Explain why you decided to pursue a career in this profession.

Mine is a standard story; I had not particularly enjoyed the laboratory environment I experienced at university and felt my skills lay outside of the lab, but still within the life sciences. I had experienced patents during an internship in a biotech company and, after some research, found that the career of a patent attorney appealed to me.

What I enjoy is that you are constantly intellectually stimulated, while providing a service necessary for innovation.

Give a bit of background of your qualifications and any training you have completed.

After graduating from Durham University with a BSc in Biological Sciences, I joined Sagittarius IP in November 2023 as a trainee attorney in the Cambridge office. I am currently part-qualified, having completed the Intellectual Property Law PGCert at Queen Mary University of London, and being in the first cohort to sit (and pass) the foundation module of the reformed EQEs. While the exams are integral to qualification, your day-to-day tasks are more reflective of the practice of an attorney and exposes you to tasks that exams cannot test, such as good client and deadline management.

Explain what your current role involves.

The work is varied in both the technology area and the task. One morning you may be working on a response to a patent office communication regarding cell reprogramming, and that afternoon helping conduct an antibody freedom to operate search. Sagittarius excels at involving trainees in all work, including oppositions and appeals, one of which I attended in Munich during my first year of training. The highest volume of work is prosecution-based, i.e. getting a patent application to grant, which involves liaising with the client and the patent office. You have to be aware of the prior art, prosecution history and the client’s interests to develop a strategy.  Each communication is a good chance to revisit relevant articles, rules and/or case law, to refresh your knowledge and to help support your arguments. Attorneys at Sagittarius are very good at providing detailed feedback on any completed work, which provides learning opportunities.

Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to enter the profession?

Patent law bridges science, law and business, so make sure you give attention to all three in your application. Make sure that your application documents are proofread multiple times by yourself and somebody else – when you spend a long time on something it’s easier to miss errors, but the hiring team will not!

Because competition is high, persistence is key. You should not take rejections personally but ask for feedback on how to improve and incorporate this into your next application.

Becoming a patent attorney is a demanding process that requires hard work and dedication over multiple years, so make sure you are in a firm that has good exam support. Sagittarius is hands on with exam preparation, offering tutorials and external courses to set you up in the best way for exam success.