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Who are patent attorneys and what do they do? Patent Lawyers are basically attorneys who are registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They are also licensed to practice law in at least one state bar or bar association. And you should know that Patent Law is the only area of law requiring a separate license.
In other words, theoretically, any attorney can practice tax law, water law, criminal defense, personal injury, etc. Even though these different areas of law all require years of highly specialized training and separate bodies of knowledge and skill sets, any attorney can practice any of those disparate fields of law.
In terms of education, patent attorneys are required to have a "hard science" degree to even be allowed to sit for the USPTO bar exam. This hard science degree means a science degree with difficult lab courses such as organic chemistry, engineering, physics, biotechnology, or thermodynamics. The USPTO will not consider a degree in Political Science to be a science degree acceptable for the Patent Bar Exam.
In addition to the science degree, patent lawyers are required to be licensed with at least one state bar or bar association (there is a small difference between the two). This means that they will have a three year law degree from a law school. It also means that they will have to pass a state bar exam. The state bar exam can be anywhere from two to three days at about twelve to eighteen hours. By contrast, the patent bar exam is a one day, six hour exam.
My name is Andrew Y. Schroeder, Esq., US Patent Attorney based in Los Angeles. Licensed to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office and the State Bar of California.
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