Do you know the amount of settlement in Apple Inc. vs. Samsung Electronics Company Ltd., one of the most celebrated intellectual property rights battles?
The parties agreed to settle for a whopping amount of approximately $548 million.
Dreaming of being involved with such high profile, high stake IPR battles? With an increasing amount of damages awarded in patent litigations, there is always a demand for patent lawyers who can understand and manage proceedings. Accordingly, the lawyers who appear in patent litigations charge a hefty legal fee and the work is financially rewarding. Not that anyone can simply become a patent lawyer anytime and charge such fees, but we will go there later. Right now, what can be said is that there is going to be a demand, particularly in sectors such as pharma and technology, if you do understand very well how the patent laws work.
In India, a large number of patent litigations are related to mobile phone companies, pharmaceutical companies, and the renewable energy sector. In-house lawyers in these companies cannot afford to be away from understanding how patent claims are drafted and how the litigation in these areas works. If the core assets of your employing entity are patents, you must know very well how to use as well as protect these.
The story does not stop there. Litigation is just the tip of the iceberg. The number of patent applications filed in India annually has been increasing rapidly. The interesting thing to note is that the number of patents granted is very low as compared to the number of applications made. In the year 2017-18 alone, a total number of 47,854 applications were filed, out of which only 13,045 were actually granted patents (see here). This points towards the need of more efficient filing and prosecution, and towards a requirement of professionals who can draft bespoke claims, specifications and abstracts tailored according to the invention and the field that it belongs to.
The inventors often approach the professionals with mere prototypes of inventions without really knowing whether an invention is patentable or not. Developing the invention further and conducting patentability search is another important task to be taken up by the practitioners. Other than conducting novelty searches, the practitioners also have to conduct patent mapping and scouting work for tech companies in order to gauge the scope of a particular technology.
From filing the application till the grant of the patent, one is required to overcome various office objections and third party oppositions. Patent prosecution is a highly extensive and demanding process which requires one to have particular skill sets in order to be able to defend their clients’ applications before the patent office.
Software, technology and pharmaceutical companies have been actively filing patent applications. If an invention pertains to a software, extra caution has to be practiced as software programs are not patentable inventions per se. In such cases, the practitioner is required to figure out ways to get it patented. He/she has to prove that the invention is more than a mere mental act and is associated with a hardware. Creativity in drafting the specification becomes extremely important here.
The pharmaceutical industry has been incessantly working on developing vaccines for the cure of Covid-19. A lot of companies are racing towards finding a remedy to the virus and getting the vaccine protected. Once the vaccine is invented and protected, the rate at which it shall be licensed is unfathomable. The industry is in need of patent practitioners more than ever. This is a great time to step into the field.
Other than all the work generated through patent registration and enforcement, there is a great deal of work with respect to monetization of patents. This can include advice on and drafting agreements relating to licensing and assigning of patented technologies. Many tech giants enter into cross licensing agreements with each other in order to make use of the patented technology in their products and to avoid the costs of litigation. Tech and pharmaceutical companies own a lot of patents which requires valuation and management of the portfolios. All this work is highly lucrative.
If you do dream of working in the area of patents (which is probably why you read up to here), here are a few questions for you:
- Do you want to get into an intellectual property law firm as a patent attorney?
- Do you want to end up as an in-house counsel in a tech or a pharmaceutical company?
- Have you already cleared your patent agent examination but are now looking to take on the legal processes involved in registration and prosecution?
- Have you got a science degree and now dream of making it big as an in-house patent analyst or a patent consultant?
Since you have asked yourself these questions, and have (hopefully) come to some definitive answers, let’s look at the thoughts that can stop you in your way to achieving the above:
- Do you think that your college didn’t really skill you when it comes to the practical application of patent law and that this is something that you badly need to acquire now?
- Do you think that in order to get work in the domain of patent law and understand it, it is inevitable to have a science background?
- Do you believe that if you haven’t worked in patent law since you started your career, you would need a number of years to make it anywhere in this area and therefore it is too late for you to venture into it now?
- Do you feel that it is really difficult to make a shift to patents after working in other domains of intellectual property such as trademarks?
- Have you been practicing patent prosecution for a while, but the move to litigation seems like that elusive goal which is difficult to touch?
If any of the things mentioned above describes how you feel, the breaking news is that all of these notions aren’t really true and can be dispelled, if you’re just willing to give it what it takes.