When Jason Kanter came to UCLA four years ago, he was looking for a way to reconcile his dueling interests in science and analytical writing.
He has found it, he said, in patent law, the career he eventually plans to pursue ““ though he will graduate in a few days with a degree in microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics.
And Kanter is not alone ““ some South Campus students are opting to trade in their pipettes for paperwork as patent law becomes an increasingly popular field for students graduating with scientific and technical degrees.
Patents protect the rights of inventors by barring other people from making or selling their inventions, and experts say it is often necessary for patent lawyers to have a technical background.
“The cases themselves tend to be very technical,” said UCLA law professor Mark Grady, noting that patent lawyers often need specified knowledge in order to accurately describe an invention in a patent application.
Grady said many UCLA law students who are planning to go into patent law have undergraduate degrees in a scientific field and do not often have to take additional classes to gain a better understanding of the material.
In order to prosecute a patent, which includes filing an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and negotiating for the grant of a patent, lawyers are required to have a technical background, Grady said.
He called the amount of coursework needed to satisfy this requirement “substantial,” and said students sometimes have to take quite a few classes.
Students hoping to do patent litigation ““ legal action against patent infringement ““ do not need a technical background. Patent infringement occurs when someone violates a patent held by someone else, for example, by selling an invention that has been patented by someone else.
Kanter said he is interested in both patent prosecution and litigation, and believes his science degree will help him succeed in the field.
“I think it gives you a little more of a niche background,” he said. Given the choice, Kanter said he would like to work with patents for new drugs, and he at least plans to focus on the biotech industry.
Professionals he met through his pre-law fraternity and advisers from the microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics department urged Kanter to earn at least a master’s degree in a biotechnology-related field before pursuing a law degree.
Kanter will attend Northwestern University next year to begin work on a master’s degree in biotechnology, which he expects will take him two years. After that, he plans to go to law school for an additional three years.
But Kanter said the extra school is worth it for him.
“Besides the fact that it combines two things (writing and science) that interest me, I just think it’s exciting to be able to keep up with science,” he said. “Lab work is not fun. (Patent law) is a way to stay in touch with science while still practicing law.”
And experts say patent law is becoming an increasingly attractive field for many college graduates, largely because of recent technological expansion in sectors such as the biotechnology industry.
Laura Foster, a doctoral student in women’s studies who also worked as a corporate lawyer, now teaches a freshman cluster seminar that discusses patent law within a cultural context.
“Patent law has become so culturally significant,” she said.
She noted that developments in industries such as biotechnology have challenged traditional conceptions of patents and legality, and broadened the field from a philosophical perspective.
In 1980, scientists patented the first living organism, a bacterium. Foster said that milestone not only allowed huge amounts of patentable technology to be developed, it opened up debates on the cultural implications of patents.
“You can approach law from a critical social justice perspective,” Foster said. “There are a lot of lawyers who are starting to look at patents from this critical perspective.”
Foster said she believes the cultural questions associated with patent law may help account for students’ heightened interest in the field.
Grady offered practical reasons for the increasing popularity of the field, noting that changes in the rules have made it easier to get patents in recent years.
The relaxed standards, combined with the burst of new technology from industries such as biotechnology, mean that more patents are being issued every year.
He added that patent law “tends to pay very well.”
Students hoping to enter the field should develop technical expertise in an area about which they are passionate, Grady and Foster agreed, but they should also understand that patent law is about more than the science behind the inventions.
“They ought to have a degree in a technical field that interests them … but they also ought to have courses that stress verbal analysis,” Grady said.
Foster said she believes a joint degree, with one major focused on a scientific field, would serve future patent lawyers well.