US Patent and Trademark Office Reviews

Pros

Having been a VP and other high positions at Morgan Stanley, Lehman and Bloomberg, I sincerely regret not having joined the PTO earlier in life. The PTO allows me to manage my own work on my own schedule with absolutely NO office politics. This, I believe, is the ideal job. Oh and I can work from home, from any state, permanently.

Cons

The work can be repetitive at times. Some attorney's can be pretty annoying but that's part of the job. Also, there is no team work involved so you do have to go out of your way to interact with others at the office.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the great work. I would like if management communicated with examiners more frequently and asked us for our input before implementing major changes.

Pros

Compensation
Benefits
Technology support
Flexibility
New office facilities
Excellent exercise facilities

Cons

No social interaction
Mundane work
No continuing education
No tuition reimbursement

Advice to Senior Management

Need to provide more time for patent review, reduce quota system

Pros

Stable job and reasonable compensation. Being mediocre is probably the best approach to survive in the first several years as a junior patent examiner. After becoming a primary examiner, you are left alone. If someone likes to become a patent prosecution attorney, it is a great opportunity to learn how the patent office operates.

Cons

Grossly mis-managed and corrupted. Don't be overly surprised if anything serious wrong happens to you. Don't expect integrity and honesty from management. There are good supervisors. But there are so many bad supervisors and the whole office culture has long been polluted.

Advice to Senior Management

The Office needs to train the supervisors and improve their managerial skills. The Office should give more freedom to examiners who actually examine cases, so that they would have some level of liberty to choose their supervisors. If a supervisor could not keep his examiners, he/she should be delegated to examination again, and if he/she still could not perform, he/she should be fired!

Pros

benefit of govt employment is good. however, they haven't come through with helping my continuing education and the work is only ok...

Cons

most people work at home. that's great for them...but some like to come into the office to others...just isn't the place for that

Advice to Senior Management

they need to plan better. things need to have a true benefit...don't just put something on the schedule...funding it with millions of dollars...when it really results in minor, if any, improvement.

Pros

I am currently working from home, spending more time with my wife, two kids (soon to be three), and 0 miles of commute. It took me about 4 years to get to this point (could be faster). In terms of work, you get to research some interesting subject matter. This is a great long term position or a next step to become a patent attorney. I have a great supervisor who I am able to work with and provides valuable insight.

Cons

I came in with a group of other new hires, of those who were in my class, about half already left, the rest, half are working from home and only a handful remain in the office. It is a very solitary job that requires a lot of reading and analytical thinking. If you don't like solitary confinement, then this job probably isn't for you.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide examiners with more flexibility in terms of growth. Perhaps allocate money for further education, ie. masters/law school. Provide examiners with more training when necessary.

Pros

Decent pay, flexible hours, work from home

Cons

Managers have very little experience, almost no one with real-world engineering experience, management doesn't trust employees

Advice to Senior Management

Respect junior examiners' decisions when they want to allow a patent application. Don't keep forcing us to come up with more and more references as the applicants add more claim limitations. Appoint managers from outside the patent office (e.g., patent attorneys) to get more balance into the system.

Pros

very stable job, with great upward mobility and benefits.

Cons

You SPE is your Lord. If he/she is an a-hole you will fail. No if and buts.

Advice to Senior Management

give examiners the options to choose between different a.u. or fields.

Pros

The job gives full autonomy which can be a double-edged sword depending on one's personality and work ethic. If you can motivate yourself and stick to a routine, you'll love it here. If you need someone to constantly tell you what to do and watch over you, you will probably fail quickly. Excellent pay and benefits.

Cons

There is a never ending quota system that really becomes overwhelming at times. The worst aspect in my opinion is dealing with attorneys who will argue everything and anything at every chance they get.

Advice to Senior Management

I am not sure how to makes thing better because if I did, I would have shared it with the management personally.

Pros

The salary is very good. Getting promoted is based on the examiner meeting office production requirements, balance worklife, and work recognition

Cons

Environment is very stressful, moving up is base on your supervisor and/or higher level examiner even after being in the office for few years.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue supporting the examiner you supervise, making the office a great place to work and be respectful to his interpretations of the work

Pros

Great benefit, very flexible working schedule, high salary

Cons

This is not your typical easy to do government job. It all comes down to production, forget about what your Supervisor say about quality and customer satisfication. I heard many stories from other examiners that the only time people get fired is because people couldn't meet the production. Of course, production varies depending on which art you are examining, some are easy, some are hard, so opinion can vary depending on 2 things: Type of art you are examining and your supervisor.

If you are planning to become patent attorney, it is good to work at PTO for a year or 2, as many legal office love people with PTO experience. However, if you plan to go back to the engineering industry, it is better to leave sooner than later, since the skill you learned from the PTO will most likely not appreciated by the engineering industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Compare to other patent office around the world, we are working way too hard. It would be great if we move to the european system. Also, abandoned case that gets revived should have a different count system.