Business is booming at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Nearly six million patents have been granted since the patent system was established in the late eighteenth century. Each patent protects an inventor's exclusive right to profit from his or her invention. Meanwhile, the number of patent and trademark applications keeps growing. Now more than ever, patent and trademark protection encourages businesses to invest in the research, development and marketing vital to the economy and helps to promote the progress of science and technology.

At the Forefront of Technology...

By working at the PTO, you would have an opportunity to see new technology before anyone else. For example, as a patent examiner, your job would involve an interesting mix of technology and law. You would research technologies to compare the invention in a patent application with similar prior inventions to see whether the invention in the application is new and not legally obvious. You would also determine the scope of the patent protection to which a patent applicant is entitled under the law.

Career Opportunities in Patent Examination at the PTO

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office hires engineers and scientists to be patent examiners. You have to be a U.S. citizen and you would have to have at least a four year degree from a college or university in professional engineering or a physical science. If you meet these requirements, the PTO may have a job for you!

Here are the kinds of patent examiner jobs the PTO looks to fill each year:

Biotechnology & Organic Chemistry
Chemical & Material Engineering
Mechanical Engineering, Transportation, Construction, Agriculture, Petroleum & Nuclear
Communications & Information Processing, Computer Systems, Electrical Engineering
Physics, Optics, System Components & Electrical Engineering

Computer Science

Computer Science Specialists

Physical Sciences

Physics
Organic Chemistry
Chemistry - Inorganic, Analytical, Physical, Polymer, Ceramic, Metallurgy, etc.
Biotechnologies

Engineering Specialties

Aeronautical Engineers
Agricultural Engineers
Ceramic Engineers
Chemical or Material Engineers
Civil Engineers
Computer Hardware and Software Engineers
Electrical Engineers
Industrial Engineers
Mechanical Engineers
Metallurgy Engineers
Textile Engineers
Transportation and Construction Engineers

Maybe you have "designs" on being a design patent examiner...

When we talk about designs, we mean what you see when you look at a product in a store - the design of a tire's tread, the ornamental design on the surface of a plate, the special shape of a bottle, toothbrush, sunglasses, sneakers, telephone, or almost anything else you can imagine. What we provide to the inventor through a design patent is the right to protect his or her "look" for a product from being copied. The design examiner makes the decision to grant that right to the inventor if they did not copy or only slightly modify some other product's appearance. That decision, and the resulting patent, can be worth millions of dollars.

While you can have a four year college degree in any field of study, you must have at least twenty one hours in art and/or design related courses (i.e., Drawing, Product Design, Photography, etc.). The ability to read drawings can be learned, but good writing skills are important to your success.

As a Design Patent Examiner, you will search applications by comparing drawings in the applications to U. S. Patents, foreign patents, and publications to determine whether designs claimed in applications are patentable.

The U. S. Patent and Trademark Office will teach you everything you need to know about searching and examining design applications through courses in our Patent Academy and hands-on training. Design Patent Examiners usually start at the GS5 or GS7 level and can progress to GS14 on their own merit.

Think you have an eye for trademarks? Maybe you would like to become a Trademark Examining Attorney.

You must have a four-year college degree in any field of study. You must also have a law degree -- that's an additional three years of school AFTER college, for a total of 7 years of schooling. The good news is that you do not have to specialize in any particular area of law, although it would be helpful to take whatever intellectual property courses may be offered at the law school you attend. You must also take and pass a bar exam. The bar exam is an examination given in each state to make sure you know the law well enough to qualify as a lawyer in that state. Finally, you must be a member in good standing of a state bar in any state in the United States. We will teach you everything else you need to know about examining applications for trademark registration!

Other jobs at the PTO

The US Patent and Trademark Office is an organization of nearly 6,500 employees. As would be true for any organization of this size, there is a rich assortment of job opportunities available to support the examination personnel, including legal technical support, computer scientists (we are at the forefront of information technology), library science, budget, finance, human resources and a whole host of other administrative and customer service specialties. The list is long and the degree requirements vary from high school to postgraduate levels. Check out our latest job offerings online to get a look at our current openings.