INTERVIEW

How did you learn about the Patent Attorney profession and what inspired you to become a (European) Patent Attorney?

While being a student at the university, I did not know too much about this profession, as it seems the case for many in Germany. A personal contact brought it up close to completion of my PhD. Compared to the option of specializing on a particular technology in R&D, I was attracted by the opportunity to stay a technical generalist who deals with many inventions from various fields without first having to overcome the numerous small technical obstacles in the development of a new product.

Most people know that Patent Attorneys help clients obtain a patent. However, what other tasks are you responsible for? Furthermore, if you had to split your role into science, law, and business, what is the proportion of each? 

During the starting years as a candidate at WESER & Kollegen, it was maybe 1/3 science and 2/3 law, working mostly on patents for clients as you say, occasionally on other rights like trademarks, designs, geographic indications of origin, and otherwise taking courses on various aspects of general and intellectual property law. Meanwhile, a major part has become team management and business development, and this share is growing the more as I become a Managing Partner of the firm. But I also take time for extra activities like giving lectures, creating books, and implementing digitalization projects.

What does the team structure at your workplace look like?

We are a small but strong team of selected talents. And we have a flat hierarchy where partners take decisions following proposals of anyone who comes up with something useful.

What does your average workday look like?

There are basically three types of days: 1) days with many short period activities like writing emails, having team meetings and external calls, handling very short cases, 2) days with several hours of focus time on more complicated cases, and 3) travel days for conferences or lectures.

What would a dream workday as a (European) Patent Attorney look like for you?

Half of the day doing patent case work for clients and the other half working on my development activities.

What is the most exciting aspect of being a (European) Patent Attorney for you?

It is a profession where analytical skills and the ability to solve problems really count. It sometimes feels like paid puzzle solving. At the same time, you can advise companies in their core technologies and interact with people all around the world even as an introvert.

What are your least favourite tasks?

Doing advertisement. Unfortunately, humans are quite reluctant to try out new ways of performing their work. It is rarely sufficient on its own that a provided service is good and comes at a fair price to attract many customers.

Does your job allow you to have time for your hobbies? Do you have any side projects related to patents?

I spend lots of time on side projects that I would also call hobbies since I often use my free time and do not do them for the money. These include activities at the software company IP.appify GmbH, which I founded together with two partners of the firm to develop an online platform for self-editable law books (EPC.App and PCT.App) and other tools for Patent Attorneys. I would also count some lectures into this, like my course on European patent practice for IP teams around the globe, now held three times in a row in India.

As patent-unrelated hobby, I am a handball coach for children.

If you could start your career over, would you change anything?

No, I do not regret becoming a Patent Attorney for a single day. I also like being in private practice since I feel as entrepreneur by heart. And I like small teams where there is flexibility to change the way we work and where one can take shared decisions involving the whole team.

If the Patent Attorney profession suddenly disappeared tomorrow, what else would you do?

I would probably use my gained experience in software projects to go in this direction.

What advice would you give someone that wants to become a European Patent Attorney?

If you are smart and have an education background related to physics or electrical engineering: just apply as trainee in my firm :)

What do you think about the future outlook of our profession?

More monotone parts of the work will be done by software and AI, allowing Patent Attorneys to better focus on the difficult tasks. However, I think the digitalization of this profession will not be complete in the next 10 years but is more a task for the lifetime of our generation. And, the job of a Patent Attorney is not at risk at all since there is always a need for people who can solve problems.