Why did you choose a job in this profession?

For a long time I had assumed I would go into engineering. I always enjoyed designing and building things and taking them apart to try to fix them or see how they worked. However, I also found that I loved making written and spoken arguments and wanted to study this as well. I found that working with patents seemed to be a really good way to blend these two interests. Working with patents, I get to learn about all sorts of new inventions, finding out about how (often quite niche) devices work. It is then fun to make arguments about these concepts, trying to persuade someone that the idea is new and clever, and considering the important consequences of seemingly very small changes in the way a device is put together. For someone who is interested in both science and analysing and formulating arguments, this profession provides a great option.

As a trainee patent attorney hours are generally very manageable. The nature of the work means that I am constantly learning about new things, trying to get to grips with each case quickly.

I like that my role makes use of a broad range of skills and knowledge. As well as using things I learned about in my degree, its not uncommon that I will make use of some knowledge from science A levels or things I learnt about in a science YouTube video. As I am interested in many branches of science, and learn about them for fun anyway, it is really satisfying when information I’ve learnt comes in handy in my job.

What are your main duties?

My main role is responding to office actions from the European Patent Office. Essentially, a client will have applied for a patent, but the EPO sends it back generally arguing that the idea isn’t new or isn’t inventive enough. I then have to attempt to explain why the idea actually is new and inventive or amend the application to make the differences clearer between the new idea and what has been done before. Other cases can be more focused on specific legal provisions, and some of my work is with larger cases, such as when someone attempts to get a granted patent revoked.

Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to enter the profession?

I would certainly recommend having a go at the different skills required of a patent attorney and seeing if you enjoy them. For instance, you can try defining really precisely how a given device or mechanism works in unambiguous language – it is much harder than it sounds! If you can, getting some work experience at a firm of patent attorneys can be really valuable. I did some work experience at two different firms, and both reflected the kind of work I do now very accurately. Otherwise, even just reading through some patents relating to things you are interested in, or explanations of inventions works well too. Before I started my role, I read through a lot of the writings of Nikola Tesla in which he explained his new inventions. It doesn’t have to be that of course, but spending some time wrapping your head around difficult inventions is very similar to the day job, give it a try and see if it’s for you!