<p>Hey ive recently been looking into a career as a patent attorney. I was wondering if knowing a second language is useful for this, and if so, which would be best? I really want to learn a second language but would like to learn one thats useful</p>
<p>Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese</p>
<p>Japanese...</p>
<p>There are many reasons for learning a second language, but I don't believe I've ever heard that learning a foreign language was particularly useful for patent lawyers.</p>
<p>would it be useful at all? I really want to learn a foreign language (other than spanish!), but I dont want to do it for no reason, preferably for work. Would it have any purpose in patent law?</p>
<p>i considered both chinese and japanese, more japanese. theyre very daunting languages though. Is it worth the commitment and how would i go about learning? I heard japanese wasnt so bad to just speak, and only the written is hard</p>
<p>I work in intellectual property. Whenever we deal with another country, we go through a counsel for that country that will typically communicate with us in English. This is fairly standard procedure for most firms. </p>
<p>There are times, however, when we will need to have a translation done. Find out which area of the world you'll be working with most, then consider whether it's worth learning the language in order to deal with whatever translations do need to be made without incurring extra cost or simply to oversee what your contracted counsel is up to.</p>
<p>Good advice of course but my thoughts are: who infringes on USA patents: China. Where is the copy factory of the world? China. Where are US investors flocking? China. I have more than 4 very good buddies who have/are studying Chinese undergrad and seem to have had NO problems getting the top scores. One person on CC........legendofmax might answer some questions for you regarding his time commitment and results. He is Wharton and studying Chinese. Good Luck.</p>
<p>well columbia first of all: do you like what you do? could you give me a little info on your job and a typical day? Sorry for being so inquizitive, i just heard about the field and dont know a lot. Does anyone in patent law get to travel?</p>
<p>do you need to be good at math/science, or analytical thinking for patent law ?</p>
<p>yes you need a bachelor's degree in a science or engineering to even sit for the patent bar</p>
<p>the other fields of intellectual property, copyrights and trademarks, you dont though</p>
<p>also is there anywhere i can go to talk to a current patent attorney to see what life is like?</p>
<p>Where do you reside? Are you willing to travel and make a visit?</p>
<p>I don't want to be sarcastic, but English. </p>
<p>Really, really well.</p>
<p>Someone I know worked in a patent firm before law school. He said that they once spent a week arguing over where to put a comma. Given that 1/2 of patents that are litigated are invalidated, it is extremely important that their language be wonderfully precise. </p>
<p>Unless you are going to acquire that level of skill (more than fluency, but exceptional skill) in another language, don't sweat it. Really. Learn to play the piano instead - it will be just as helpful to whomever you want to work for.</p>
<p>"well columbia first of all: do you like what you do? could you give me a little info on your job and a typical day? Sorry for being so inquizitive, i just heard about the field and dont know a lot. Does anyone in patent law get to travel?"</p>
<p>I'm still in undergrad, working in the IP section of a medium-sized firm for the summer. My experience has not been that wonderful by far, but most people tell me it varies firm by firm. This firm's dept. is one of the most successful financially but one of the least desirable to work for in the city. The partner keeps a rather large client list and a rather small staff, so the work volume per person is huge. The partners and the associates will regularly work 90 hours a week, often more. </p>
<p>Most of my job involves keeping the files, but I do research/case preparation and other things on the side. I'm moving on to a big project soliciting all the relevant changes in IP law from every one of our 130 some foreign associates (read: getting updates from every country). </p>
<p>The lawyers seem to spend an inordinate time (most of the working day) on registration and renewal, which is a tedious and frustrating part of the business. The remaining little time (made up in endless off hours) is spent dealing with actual objection/infringement cases, or malpractice claims against the firm. These are by far the most fun/interesting things to work on; in IP you can draw from an inordinate number of weird evidenciary sources. There's huge theoretical literature just coming out on how Google is to be used as evidence and we're pretty much rewriting predecent with it constantly. Still, much more of the job is sadly perfunctory. And while the bills can be high, the stakes can seem quite small; our biggest clients are tiny companies, and larger, more well-known ones only seem to hire us for limited jobs (we have a few internationally famous bands, for example, but spend far more time on puny mail order catalog companies). </p>
<p>As for travel, the attorneys in my firm don't seem to do much or any of it. In fact, it's rare they ever leave the office. They're there when I arrive and there when I depart. They complain that a fire alarm went off at 11pm. They leave at 2am and come back at 6. The partners are only slightly better off than the associates; after all, the number of clients they bring in and the number of hours they bill influences their position within the firm.</p>
<p>Let's turn the question around. 1. Will knowledge of a foreign langauge be of assistance in practicing patent law? 2. Is fluency in a foreign language advantageous? If so, which language?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Maybe, if it enables you to understand technical documents in another language without a need for full translations. But English abstracts are available for many such documents, correspondecne with foreign colleagues is always conducted in English, and, as has been pointed out already, many patent attorneys don't travel much (though some do).</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, but not for purposes of preparing translations. As a patent attorney your time is too valuable for that; leave it to the expert translators. Where fluency can be useful is in making personal connections with foreign colleagues or clients. You can't undeestimate the effect of, say a Japanese, client visiting your offices and being greeted and spoken to in Japanese by one of the attorneys, especially one who is not of Japanese extraction.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also, some years ago some of the leading IP firms began establishing branch offices in Europe to assist in serving their European clients, or their American clients in European matters. Now a few are starting to establish branch offices in Asia for the same reason. These are being managed by experienced Asian attorneys or by American attorneys who are fluent in one or more Asian langauges and who also are very familiar with the culture of one or more key Asian countries. These offices will probably never be large, but they would be staffed at least partly by American attorneys with the same capabilites I just mentioned. So, depending on whether you are a high school student, college student or law school student, you might want to study an Asian language - Chinese, Japanese or Korean -so that eligibility for such an assignment might exist.</p>
<ol>
<li> Note that I did not say that knowing an Asian langage is going to get anyone such an assignment automatically. There won't be that many of them, and there are already a fair number of native Chinese-and some Korean- speaking patent attorneys. But it would make one more eligible for such an assignment than most of one's collegaues. But don't just study the language, work at understanding the culture as well, to the extent you can.</li>
</ol>
<p>I think that understanding of a foreign language like Chinese or Japanese is fantastic and could certainly be helpful in your career (though I don't think it is necessary), but you are probably better served gaining a thorough understanding of the laws of Japan, China ... wherever ... that govern patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc., registrations, infringement and enforcement.</p>
<p>hazmat i have a really busy summer coming up so travel isnt really possible, I would prefer to just have an email correspondence or something like that</p>
<p>dadofsam thank you. That information is very valuable. Really, I want to learn a language no matter what, Id just prefer to learn one that will help me in the future if there is any. Im thinking about, for now, just trying to become fluent in spanish since ive taken 5 years of it already (i havent worked veyr hard, i bet i could learn it better if i try). Then i can learn Italian or Portuguese easier. The asian languages just seem really hard to start in high school. College classes perhaps!</p>
<p>Just in general, what is the best way to learn what its like to be a patent attorney. Is there anywhere I can get an in depth idea of life on a day to day basis and the big picture. Like most jobs i look up, ive found what they do, but i want to know what they really do.</p>
<p>P.S. I've been looking at jobs on monster to get an idea of what companies want, it seems taht 4/5 are for people with EE or CompSci degrees. is a ME degree a bad choice. I think ME seems much more appealing than EE!</p>