Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University has announced that it has launched a new one-year Masters in Patent Practice program.
According to Case, the new program is designed to prepare students for careers as patent agents, without the time investment of a three-year JD program.
The program will cover a range of curriculum related to patent law and intellectual property law. Courses in the new program include "Commercialization & IP Management," "Patent Preparation & Drafting," and a "Claim Drafting Lab," among others.
A patent agent is somebody who has passed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) patent bar exam. Unlike patent attorneys, patent agents do not have to pass a state bar exam. They can work for law firms, in a legal department of a startup, or practice as solo practitioners.
Although the Case program is the first of its kind in Ohio, other schools elsewhere offer similar programs. Colorado Law, for instance, offers a one-year Master of Studies in Law with a focus on patent law. Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Conner College of Law and University of Notre Dame Law School also offer one-year patent law programs.
And in the UK, the University of Oxford offers a vocational course in "Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice," which is a one-year program delivered on a part-time basis.
To apply for the new Case program, interested candidates must be eligible to sit for the patent bar. This generally requires a background in a technical field like the physical or biological sciences, engineering, or computer science background.
For foreign-trained patent lawyers who work in IP, Case also offers an LL.M. program in Intellectual Property Law.
Applications for the new program are now being accepted; it will begin in the fall.
More information:
- For more information, please see Case's Masters in Patent Practice program webpage.
- Read about the eligibility requirements to sit for the patent bar on the USPTO's website.
- You can also read more about Case's LL.M. programs on the school's full profile at LLM Guide.
Image: Denacipriano / Creative Commons (cropped, rotated)
