subject: How to qualify for Patent Attorney [print this page] Patents are a great tool for the inventor to safeguard his or her invention in a manner that no one else copies it or does it by giving due credit to the inventor. Given how lucrative new technologies have become and the fact that information can freely move all over the world, patent protection becomes very important. Since patents are a part of legal system you need a guide who can help you secure patents and protect it. This is where patent attorneys become so important.
Patent filing is a very lengthy and tedious process. Given the final right that the patent holder gets on the invention, there are many checks and intermediate steps to ensure that the proclaimed inventor does not get any undue advantage. The main idea is to reward the deserving and keep the notorious out of the loop.
Legal filings and steps can be very challenging and you need a qualified patent attorney to guide you through the entire process. Given the uniqueness of the patents and their implications typically a patent attorney is a special qualification and regular lawyers cannot take this function up.
Worldwide patent attorney qualifications
In most nations the basic requirement to become a patent attorney is to have a technical degree from a recognised university. There are exceptions to this case, where you can take additional courses or show relevant experience in place of the degree. However, a degree remains the most straightforward way to become an attorney.
If you qualify to become a Patent attorney, you then need to clear examinations to get registered. In most nations there are multiple examinations that one needs to clear. These exams test on various aspects of a patent attorney job profile ranging from filing patents to infringement of patents. Certain nations also have an oral examination besides the written papers.
Interestingly, not all nations make it mandatory for a potential attorney to pass the law exams or have any law background. This is probably because the patent domain is quite a different dimension to the regular judicial system. Some nations like Japan and Israel allow the patent attorneys to even deal with issues around trademarks, copyrights, etc.
While the whole process seems very logical and simple, it is a lot of hard work and study. The written exams in most countries are very lengthy and last nearly four to seven hours each. The passing criteria are also pretty steep and typically in most nations people take a few years before clearing all the examinations.
However, once registered with the national patent office, the patent attorney can then give guidance to clients with their patents, represent them for filing the patents and even take up patent infringement cases on behalf of the clients in the court of law.
