Job title: Trainee Patent Attorney (Technology, Software & Engineering)
Location: Manchester
University: University of York
Degree: Physics
Why did you choose a career in the profession?
When searching for jobs towards the end of my degree, my aim was to find a job where I would be able to use my degree without having to go into any form of research. During this search, I came across the role of a patent attorney which seemed to be the perfect fit. Before applying for trainee positions, I was able to do a couple of days of work experience which allowed me to experience some of the aspects of being a trainee and help decide that it was a good fit for me.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
The variation in technology that you come across and the tasks that you do in the same day are some of the best things. Since you are working on several cases at the same time, you come across an array of different fields of technology, even sometimes for the same clients. As it is likely that the cases you are working on are at different stages, for example in terms of prosecution, you end up doing a variety of tasks throughout the day as well.
What are the main duties/roles?
During the day-to-day, the bulk of my time is spent on patent prosecution, which involves initially reading through and understanding objections raised by a patent Examiner as to why a patent application is not allowable. The next stage is coming up with arguments or amendments or both for responding to the objections. I have also had the opportunity to work on drafting patent applications, which at first involves discussions with an inventor to understand the invention and then involves drafting claims and writing the description based on that discussion.