A Patent is a legal monopoly or a property right granted by the government to the inventors that allows inventors to enjoy the commercial gains their inventions may bring. A Patent Attorney, or a Patent Agent, is a person who is qualified to act in matters involving patent law and practice. A patent attorney is admitted to practice before at least one court, while a patent agent is not admitted to do so.

Hiring a Patent Attorney helps you to obtain patent for any new form of product that you had invented. Patent attorney will persuade the patent examiners that inventions really are new and imaginative. And once the patent is granted, the patent attorney helps the clients to protect their rights, in case patents are being infringed. Patent attorney study and analyze scientific of technical documents, write detailed descriptions of inventions in very precise legal terms, which will form the basis for patents to be granted by patent offices in different parts of the world.

A degree in science, engineering or technical subject is required to become a patent attorney. A potential candidate should have scientific and technical understanding, analytical and logical thoughts, strong communication skills, legal and commercial skills etc. As a trainee, a patent attorney is described as technical assistant but in order to become a registered patent attorney, it is necessary to pass the qualifying examinations run by the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents.

The patent attorneys are usually employed by private practice partnerships and large industrial employers. The other related jobs are Information Scientists, Patent Examiners, Technical Authors, Trade mark Attorney etc. The typical starting salary for a Patent attorney ranges from $15,000 to $22,000 approximately. Private practice pays the higher salaries and many firms offer performance related bonuses based on the number of working hours.