Anja’s day in the life when she was a Trainee
The job involves a wide variety of different tasks. This keeps the job interesting because each day is different and you really don’t know what might crop up! Below, I’ve tried to give a flavour of some of the types of tasks that turned up in a day in my life as a Trainee.
“My interest in Intellectual Property was sparked during my academic studies, and deepened when I encountered patent applications during my doctoral research. I was captivated by the intricate language used to describe technological concepts within patents. For me, the profession represents the ideal fusion of technology and law, ensuring a diverse and intellectually stimulating environment. As a patent attorney, I stand at the forefront of innovation, to support my clients in protecting their amazing creative ideas"
When I was a Trainee, a typical day begun with checking and sending emails. This is still a typical start into the day as I am a qualified patent attorney now. For example, I could have sent a draft patent application to a client after it had been reviewed and approved by my principal. Additionally, I might have conducted a final check of past paper exam answers in preparation for an upcoming in-house tutorial I was scheduled to attend. Once reviewed, I sent them to the qualified Attorney in the firm who was conducting the tutorial.
Next, I might have been wrapping up preparing a response to the European Patent Office for a large multinational client, a task that I might have started the previous day. In such a response, I may have needed to address several objections against our patent application and persuade the examiner that the invention was both novel and non-obvious. Responding to an examiner often feels like engaging in a meticulously polite debate, which I typically found and still find satisfying due to my enjoyment of a good argument.
My principal and I might have had a scheduled video call with a new client who wanted to apply for a patent to protect their new product. During the call, for example, the client could have explained how their product worked, and we normally asked numerous questions to thoroughly understand the invention and determine the best approach for protection. Afterwards, my principal and I usually discussed the call and begun drafting some claims, a process that typically involved several rounds of iteration to accurately define the client’s invention and the potential scope of patent protection.
My principal might have forwarded me an email from a client with inquiries about licensing law and the rights of exclusive licensees. To respond, I may have needed to refresh my memory, so I sometimes had to spent some time consulting various online legal resources before composing my reply.
I might have spent some time with my principal going over the response I had been working on earlier in the day. There may have been a couple of places where my principal suggested some changes to make before we sent a draft of the response to the client. However, my principal always explained them to me so that I could learn and understand the legal principles behind. While the amount of time spent reviewing my work, and the extent of changes suggested by my principal decreased as I gained experience, there was still some progress to be made and exams to pass before my work could be sent out without oversight from someone more experienced.
I may have spent the last hour beginning to draft a patent application based on the earlier client call and the claims my principal and I had formulated. Then, I would have wrapped up for the day.