If you want to be involved with patents, you need to pass the United States Patent and Trademark Office Registration exam. This exam is a test of your knowledge of the patent process. The test itself isn’t extremely difficult, qualifying for registration is definatly the limiting step. To qualify for the exam, an individual must display 1) good moral character, 2) Legal, scientific and technical qualifications necessary to provide valuable service, and 3) competence to advise and assist patent applicants in the presentation and prosecution of patent applications.
The second qualification is satisfied by a Bachelor’s degree in a technical subject (and Chemical Engineering counts ofcoarse) such as biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, and physics. You can pass the FE exam to satisfy this requirment as well!
Things that don’t count are soft sciences like philosophy, sociology, psychiatry, public health, etc.
My recommendation for engineering students is to graduate, pass the FE exam and then work to obtain your PE liscencing. After obtaining this liscense, you can take the USPTO Registration Exam and become a registered agent. After you have reached this level, you can choose to go to law school if you fall in love with writing patents, or keep working as an engineer.
Here is a past exam so you can get a feel for what the test is all about:
Filed under: Becoming a Lawyer, Uncategorized
