The UHLC Intellectual Property and Information Law Institute (IPIL Institute) has academic advising materials available for students interested in Intellectual Property and Information Law at UHLC.

Here is a short summary describing student options. The first page of this document is a typical IPIL academic advising memo to students. The second page is a small view of four powerpoint slides underlying the audio presentations below.

Here are the detailed slides from the academic advising presentation. These four slides support two audio presentations below.

The first audio presentation corresponds to the first two slides. It discusses career considerations I suggest students apply to their course selection decision process.

The second audio presentation discusses the schedule, rhythm, structure and content of the courses typically available.

A number of IP associations offer membership benefits to law students interested in IP at very reasonable rates.

The Houston IP Law Association, www.hipla.org, offers student memberships for $25; application details are here.

The American IP Law Association, www.aipla.org, offers student memberships for $45, and their student membership includes access to a job fair held each October; application details are here.

The UHLC Student Intellectual Property Organization invited me to present to their group during September 2003.

Here are the overheads from my presentation, entitled: Navigating the IP World: A (Whirlwind) Introduction to the Protection of Intangibles.

During the presentation, I examined this patent. In addition, here is the audio track from the presentation.

Several law professors and other groups have pages devoted to IP career advising:

• Professor Michael J. Madison of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law has a FAQ on Learning and Practicing IP Law.
• Professor Thomas G. Field of the Franklin Pierce Law Center has discussion pages for those considering an IP career with or without a technical background.
• A small law firm in Colorado keeps a long but useful page with questions and answers about career opportunities in IP law. Some of the responses are dated, so the page should be taken with a grain of salt. But it is a useful resource, both to provide a perspective, and to get one thinking about the issues and about marketing oneself for an IP career trajectory. I agree with about ninety percent of the answers. And I think most of the answers’ positions are reasonable. I take exception with the page’s emphasis on taking the patent bar while in law school - I do not find this idea appealing or typically in the student's best interest.

Professor Michael J. Madison of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law has compiled two lists of relevant programs for writing competitions or fellowships in the law and policy of IP, cyberlaw, high technology, and so forth:

• writing competitions
• fellowships

Students have noticed in a section above that I typically counsel against a student taking the patent bar examination during law school. Students have asked that I explain my reasons for that recommendation.

I estimate that in most cases the opportunity costs are too high. IP firms want great lawyers first, and great IP lawyers second. Law school uniquely provides opportunities for a wide range of experiences. I worry that for most students the effort required to take and pass the patent bar examination dilutes one's efforts toward keeping or raising one's grade point, or participating in the rich array of skill-building and outlook-broadening classes and activities.

Many students interested in IP have an engineering, scientific or technical background. These students often stand to gain more on average than the rest of their contemporaries from activities such as moot court, journal work, writing seminar papers, participating in clinics, and other lawyering skills activities. By "gain" I mean building skills, knowledge and capabilities that are less likely to be strong when one's educational trajectory has been technical or scientific. For most students, I would much rather see a person improve her writing skills by taking some advanced legal research and writing classes along with writing seminar papers than have that person take the patent bar examination. There are many other similar examples of better alternative activity.

In addition, there is the matter of grades. While empirically one's class rank is unlikely to change significantly during the 2L and 3L years, sometimes improvements can be had. Grades are not the ultimate measure of your value as a professional, they are just a poor proxy that some use around the time you graduate from law school. But because of this use, one should apply strenuous scrutiny to activity that eliminates the opportunity to hold or improve one's grades without countervailing skill-building. On the other hand, the patent bar examination allows one to acquire knowledge of the procedure for patent prosecution. But this knowledge can be obtained after law school. The lawyering skill experiences available in law school cannot.

There is also a risk calculus - not everyone passes the patent bar the first time. To have spent the time to study and not pass means you have no resume credential for the effort. Time spent on lawyering skills activities will yield an absolute benefit if you put something into it, regardless of the grade earned if the activity is a law school course.

There are some arguments in favor of taking the patent bar examination during law school. I will discuss those that I have heard. As a preamble, however, in my assessment these arguments create only a very small number of instances where it makes sense to take the examination during law school. For students who are one hundred percent certain all that they ever want to do as a lawyer is prosecute patents, and it is clear they will obtain a job doing so, then I have less concern - so long as the student is truly sure about her future. The problem, of course, is that the student has given up flexibility, and will have a narrower range of future career options than might otherwise be possible. Nonetheless, the "all patent prosecution all the time" strategy is a rational one and supports taking the patent bar while in law school.

Another argument I have heard is that law firms like students to have passed the patent bar examination before graduating. Perhaps some do. I am certain, however, that their first priority is to hire great lawyers first, and great IP lawyers second. Thus, once you convince a law firm you are the former, they usually have confidence that you can become the latter if you are patent bar eligible. A related argument is that it is too difficult to meet billable hours at a firm while studying for the patent bar. This is truly a challenge, one that I went through. But this discomfort must be balanced against the lost-forever opportunity of the things you forego during law school in order to take the patent bar examination then.

A final argument I will address is that taking and passing the patent bar examination helps one get a job. This is the strongest argument, and is especially applicable to 3Ls who don't have as much time to partake of law school's lawyering skill-building experiences. Thus, your strongest resume as a 3L is one showing you have developed general lawyering skills. But, if you are near the end of your law school experience, those opportunities are past, and the job market is causing you difficulty, it might make sense to take and pass the examination during your last semester if you find yourself jobless then.

A strategy related to the job search argument is to assess your eligibility to take the patent bar examination during your 1L year. Be very careful and exercise strong due diligence - but if you discover that you are "patent bar eligible" and you intend to practice IP law, put those statements on your resume.

In conclusion, the "patent bar question" is ultimately a personal choice that must consider, with truthful introspection, all of one's professional skills, experiences and capabilities. I intend my "don't take it" recommendation to disabuse IP-oriented students of the notion that the patent bar examination is a short-cut to a good job, or a way to avoid the other skill building necessary for great lawyering. It will never be that. It can be an asset in some instances, and will eventually be a credential you will earn if you want to prosecute patents. But consider the other wonderful things you could be doing in the unique environment of law school, and consider the long term benefits of those experiences to balance against the seemingly high-benefit short term positives of passing the patent bar exam.

Here are two firms who have a great outlook on marketing themselves and the job hunting process. Sorry, these are not Texas firms.
- This firm describes themselves as . . . well - just see for yourself - it's fun!
- This firm offers an on-line cartoon about interviewing at law firms!