Qualifications for becoming a patent lawyer? -

I am a freshman at UC Berkeley and I am on the pre-med track. I am currently majoring in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in Biochemistry. However, I have always considered becoming a patent lawyer. What are the qualifications? I know that one of them is to have a backround/undergraduate degree in science or engineering. Would a Molecular and Cell Biology major (with emphasis in Biochemistry) qualify for this? And what steps do I need to take? How many years of grad school and/or graduate school does it require? Thanks!!!

The first qualification is to have a law degree and to pass a bar exam to be licensed to practice law. Law school is three years after your B.A. or B.S. Some legal specialties require a master s of law as well in order to be recognized as an expert. I don t know if patent law is one of those. I would think your undergrad work provides a fine background. What I would recommend is to search for a firm that does a lot of patent law. (Martindale-Hubbell is the directory of law firms. Find it in any law library.) Call that firm and express your interest, and ask to speak to a patent attorney. It may not always work, but most of the time, lawyers are willing to help students. Another option would be to find a law school near you (duh! Boalt Hall -- sorry, I forgot you said you are at UCB) and check whether there is a course in patent law. Then call or e-mail the professor who teaches it, or find his/her office hours and visit him/her. What you want to know is what you can do to help yourself succeed in this field. Hope I helped.

Nothing in your undergraduate studies will prepare you any better or worse for law school. However, the key to the successful study of law, and to passing the bar, is keen reading comprehension and excellent language and writing skills. Law school will get you through the required basic dozen or so subjects for the bar exam, but will provide precious little opportunity to study electives that are geared toward your particular field of interest. Your interest in the area of sciences I presume is what makes you want to enter the legal end of that field, where the researchers and their employers seek patents for their various discoveries and processes. Patent law is a very complicated field that you will learn only when you actually are employed with a firm that specializes in such matters, and only if that firm has that type of clientele are you ever likely to handle something like that. As for schooling, law school is typically a 3 year full time program right after you get your Bachelor s degree. Good luck, but make your choices with your eyes wide open. Find a major law firm with a patent law division and speak to the most senior person you can in it AND the most junior associate...that can give you a better idea of what life in the real world is like in the field of law...you may be very surprised.

You can be a patent agent (not attorney) without even getting a law degree! You can be a patent attorney if you get a law degree (and license) and apply. http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/ol... shows the requirements.