From theoretical physicist to patent attorney – my first year as a patent attorney trainee
Whaaaat? Excuse me? Come again? Ohhh… Are the most common reactions when I tell people what I do. Patent attorney trainee or Patentanwaltskandidatin are not job titles that just roll off the tongue – in fact, it took me a lot of practice to master the second one. My elderly Bavarian neighbours have no idea what a patent attorney is, let alone a Kandidatin to become one. My family and friends mostly heard this job mentioned as a specific subset of a lawyer. In light of this, they often ask me: “Isn’t it boring? Don’t you have to do a ton of paperwork and stay up all night to memorize dusty ancient law manuscripts? Don’t you miss the excitement of solving problems and working with other scientists?” The answer to all three of those questions is no. No, it is not boring, the work is dynamic, and provides surprisingly many outlets for self-expression. No, all-nighters were never my thing, the manuscripts are all available online for reference, and no one actually knows them by heart. No, I don’t miss intellectually stimulating work and people, because I never left them behind. Problem-solving is an integral part of a patent attorney’s job – how else would we figure out the details of a complex patent application? Discussing the specifics of patent applications with inventors is not at all unlike the stimulating discussions with fellow scientists so valued in academia.
So what exactly have I been doing for nearly a year now? The short answer is, a lot. The long answer could fill a book, so here is the shortish one. I read scientific literature on robotics, algorithms, and statistics to better understand the fields our clients are working in. I held technical discussions with inventors to get a better grasp on their ideas. I travelled to visit our clients on site and see how they do their magic. I wrote patent applications, got feedback on them from my bosses, the patent attorneys, as well as from clients, rewrote and improved my work. I did searches: prior art searches, freedom to operate searches – done to provide clients with an overview of what is already known in their field of operation or to determine whether they can bring their product to the market in a particular country. I went to oral proceedings – the most intense, yet the most rewarding part of a patent attorney’s job, where the fate of a granted patent can change, where decisions bearing enormous financial impacts for clients are made, where the goal is to convince the members of the examining, opposition or appeal divisions that your case is logically sound and your client is in the right. I estimated patent portfolio budgets, took part in strategic discussions concerning intellectual property and delivered IP landscape analyses. I learned to use several docketing systems – special programs patent attorneys use to keep track of all the cases, clients and, most importantly, deadlines. I struggled with the online patent application submission system of the European Patent Office, and called them to clarify things without restraint (they were very nice about it).
It was not all work work work though. I had a lot of fun having lunch with my colleagues and discussing our lives or latest vacation plans. I was a fervent Germany supporter during our office football viewing parties (a real rite of passage in Germany). I gave a talk about my area of specialization in physics, cosmology, to my colleagues and friends, and we proceeded to watch Wall-E (our office is famous for its bi-monthly-or-so lecture-and-movie nights). I went to dinner with clients and had a blast talking about politics, recent events, history, technology…
So you see, if I had to describe my job in one word, I would use the opposite of “boring”, I would use “exciting”. It has been an amazing year, and I am very much looking forward to continue my training as I keep moving forward on the long and winding road towards the title of a European Patent Attorney. And maybe a German Patent Attorney as well, if I succeed in an epic fight against Bureaucracy, Rules and Language (German is hard!), but this is a story for another day.
