<p>To settle my own "bet," I went to the PTO, which lists patent lawyers and patent agents by state. To take a fair but manageable sample, I looked at only those attorneys and agents whose last names begin with the letter "A". I counted 53 with "New York, NY" addresses, and 47 with Santa Clara County addresses. </p>
<p>I was also surprised to find that the number of people who actually live in New York County is actually smaller by about 100,000 than the population of Santa Clara County. The number of people employed in New York County is much larger than the number who live there, though, so that throws off the comparison somewhat.</p>
<p>I don't have any figures, but patent attorneys (in private practice), like other attorneys, tend to concentrate in or near an area where there are more clients. Major cities have heaquarters of larger and small corporations, as well as many universities, major hospitals and other non-profit clients. Major cities are also stacked with very active Federal courts, for patent litigation.</p>
<p>There are a small number of patent attorneys in Hawaii because there is a relatively small amount of patent-related business there, much of it connected with the University of Hawaii.</p>
<p>Used to be a relatively small number of patent attorneys in North Carolina, most of them involved with the textile manufacturing industry. Then, some years ago, companies began locating or moving research facilities there, so much so that one part of the state is now known as "Research Triangle". Initially that was a bonanza for local patent attorneys, and some firms expanded to pick up the business generated by these new facilites. Eventually some of the major patent law firms opened branch offices there. Something of the same nature is beginning in Florida now, due to a push to open biotech research facilities.</p>
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What were/are your motivations for doing engineering undergrad work but deciding not to enter the engineering profession afterwards?
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<p>I think I can answer this one. In many cases it's due to notions of careerism and marketability. It's the same reason that many engineering students from the top schools like MIT and Stanford run off to management consulting and investment banking, which also have nothing to do with engineering. The truth is, a lot of people get engineering degrees not because they really love engineering but because they know it's a marketable degree and so they view engineering as a 'backup career'. Very few other bachelor's degrees can deliver a decent backup career the way that an engineering degree can. Engineering may not be the greatest career in the world, but hey, it's better than nothing. Let's face it. An engineering degree certainly delivers you far more job security than a degree in the liberal arts. </p>
<p>Hence, I believe a lot of people see an engineering degree as a way to get a bird in the hand, before they go searching for 2 birds in the bush. Some of these people, once they've gotten that degree, will then go and see if they can get other opportunities, like law school, or like consulting/banking, figuring that if they can't get it, oh well, they'll just get an engineering job.</p>
<p>A fair number of people that do "patent related work" are NOT registered patent attorneys. Thus, looking on the PTO site only gives you who has passed the patent bar, not the scores of people that do patent litigation or other tech/patent stuff that don't really need the exam. </p>
<p>As to why engineering and then law, the previous poster hit it pretty dead on. Science/tech degrees of almost any sort are usually a better "backup" than a liberal arts degree. Also, some people just get burned out with their jobs as engineers. Although it is ironic that they choose law, which has one of the highest burnout rates of any profession :)</p>
<p>I should point out that if you study a technical major in undergrad and then get a law degree, you can still go into pretty much whatever kind of law interests you (or rather, try to); non-patent law groups (e.g., ACLU, public defender's office, etc.) won't be like, "Oh, you studied physics in undergrad, so you shouldn't interview with us because we don't take lawyers from technical backgrounds." For example, I know a math major-physics minor who now practices immigration law.</p>