I was recently visiting a relative in the hospital when the attending physician struck up a conversation with my family.\u00a0 When he found out that I am an attorney, he asked about my area of practice.\u00a0 I told him that I practice product liability defense and intellectual property litigation.\u00a0 He then asked me the following question, a variation of which has been posed to me dozens of times over the past five years:\u00a0 \u201cWhat type of engineer are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
I am an English major, and I practice IP litigation.\u00a0 Not only do I not have a science background, but I made a concerted effort to avoid science classes in college.\u00a0 Law schools precipitate a myth that you can\u2019t practice IP without a science background.\u00a0 It\u2019s a myth because it\u2019s not true.\u00a0 I\u2019m proof.\u00a0 (Disclaimer:\u00a0 it is<\/em> true that you can\u2019t prosecute patents before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office without a science background.\u00a0 But patent prosecution is only one part of IP.)<\/p>\n I vividly remember the first time that I read a patent.\u00a0 The claimed invention was a component of a bike pedal.\u00a0 I\u2019m familiar with bike pedals; I\u2019ve even used them.\u00a0 But reading the claims alone, divorced from the drawings, I would have had zero<\/em> idea that the patent was describing a bike pedal.\u00a0 I was dumbfounded.<\/p>\n The reason that you need attorneys like me to practice IP is because I am not the only one who is dumbfounded when presented with patent claims.\u00a0 There is a very good chance that your jury is not made up of engineers.\u00a0 There\u2019s an equally good chance that your judge is not an engineer.\u00a0 And yet, whether a defendant is infringing a patent and whether a patent is invalid as anticipated or obvious are questions of fact that go to trial.\u00a0 Attorneys like me can explain to a fact finder how to answer those questions\u2014in a language that the fact finder will understand.<\/p>\n While I\u2019ve litigated patents, most of my IP practice consists of trademark, trade secret, copyright, and domain name litigation.\u00a0 Most of my cases bear little or no relation to hard science.\u00a0 I regularly appear before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, English major and all.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not the only one.<\/p>\n Law students, if you\u2019re interested in IP, take IP classes, regardless of your major in college.\u00a0 With small exception, you can and should practice whatever type of law you want.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was recently visiting a relative in the hospital when the attending physician struck up a conversation with my family.\u00a0 When he found out that I am an attorney, he asked about my area of practice.\u00a0 I told him that I practice product liability defense and intellectual property litigation.\u00a0 He then asked me the following 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