with no conection with the OSIM(a sort of uspto from Romania)go there and read what other people came up with?
just like that,knok at the door,and tell the patent oficer I'd like a copy of that,that and that!

 

[TMFKAN64]

I was wondering...can I,a simple man with no conection with the OSIM(a sort of uspto from Romania)go there and read what other people came up with?
just like that,knok at the door,and tell the patent oficer I'd like a copy of that,that and that!

Sure. Do it online even: http://www.osim.ro.

The point of patents is that they are publically available. In return for giving up your secrets, you obtain legal protection for them.

If you actually went in person to a patent office, I wouldn't be surprised if you had to pay a small fee for hardcopies.

 

[Locrian]

By the way, the idea that you patent an invention that works so you can make money off it is noble, but very outdated. These days the trend is to patent anything and everything, build up a huge database, and the sue anyone who appears to infringe on it. There are companies who do nothing but buy up large numbers of patents with the intention of using them as legal tools for making money. Even companies that do research to create patents are often just looking to gum up the marketplace enough that they eliminate competition for their primary product.

Of course when there is more than one company involved all of this gets very messy, and often the biggest will sign cross license agreements. Then you end up with multiple big guys who have massive patent databases whose only use is to beat up little guys. This can be good or bad, depending on which side you're on.

This problem is probably worst in computer science because you have multiple methods of intellectual property protection - patent, which is short term, and copyright, which is very very long term.

 

[Moonbear]

There are companies who do nothing but buy up large numbers of patents with the intention of using them as legal tools for making money.

My boyfriend is a patent attorney, and when he told me about this practice, I was pretty shocked. I didn't even know it was possible until he told me about it.

A few things about patent law, as I've gleaned from my boyfriend and other sources. First, you DO need a science background of some sort to pass the PTO bar exam (this allows you to work as a patent agent...you actually DON'T need a law degree to be a patent agent, you need the law degree to be allowed to sign your name to the patents or take them to trial and make twice as much money for otherwise the same work ). You don't need a science major, but it helps, especially when it comes to really understanding the patents. Ages ago, ironically before I even met this boyfriend, I considered becoming a patent agent as an alternative career, so looked into the requirements as well. They have a list of how many credit hours of courses in the sciences you need to qualify to take the PTO exam. You also need to get copies of the course descriptions from the old course catalogs (your university can provide these if you decide later in life to do it and don't have copies saved). Science classes for basket-weaving majors don't count, which is why they need copies of the course descriptions.

Second, 90% of your time is spent doing very boring tasks. 10% is highly interesting learning about new ideas and is what makes the other 90% worthwhile.

The work hours are comparable to those of university faculty trying to get tenure...but it takes longer to make partner. Don't expect to sleep much for the first 8 or 10 years of the career.

The amount of work they can bring in is influenced by the research sector profits. Right now, they're experiencing quite a work slowdown. Not as many companies can afford as much R&D now, so a lot of the work is just enforcing current patents. As research budgets tighten, they are also less willing to spend as much money on getting patents for new products, especially if they aren't going to be bringing it to market anytime soon.