Unconventional Career in IPR Field:Dr. Pareshkumar C. Dave,Founder,IP Moment Services

Intellectual Property is vital to economic growth in the India during the time of the globalization. Central government has also initiated several projects to promote IPRs for Start-Ups and MSMEs. Protection of intellectual property has become so important that companies today carry out intellectual property audits to identify their intellectual wealth by forming special departments to manage them. For taking care of these IP departments specialists are require, who are having basic knowledge of intellectual property rights and some legal background. The legal professional who specializes with matters related to intellectual properties is termed as Intellectual Property Attorneys. The main job of all Intellectual property (IP) lawyers is to identify IP rights, get it registered, protect it and manage the intellectual property rights of their clients.

Intellectual property (IPR) professionals are in great demand to procure the rights to new ideas and protect the ownership of existing creations, inventions and innovations. Most organizations hire skilled professionals in this field to handle their Intellectual property issues.

Good Reasons to make a career in IPR
Based on the interviews from people working in the IP industry there a few reasons why you can choose Intellectual Property as a career option. The IP industry is growing at a tremendous pace in the global market. A major number of jobs such as patent docketing, prior art searching, patent analytics, paralegal, etc. are being outsourced. The second reason is a good pay scale. On average, a patent engineer can earn up to three hundred thousand rupees annually. Another reason is that a career in the IP industry has rapid growth, with an experience of only a couple of years a professional can expect an annual package of ten lakh rupees. Fortune 500 companies have a good budget for research and development purposes which spend a lot on patents. One of the major reasons to work in IPR is that you can have an international exposure while working in your basic field of interest. The icing on the cake is that making a career in Intellectual Property has low investment.

Patent Searcher / Patent Analyst
Patent Searcher or Patent analyst is someone who reviews the content of a patent (or patent application) and produces a clear, concise patent summary. This patent summary not only describes the invention, it also incorporates information about any prior art, current and potential uses for the invention. Patent searching helps in patent drafting and also helps to get the patent registration smoothly with the patent office. The purpose of patent searching is to avoid litigation or other relevant legal issues in the future. Most patent analysts have special training in a scientific or engineering field – or they are certified patent agents – although their work often more than multiple disciplines, including law and marketing.

IP Paralegal
IP Paralegals job profile is to prepare forms for patent, trademark, or copyright application, which are directly filed to the Patent office & Trademark Offices. IP Paralegals work for law offices, corporations, institutions, and government agencies, assisting with intellectual property litigation, and also performing related intellectual property search.

Patent Docketing
Patent docketing is a method or system for managing the patent application process. Patent docketing is a particularly crucial processing or skill for patent law firms. Because patent docketing job involves keeping track of the many deadlines and documents, otherwise it can be difficult to manage the patent application process of hundreds of patents. Many large patent law firms employ docketing specialists to manage the patent docketing process. The patent docketing is also performed by the expert personnel by using software. Patent docketing expert must have knowledge of the various countries IPR laws.

Patent Proofreader
Patent proofreading is arguably the most important final step in the process of getting a patent. After the patent draft is finalized the patent specification must be proofread. Proofreading helps filter out any errors that might have gone unnoticed while drafting the specification. It also helps in mitigating any harm that could have been the outcome of the errors in the patent draft. Further, during the prosecution of the patent application many errors are occurred in the patent draft, which can be very dangerous in the future litigation. To avoid errors, proofreading is important step.

List of Job Opportunities in the IPR Field

Technical graduates who have completed IPR courses but are not lawyers, are endowed with a wide range of employment opportunities as Patent analysts, Patent Engineers or Agents, Patent / IP consultants/ Advisors, Licensing & Valuation experts, Patent prosecutors, portfolio managers etc.

Law Graduates (LLB, LLM) Professionals with IP law degree can work with the law firms, other organizations or as independent IP attorneys. Aspiring IP lawyers, specializing in intellectual property rights under an experienced licensed intellectual property attorney, can gain experience by working in any law firm or government agency. Job openings are available in International law firms, Intellectual Property Offices, the World Trade Organization, non-government organizations and much more. IPR professionals are hired by large number of industries as well as the MSME sector like IT and Telecom Technology, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology, Chemical/ Energy/ Oil and Gas manufacturing units, National laboratories, Electronics/ telecommunication/automobile and heavy engineering industries etc.

PG Diploma Course in Intellectual Property Rights
PG Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights is a 1-year full-time Postgraduate Diploma course. Many colleges and universities also provides distant learning PG diploma in IPR. The minimum eligibility for the course is bachelors degree from a recognized university. Many colleges and institutes offers this PG Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights course in India. Every college and institute has their own eligibility criteria, fees structure, and admission process. There are list of colleges/universities who offers the PG diploma in IPR – Apeejay Stya University, Gurgaon; Government Law College, Mumbai; Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi; Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phoole University, Jaipur; Tamil Nadu Open University, Chennai; NALSAR university of Law, Hyderabad; Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur; Sanjeevni Institute of Paramedical Sciences, Haryana; Swami Vivekanand Subharati University, Meerut; Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi; Shamsher Bahadur Saxena College of Law, Rohtak; National Law School of India University, Bangalore.  Admission for PG Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights course is based on merit-based or entrance-based. Many colleges select candidates through merit-list prepared by a university for this course admission.

Intellectual property comes in various formats, including trademarks, copyrights and patents. In a rapidly growing intellectual property market – patent and trademark filings are increasing worldwide with averaging 10-15% growth Year-on-Year basis. Further, the disruptive technologies such as IoT, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence (AIs), Medical devices, Mobile apps, are growing exponentially. New business ventures and Startups are also flourishing all around the world. This directly connects with the growing intellectual property market. This will also increase into the demand of more professional IP experts.