A CAREER IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

A lawyer practicing in intellectual property law can look forward to a very diverse range of work. There is the planning of protection before the creation of an intellectual property asset, the registration of various intellectual property rights, the exploitation of intellectual property rights and in some cases litigation to protect intellectual property rights.

The value of intellectual property has become better recognised and in some cases, may even be used as security for raising funds. In turn, this has led to better planning of the creation and protection of intellectual property assets and more resources being committed to the protection of these assets.

Your potential clients may range from a hobby artist to a major international luxury goods manufacturer, from a teenage computer hacker to a multinational pharmaceutical company.

Many commercial transactions have intellectual property issues to be considered and it is often an area that is ignored by management and poorly documented. The intellectual property lawyer.s job is often that of detective, piecing together who created what, when and under which terms and conditions.

For those of you that have a background in science, engineering or other technical fields, you may choose to specialise in a particular area, for example by becoming a patent attorney so you can combine your other areas of interest and knowledge with your legal career. You can obtain more information about becoming a patent attorney from the Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia. s website www.ipta.com.au. To check the qualifications required to become a patent attorney, you can obtain information from the Professional Standards Board for Patent and Trade Marks Attorneys. website www.psb.gov.au.

For the legal philosophers amongst you, the age old feud between protection for intellectual property owners and the common good rages on. The recent discussion of patent protection for pharmaceuticals restricting access for cheaper generic drugs into the Australian market is an example of this debate.

Having worked in this field for in excess of ten years, I highly recommend it to new practitioners. It is an area that has undergone and will continue to undergo rapid development, so if you want a career in which you will continue to be faced with new and interesting scenarios, intellectual property law would be a good choice.

STEVE WHITE
WHITE SW COMPUTER LAW
AUGUST 2004 www.computerlaw.com.au © White SW Computer Law 2004 This article is a guide only and should not be used as a substitute for proper legal advice, readers should make their own enquiries and seek appropriate legal advice.