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Old 01-19-2011, 10:01 PM   #1
jhunt223
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Default Question for Lawyers regarding Patent/IP Law

I'm a first year engineering student trying to decide what field of engineering to major in. Recently I've been considering aiming to get into patent law later in life. I was wondering if there is demand for this sort of thing in Canada and which field of engineering would be the wisest to major in if this was my goal? I would assume electrical wouldn't be a bad idea considering there is always some new electronic toy in the works. Thanks.
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Old 01-19-2011, 10:03 PM   #2
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Patent law always struck me as feminine.
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Old 01-19-2011, 11:02 PM   #3
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Is your goal to be a patent lawyer?

If you have a background in electrical/mechanical engineering, that will be a huge asset for you. Very few lawyers have the technical expertise to make good patent lawyers. Very few engineers have the reading/writing skills to be good lawyers. If you have both those skill-sets, you will be in demand.
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Old 01-20-2011, 12:26 AM   #4
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I think the best advice is to pursue whichever area actually interests you the most, going after a particular niche based on the current legal market is either going to lead you into a job you hate (although you may get to cash large checks) or a field that is flooded by the time you finish your education.

I know this doesn't really work for you, but in my experience the patent area that is turning more half assed lawyers into millionaire partners is pharmaceuticals. Blows me away to see how many guys in that area are making partner at huge firms year after year.
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Old 01-20-2011, 01:08 AM   #5
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Where are you located?
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Old 01-20-2011, 04:51 AM   #6
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I'll second valo's advice that you should do whatever engineering discipline interests you the most. That way, if you decide at a later date that you aren't interested in law, you can still find a job in a field that you like. If you don't care about electrical work but get a degree in electrical engineering, then decide that you don't want to go into law, you've put yourself in a bad spot. Having said that, I think mechanical engineering is probably less useful that electrical engineering or chemical engineering (or other specialties). I'm a chemical engineer and work on chemical patents, but I also don't have any problem working my way through the engineering to do a mechanical patent. The electrical engineer that I work with is the same way - he can do electrical work or mechanical work. The chemistry and electrical patents are just too abstract for the mechanical guys to get their heads around though, so they're really limited to the mechanical work.

I'll warn you though, at least in the U.S., patent law is not a great field at the moment. When the economy started to struggle, patent law was one of the few types of law (along with bankruptcy law and family law) that didn't take much of a hit. That's because you're patenting what the companies developed 2-4 years after they actually spent the money to research the product. Since companies cut back on research and development a few years ago, that's finally caught up to the patent timeframe, so we're getting less and less work, and that will continue until 2-4 years after the rest of the economy recovers. Because of that, there are more patent lawyers than there are patent law jobs (or in my case, more patent lawyers than there is patent work - which is why I'm stuck spending half my day doing general transactional work), so it's getting tougher and tougher to find a job without getting some kind of graduate degree. I'm really not sure if that applies in Canada or not, but if so, the fact that you'll likely be spending 6+ years getting your engineering degrees is all the more reason to go for the type of engineering that interests you the most.

Again, I don't know a whole lot of specifics about patent law in Canada, but I've been a patent lawyer for the past 2 years in the U.S., so let me know if you have any more specific questions that I might be able to answer.
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Old 01-20-2011, 07:38 AM   #7
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If you become a patent lawyer, try not to become a patent troll. What's happening in the states right now is nothing short of extortion, and the courts are only slowly starting to come down on such firms.
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Old 01-20-2011, 09:17 AM   #8
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I am pretty sure if you have your P.Eng and an LLB you'd be in demand even if you wanted to be a truck driving transvestite. I wouldn't worry about it.
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Old 01-20-2011, 09:33 AM   #9
jhunt223
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Im right here in Calgary and would prefer not to leave if at all possible.
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Old 01-20-2011, 09:36 AM   #10
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I would research where the big patent research / patent whoring firms are located. It's more of an American thing so I would hazard a guess that most of your more lucrative opportunities will be in America, and failing that, in T.O / Van. Like most things, other than Oil and Gas, Calgary just doesn't have the size and breadth of industry to support top flight business / employment opportunities, outside of O&G, on a general basis.

If you're not going to be a a petro engineer and you (appear to) have the drive to take two very hard degrees, you'l likely want to be compensated well for it. Calgary will not be the place you find to do that.

Just my $0.02
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Old 01-20-2011, 09:44 AM   #11
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I would recommend looking into the Licensing Executive Society they have a Chapter here in Calgary that meets regularly.

I also know some people at the University of Calgary's Technology Transfer Office (UTI...now called Innovate Calgary) I could introduce you if you PM me.
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