@ucbalumnus I think someone looked it up before and no BA in CS classes are accredited by ABET.
You do need to work in the field to be a patent attorney. My husband is a patent attorney, got an undergrad in Mech Eng and went right to law school. Same with one of my best friends (undergrad in Chemistry). Neither had any issues getting good law jobs without work experience. Both are very successful.
OP- make sure you understand what patent attorneys do. My husband did not like the patent application part of the practice and now almost exclusively does litigation, which he loves. The patent lawyer part was good though because it gave him a real competitive edge in the marketplace.
So, to be clear, I get from your posts, that you don’t feel up to majoring in Engineering - and are willing and able to do CS, but the program at the school(s) you want to attend is not ABET accredited.
And you mainly want to do CS because you want to be a patent attorney many years down the road…
But you really like English and really want to attend a small liberal arts college.
Fwiw, if you think you’d enjoy Biology or Chemistry, you could go that route, but I also believe you’d need at least a Master’s degree as well to practice patent law with those degrees. Biology patents are really hot right now (who knows if they’ll be 10 years from now, but…)
My husband is a patent attorney. He has an Electrical Engineering degree, worked as an EE for a few years, then took the LSAT, and has practiced patent law since.
He currently prosecutes a lot of software and digital patents, although he never formally studied CS. Their patent prosecution department is small and he works for a private firm (Most people want to be a litigator, that’s where the big money is…) So he may not know anything about working for the patent office, but I can ask him tomorrow, if I can remember to…
Also, he works with some other patent attorneys who have degrees in Biology or Chemistry, but I’m not sure if they have only a Bachelor’s in those, or a Master’s or more…
I’ll ask him about this tomorrow, but I’m not sure if he would know the answers fully, or not.
@BeeDAre Yep! Exactly! I like both English and CS and if possible, though not as important to me as like how good the programs/safe/etc. are the schools, I do like small class sizes. And yep, CS right now is what I want because patent law seems super cool- but even if I do not end up doing patent law, I’d probably go into CS with an English minor/major anyways (for now?? I’ll see after I get some more experience this summer!).
No matter a private firm or litigation, I’m seeing the common trend that a MS is always better than a BS.
First, like others have already said here - if there are schools that have the ABET accredited program, consider doing this the easy way, and not the hard, complicated way, and go to one of those schools that has the ABET program. There is no surety that the PTO will waive their requirement later.
Secondly - as a patent lawyer in a private firm, anyway, you will do either prosecution - helping the client obtain the patent by submitting the application to the PTO; or litigation - arguing lawsuits/cases in court or in front of a judge. Or you will do most of one, a little of the other… My husband hates litigation, although litigators make more money but it’s also more stressful; he prosecutes patents. He’s also not a fast talker.
Prosecution/applications is often dry, methodical work, from what I understand (I’ve also worked in a couple of patent firms, but I’m not a lawyer) and requires being very organized, meeting deadlines. It’s not nearly as exciting as litigating and that’s probably an understatement. But my husband loves what he does, so…
It’s my understanding that “in-house” lawyers for individual corporations have a less stressful work load than those at private firms.
The law profession, in general, is not one for those who value their free time. Most of them, even the low-paid ones, have very little of it.
Possibly true, but there are some BS degree programs in CS that are not ABET accredited. If you want to be sure, look it up on http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx .
http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx does show that there are 278 schools in the US with ABET-accredited CS major degree programs. Many of them are not that selective, so you should be able to find one that you can be admitted to.
However, be aware that college GPA and LSAT are very important in law school admissions.
@BeeDAre I’ll probably pursue the more litigation side- but who knows right now?
Thanks @ucbalumnus , I’ll look into it. Do you know if a MS ABET accredited school is enough/fulfills the requirements?
Hey guys, sorry for asking so many questions about patent law (if you’ve seen my other threads). Someone suggested me ask about this in the parents forum (I’m currently a high school student interested in patent law, so any help would be greatly appreciated)!
My current question is whether or not a BA in CS would qualify me to take the patent bar exam, even if the BA is at a high performing STEM college but not ABET accredited (to be honest, these ABET accreditations astound me: colleges such as MIT aren’t even ABET accredited!). According to the patent bar exam requirements, a CS program must be ABET accredited in order for that person studying CS to take the patent bar exam. If a BA in CS doesn’t qualify me, is there some way to appeal to the patent bar organization (I found one thread on this somewhere of a BS in CS at Stanford appealing because for some strange reason Stanford’s CS program wasn’t ABET accredited, even though it’s one of the best programs in the nation, but I’m wondering about BA), or go for the Category B route and take just a bit more classes, as I think my BA in CS would already satisfy most requirements. I would go for Option 4: 8 semester hours of chemistry or 8 semester hours of physics, and
32 semester hours of chemistry, physics, biology, botany, microbiology, molecular biology, or engineering. (Another question- does computer science count as engineering for this option? I think it does but I want to confirm).
Also, I’m wondering if it would be possible for me to go from a BA in CS to a MS in CS for graduate studies, and then go to law school. Would a MS in CS qualify me for the patent bar?
Also, what age would you recommend taking the LSAT/patent bar? I did some research and most people say before going to law school is best, but I think that if I pursue patent law I’ll probably get a MS in CS first and then go to law school in order to get that extensive technical background advised by so many. Would it be alright to take the LSAT/patent bar in grad school then, or would that be too late?
Additionally, would you recommend working as a patent agent while in grad school, or interning at a software company? I see both research and law experience weighted… I recently talked to a patent lawyer about whether I should intern at a top CS company this summer or a law firm. He said definitely go for the CS intern, as you barely do anything during law firm interns for high schooolers, at least. I’m wondering if the same applies for grad school.
Thanks for all your help! Feel free to check out my other thread on patent bar to get a more complete picture. (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/1893703-help-patent-law.html#latest).
Sorry for the long post and thank you everybody! I just really want to get a good idea of what everything entails before I decide.
As to some of the questions above. A BA in computer science may or may not qualify for taking the patent bar. The rules provide that bachelor degrees in CS programs will automatically qualify if
“[A]ccredited by the Computer Science Accreditation Commission (CSAC) of the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board (CSAB), or by the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).”
Those are really just arms of the same organization, the ABET, and if the college program is accreditted by ABET it qualifies. However, ABET usually qualifies BS programs and not BA in CS. Thus, if you are considering a BA program there is a real risk it may not be accredited.
The fact it is not accredited does not mean you are barred from taking the exam. It just means you have to show proof of qualification in science to take it. For a B.A computer science program that would require having a course of study that included at least eight hours in physics or chemistry and mostly computer science courses that you typically find in a BS program, which is usually the case for recognized colleges which have BA programs and also have BS programs. It is similar for MS programs in CS if you do not have an undergrad degree that qualifies. As long as you have an MS from a recognized college and have those eight hours of physics or chemistry (in college or grad school) and CS courses that are typical for BS and MS degrees you will likely qualify.
As to when to take the LSAT or patent bar, the question above seemed to indicate that they are somehow related. The LSAT is needed for admission to law school and a typical time to take it is right after junior year of college or fall of senior year, but many take it later after they have completed college and have worked or gone on to grad school for two or more years and then decide they may want to go to law school. You simply must take it in time to submit your scores with your application for admission to law school and laws schools generally require that an LSAT exam submitted for admission be no more than five years old. One need not have a law degree or be a lawyer to take the patent bar and become a “patent agent.”. However, most “patent lawyers” are those who took the patent bar later in law school or after graduating from law school. The pass rate is generally higher for those who already have legal training.
@drusba Great help, just what I was looking for. Thanks.