Where can I work as a patent attorney or patent examiner?

There are a range of patent law employers and it's worth doing your research before appying to decide which organisation will suit you best.

Patent attorney recruiters

Patent attorney employers fall into two divisions: private practice and corporate practice.

1. Private practice firms sell their expertise to clients, who include both individuals and companies. There’s often a wide range of work, originating from various types of clients and all technical backgrounds. In larger firms in particular, there may be opportunities to specialise. Private practice firms in the UK often also perform ‘agency work’, which involves arranging UK and European patents for overseas clients. Private practice accounts for around 80 per cent of the sector.
2. Corporate practice involves working in-house for one company that generates a lot of patent applications. This could be in any kind of industry, from pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to food and car manufacture. Work is likely to be in one particular area, which may require specialist knowledge and understanding of the employer’s business. Patent attorneys in corporate practice are subject to corporate hierarchy and risk the disruption of mergers, but they also tend to be part of the business team.

A few patent agents work in government departments and a few set up their own practices once they have some experience. It is possible to qualify as a solicitor in a firm that has an intellectual property department, and some firms will train recruits to qualify as a patent agent.

Patent examiner employers

Patent examiners are employed by patent offices around the world, as patent law is terriorial. From a UK perspective, this effectively means working for the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) in Newport, South Wales.You will scruitinise and decide whether to grant patents in the UK, which involves dealing with UK-based patent attorneys and inventors as well as those from other countries wanting patents granted in the UK. You can join as a trainee through their graduate recruitment intake and work with more senior patent examiners and a range of support staff.

You could also work for the Europe Patent Office (EPO), which has bases in Munich, The Hague,  Berlin, Vienna and Brussels. You need to be fluent in one of its offical languages (English, French and German) and be able to understand the other two - although you may be considered if you are fluent in one, can understand another and are willing to learn the third. You join this organisation as a trainee and will do similar work to that in the UK but on a Europe-wide scale. Further on in your career, you could also work for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).