Dear readers, I will be soon graduating from a pharmacy school in Australia with a Bachelor of pharmacy. I became interested in patent law as I studied pharmacy law throught out the course. First of all, I would like to know what the salaries of a patent attorney are like in US,Canada, Australia, and UK. It seems like a law degree is required in order to become a patent attorney in the US, but not in the other three mentioned above. In that case, would I be eligible to work as a patent attorney in US after obtaining the license from Canada, Aus, or UK? (By just taking the bar exam issued by the state, without advancing to a graduate degree) And how hard are the license exams in each of the four countries? Any detailed replies are appreciated!
Higher Education (University +) - 1 Answers
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You would NOT be required to become an attorney to practice patent law in the United States - you can become a patent agent. The best resource for this information is the USPTO website. You are eligible to take the Patent Bar Examination if you have had a required number of science credits (in your case, it doesn't sound like that should be a problem), you can take a quick course to assist you in the review or rely on online materials and once you pass the exam you are a registered patent agent. It would probably be most useful to gain experience through a law firm, being hired on as a scientific advisor, and these positions can start at $50K but that would be before taking the examination - upon successful completion they would pay you at least $70-80K which would rise to around $90K-$100K once you've gained experience. All of that is in US dollars. My understanding is that it's a bit more complicated in UK (I looked into it a few years ago) but again, all that information (and more up-to-date than what I might remember) will be available on the European Chartered Institute of Patent Attorney's website. Good luck!
