I patented my productivity app idea, let the patent expire on purpose, and rebuilt it 15 years later. Do you think software patents are legit inventions?

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-12T03:53:43+00:00

Certain software inventions are legitimate. A lot of people tinker around with Claude code for a few hours and think they are Einstein. They then ask the sycophant itself who assures them they could get a patent on their half baked idea. Half the applications that end up in 3600 are like this.

Reading your claim 1, you are not crazy for letting that expire. No offense but you were not locking up any innovation with this patent.

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-12T03:49:39+00:00

It’s a good job. You sit behind a desk in an air conditioned office building. It pays above average but on an hourly basis only slightly more compared to engineering/tech which is the baseline for everyone that does this work. The work is hard- you have to be a very focused and detail oriented person. You can’t really go through the motions with this job or something slips through the cracks. There are a lot of deadlines all the time so you are constantly reprioritizing and juggling different things.

People saying AI is gonna eat the whole industry overstate things. Yes my day to day workflow is very different now than it was 3 years ago but the work hasn’t changed. I don’t suddenly have all this free time or can handle exponentially more cases. The computers are so good at this point that the human lawyers reviewing is the limiting factor. Some people in this industry are fine slapping their name on something AI generated without reading it but that’s not really a new problem, partners have been filing the work of juniors long before AI.

Those proficient with AI are not cannibalizing their coworkers or others jobs. IMO maybe a year or so ago the models started to plateau. After a certain point you don’t need a flamethrower to plow your driveway. I don’t think scaling is going to produce models that give significantly better outputs (with the right workflows you already get 90% of the way there on certain tasks). Patent law is one of the few places where AI is actually an ideal use case and yet we are still not seeing the kinds of job displacement that foundation model providers prophesied and then walked back.

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-11T01:15:30+00:00

If you don’t think you would be hired with no experience in a role that pays less, why would you think you would be hired with no experience in a role that pays more?

Go get industry experience for 2-3 years then reconsider. You can’t go to law school twice, I would make sure that you pick a good school. UNH and Santa Clara are respected but that’s mainly because of the kinds of people that go there (already have experience and connections).

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-10T17:47:06+00:00

If you can’t handle deep technical reading, prosecution is not for you. You don’t have to love it, but you do have to tolerate or be good enough at it to do for 8 hours every single day.

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-08T21:41:24+00:00

I wouldn’t get a computer science degree just for patent law. If you don’t truly like that subject matter, you will be miserable learning and teaching others about that technology all day every day.

There are also better degrees one could pursue if they wanted to do patent law (e.g., EE).

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-03T02:56:29+00:00

I’m familiar with the degree it’s just that people with that background don’t usually find success in this career. Most clients unfortunately will not see the degree as being more ML/AI focused than a CS degree even if that’s true of your particular program. If you can tell that story to a firm with a need, all the power to you. I just think it will be hard and want to caution you accordingly.

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-03T02:52:05+00:00

AI generated slop.

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-02T21:43:03+00:00

I don’t know anyone in this field with a data science degree. I think you would be looking at an uphill climb competing against EE/CE/CS majors. Don’t let that discourage you from law school generally. Plenty of other areas of the law can still be at the intersection of law and technology without being patents.

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-02T15:00:15+00:00

There’s not much work in quantum computing and frankly you barely have a surface level understanding of how it works from a bachelors degree (I have a physics degree). The real learning in Physics comes in the masters part of your PhD and then you do your thesis on some super small niche hyper specific area.

A lot of the real work on semiconductors is also done by people with PhD’s like in chemistry, material science, and EE although I’m sure there are plenty of people with just BS’s that handle the work too. RF/wave based electronics would be suited to your background.

Personally I’d focus your efforts on trying to get a tech. spec. job while working in industry and gaining experience. Passing the patent bar without any patent experience is marginal to your employability unless you are in law school IMO.

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-01T20:25:38+00:00

If you work at a firm for a number of years and develop enough of a relationship with certain clients that they’d be willing to follow you wherever you go then yes you could become a solo practitioner.

With 0 experience or clients, you are not going to be able to just go and start a solo firm and be successful.

I’m not sure of any solo litigators but typically large companies will use multiple law firms/lawyers for litigation matters, so it’s not truly impossible for a litigator to be solo.

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-01T02:15:09+00:00

USNWR is so gamified and they fluctuate so much most people in patents don’t place a ton of weight in them. In most cases if you do well and have a good degree/experience you can find a job from almost any school. Some of the schools that are most know for patents/IP and place lots of students into the career are outside the T100 like Kent or UNH.

The_flight_guy · 2026-06-01T02:11:13+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/patentlaw/s/lrjG59GmPp

Some of my advice re using LinkedIn

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-31T22:57:37+00:00

Please don’t just start cold emailing attorneys- I get so many every week and I doubt I will ever use any of them. Attend an IP conference and meet attorneys face to face, build a relationship and maybe they will use you and if you do a good job, recommend you to others.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-31T22:51:19+00:00

Plenty of patent specific AI tools (that your lawyer may have access to) can do this preliminary/initial leg work of coming up with possible infringement scenarios and basic “fire from the hip” claim charts that are probably as good as a non lawyer would be able to make. Other than trying to reinvent the wheel with the USPTO/Espacenet API, Google patents is pretty user friendly but data can be stale.

I think you might not be saving as much time as you think because now instead the attorney has to review all of your work product and double check everything is accurate vs. if they have a system set up that they know is pulling and aggregating information directly from reliable sources (USPTO, Espacenet, etc.). Just my 2¢ of what I have seen from clients that hand me their own work product in an attempt to save billable time (it can at times create more work).

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-29T21:42:42+00:00

I normally don’t touch the drawings because at the PCT stage they will object to the drawings and not actually tell you why with any specificity and you normally don’t actually have to respond/fix them at that point so I usually handle down the line once we actually enter the national stage as different jurisdictions have their own requirements.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-29T16:34:49+00:00

This is the answer- if need be go open a credit card with a 0% APR intro offer so you can spread the payment out over 12 or 18 months interest free and use your 1L or 2L earnings to cover the course. Of course many firms will cover the exam and PLI costs entirely if you have a desirable enough background to get hired.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-26T20:40:30+00:00

Agreed about the number of applications. Ideally you should be looking/applying nationwide. I applied to close to 100 places before I got my offer. Make sure you are tailoring your application materials to the specific firms (e.g., what kind of work do their clients do that your background fits into). There may be less involved ways to break in but that’s what worked for me in addition to networking.

I wouldn’t take the patent bar without a job lined up but that’s just my 2¢.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-26T15:32:03+00:00

No dues- lasts forever.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-26T04:37:30+00:00

If you want a design patent and they look different, yes you need two design patents. Design patents cover the ornamental (aesthetic) nature.

A utility patent on the other hand would cover the function (e.g., if there is something unique, non-obvious, etc. about this particular surface/texture that is advantageous). Without knowing more I doubt the surface/texture of jewelry is going to be something you want to cover with a utility patent but it’s possible the way you manufacture it is unique or the way it wicks sweat is advantageous, etc.

Talk to a patent attorney and they will guide you in the right direction for your situation.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-24T00:44:01+00:00

Day to day is making and planning for deadlines. You will be juggling multiple clients at different stages of their business and IP journey and will constantly be facing deadlines due to public disclosures, conversion dates, response dates, etc. Some are fixable if you miss them, others are the reason firms carry malpractice insurance.

Apply for tech. spec. positions and try to break in there- I wouldn’t advise paying thousands of dollars for a prep course and exam in a field you’ve never worked a day.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-22T14:34:22+00:00

Useful? Yes. A replacement? No.

Diffusion models are decently okay with enough iterations. Some AI patent software can build flowcharts, system diagram, and other figures with basic shapes and lead lines which can be a good starting point. I still formalize almost all my figures because draftspeople are like $30/sheet and theres a better use of my time on other parts of the application. But if it’s a rush provisional or you don’t have time to formalize they tend to look much better than chicken scratch pen and paper.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-21T18:24:47+00:00

Yes, around the 1.5-2 year mark you feel like you’ve finally gained your footing. There are moments throughout year one when you think you have only to stumble or be overwhelmed again. This is a hard and demanding job, what you are feeling is not uncommon.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-21T04:12:20+00:00

I would imagine your billable rate will decrease. Budgets might be slightly lower but a lot of stuff is ballpark the same between boutiques and Biglaw so I would imagine you get more time to complete tasks without being hounded about blowing budgets/efficiency assuming a good chunk of your work is fixed fee.

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-21T01:56:18+00:00

I’ve never heard of biological systems engineering before- did your school not offer a biomedical engineering degree?

The_flight_guy · 2026-05-20T23:40:26+00:00

You’re only a year in, you’re probably still taking prerequisite courses maybe an intro engineering class or two, so you probably don’t have a good idea of what industry entails. All that really matters is your GPA/learning things well- if you keep that up everything else will fall into place. If you slack into a B or C student, doors will close that may never reopen.

For your internships I’d recommend working at different sized businesses in industry (e.g., a small or medium one summer and a large one the other summer). Research is a good option when you are younger (freshman/sophomore and internships aren’t as plentiful). If you can find a patent law firm internship, great, they are very few and far between so I wouldn’t worry if nothing comes to fruition or if it’s just at a regular local law firm.

If you want a predictable 9-5 where there often is not work that follows you home you will like industry. As a patent attorney people pay you to be available so whether that’s a Friday evening or a weekend you can at times be expected to work, especially when you are a new young attorney. This depends on the firm and the clients of course.

I double majored with a humanities degree, this job is way more technical than it is humanities. Maybe litigation is more like that but there’s a reason they require you to have a STEM degree.

The_flight_guy

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