The role of Intellectual Property in the above mentioned areas requires a lot of research work; it is a very growing subject. It can be divided into Industrial property and Copyright. Industrial property includes patents to protect inventions, covers trademarks, service marks, and commercial names and also gives protection for unfair competition. For example, if one uses an authorized sign illegally to mislead his customers then he would be fined for that. In brief, industrial property rights are used to prevent forgery. Copyright is related to artistic creations, various paintings by different artists, and literary works by eminent scholars, and also includes cinematographic works. Copyright can be made by the author or by the painter himself to prevent their works from being copied by anyone. Again, an author can grant his publisher the right to publish his works.
Now let us talk about a career in Intellectual Property. To build a career in this field one must be able to understand the use of new technology and applications very quickly. Good written communication skills are a prerequisite to building a new career here. One should also be well aware of different laws that are enforced by the government and should also be able to use them in practical situations. One should be able to interpret the meanings of technical as well as legal documents. Sound thinking and reasoning abilities like lawyers are also needed. You might have to do patent analysis also. Here you would require analytical skills.
Patent analysis mostly deals with protecting the rights of inventors and to check whether an invention is truly an invention or not. For example, if a new species of plant is found out, then that is a discovery not an invention. An invention requires the usage of the human brain to bring out new innovative products. Another quality that you should possess in order to be an Intellectual Property professional is that you must be able to discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate topics. You should have the ability to choose between these. It would be of greatest importance if you could reward yourself with opportunities to train yourself from experienced Intellectual Property professionals and also get some practical knowledge about the subject matter, to nurture them for your own learning.
If you can get training and can internalize it, then it would be an added advantage to your career. Training can help cultivate all the above mentioned qualities that are required to become competent Intellectual Property professionals. With a substantial amount of training, it becomes easier to build a career in this field. Also, if you have studied law and take an interest in the language group then you could surely do well here. However, knowledge of science also would be helpful in the making of an Intellectual Property professional. The most difficult part is to get that one year experience in your first job with a well-established firm without any prior job experience. So, try to get some experience.
The salaries of Intellectual Property professionals depend on the type of work that they are doing. They may work as an Intellectual Property legal secretary or as Intellectual Property Officers or even a Technology Manager, and many more. In each of the cases the salaries would vary. Also, experienced professionals would earn more that their inexperienced counterparts.
Everyday in the fields of science and technology new inventions are taking place. Writers are writing new novels. Painters are busy painting. Let us assume that a new technology has been developed and that has to be implemented in an enterprise. Here the job of Intellectual Property professionals would be to commercialize that Intellectual Property invention. Their job would be to provide a high class licensing policy, reach out to the industry, thus helping in the process of commercialization, negotiating terms to bring out licenses and the execution of those. They would also manage technologies in fields like human health, animal health, etc. Thus the field of work for Intellectual Property professionals is varied with a lot of aspects in each field and as this is a growing subject, more and more people are opting to build a career in this field.
- See Top 10 Reasons Most Law Firms Have No Idea How to Hire and Evaluate Patent Attorneys for more information.
