A patent, trademark, or copyright lawyer can do a variety of things, but the majority of their time is spent protecting, challenging, or analyzing patents, trademarks, and copyrights. These rights are intangible and are frequently referred to as “creative ownership” issues. The field is extremely broad, covering everything from song lyrics and poems to Internet domain names, proprietary interests in online content, and the use of trademarks and protected symbols in advertising. Professionals in the field typically specialize in one or two areas and become experts on those nuanced topics. Many lawyers work for law firms that have been hired to work with intellectual property owners on a one-on-one basis. They can work for governments or corporations, and many have more analytical roles in various businesses.
Intellectual Property: An Overview Generally
Both intangible and tangible works of the human mind are considered intellectual property. Artists, inventors, scientific and medical institutions, and business corporations are the most common creators of these works. Intellectual property can be divided into three categories. Patents protect processes and methods, and are most commonly used to protect the manufacturing strategies of pharmaceutical drugs and electronic equipment, though they can also cover things like hybrid seed germination and certain agricultural products. Copyrights are generally understood to cover any work that is “fixed in a tangible medium,” be it written or otherwise recorded, and provide creators with retaliation against anyone who copies or otherwise repurposes that work, subject to certain limitations.
An intellectual property lawyer, in general, assists artists, inventors, and others who require legal assistance in managing their published and unpublished work. They can assist content owners in securing rights in order to protect themselves, but they can also assist in defending rights that already exist. They may, for example, file infringement suits or challenge potentially infringing applications. Others work in government and regulatory agencies, assisting in the shaping of the law’s scope or analyzing applications as they come in.
Areas of Expertise
Lawyers typically specialize in one area, in part due to the broad nature of the field. Much of this specialization is learned through experience and must be refined over time. While a single attorney may be able to handle all of a client’s intellectual property needs in some cases, it’s far more common to find lawyers who specialize in only a few rights in specific fields. In the right market, an attorney can build a career around online gaming copyrights, for example, while another may specialize in pharmaceutical patent defense. Each task necessitates a different set of skills.
Workplace Environments
The work environment often influences the specifics of an intellectual property lawyer’s day-to-day life. Many of these professionals work in law firms, where they are part of teams that are focused on one or more issues. Others can work directly for clients as solo practitioners or as staff attorneys in a company’s or business’s legal department. People with this kind of training can also find work in government agencies and law enforcement bureaus. It’s also not always necessary to practice.
Another option is analysis, and lawyers in this field typically spend the majority of their time studying previously decided cases and applying precedent to draw conclusions about the future of the intellectual property landscape in relation to a specific topic.
How to Begin in the Field
One of the most important requirements for this position is education. Attorneys, with few exceptions, must have both a bachelor’s degree and a law degree, as well as be licensed in the jurisdiction in which they practice. A candidate’s ability to pass a bar exam is usually used to determine licensure, but even this does not guarantee a job in most cases. New lawyers should expect to start at the bottom of the career ladder, working on files that lack the celebrity and “zing” of the most well-known and entertaining cases that entice many people into the intellectual property field in the first place. With time and experience, you usually gain more control, at least when it comes to case selection and more deliberately shaping your career path.