Comments on: Patent Lawyers vs. Patent Agents

By: jeff

jeff — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:51:11 +0000

It really depends on how your market yourself and what you want to do.

You could just go to law school and forget the Ph.D., if you would rather write patents for others than doing the inventing yourself or leading R&D. Me, I’ve got invent!

By: jeff

jeff — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:48:17 +0000

I would say that most patent agents are hired to crank out patents or do other patent work at lower cost than attorneys. The Ph.D. makes you more expensive and may not help if you are marketing yourself as a patent agent. On the other hand, for R&D or for management where a Ph.D. is helpful, the patent agent aspect can be sold as an added benefit to help you be more effective in developing IP or guiding strategy. I have a Ph.D. and felt that later becoming a patent agent helped me a lot in terms of generating IP and helping to guide IP strategy.

By: acmelle

acmelle — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:31:16 +0000

I’m starting a PhD program in Neuroscience in August, and I came across the patent field after researching alternative careers for PhDs. I now would like to become a patent attorney in biotechnology, and I’m contemplating just going to law school instead of getting a PhD.

From your experience do employers prefer PhDs over Bachelor prepared patent agents and attorneys?