Different jobs as a patent attorney

Yesterday we had an amazing talk with the lovely Georgia Tseliou who works as a patent examiner at the EPO. We talked about intellectual property and the difference between an examiner's and a patent attorney's job. Our chat made me realise again how many different things we can do in the field of IP.

As a patent attorney, you can work:
- in education (such as being an EQE tutor or teaching patent law at CEIPI),
- in prosecution or litigation,
- as an in-house attorney or in private practice.

An in-house attorney gets involved at an earlier stage in the inventing process and handles large patent portfolios, closely collaborating with attorneys from private practice. Depending on the size of the company, you may have to look after trademark portfolios as well.

Private practice can mean:
- freelance attorney,
- solo practice,
- small-sized IP firm,
- large firm.

Having a solo practice will require you to be your own manager and have an entrepreneurial side. At a smaller sized IP firm you can work with patent applications from many technology areas, and may be more involved in other activities such as trademarks and designs. Working at a large IP firm will probably mean working in a more specific technical field and having monthly billing targets to reach.

You can also work as a patent examiner and thus be involved in the search and examination.

All of these jobs include different daily tasks and require different skills. Once you figured out you want to work with IP, you can test yourself in different areas and see what works for you the best. If you are not sure what you want to do, you can also figure out what you don't want to do. For example, I now feel that I don't want to work in litigation.

I am sure my list is not complete. What else can we do as patent attorneys? Oh, and what is your dream job as a patent attorney?