I studied for an MChem with a year in industry at the University of Reading, followed by a PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry at the University of Southampton and throughout that time there was always this perception that the career path was either a lab-based career or academia. So, I always assumed that was what my career would be and after I finished my PhD I did indeed work in industry for around 3 years.

I’d used patents as part of my research but I hadn’t really thought about how a patent gets granted. I found out about the Patent Examiner job from a friend who was training to be an Attorney. I’m not sure it had occurred to me that it was a possible career for me before that, and I feel really lucky to have stumbled across it.

I started working at the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) with a big group of other new examiners. I was a bit worried that they’d all be new graduates and I’d be making a career change, but actually it was a really diverse group of ages and backgrounds. There was no expectation that I knew any patent law when I started, and the initial in-house training course was very comprehensive, including a variety of classroom learning, workshops and tutorials. It was a great way to start a new career as it was a really supportive (and fun!) learning environment.

The best part of my job is the variety, I get to work on completely different inventions from one day to the next, often from the front line of research and innovation. The IPO gives me opportunities to do work outside of examining patents too, I am now manager of the initial training course for new examiners. Managing the initial training course is a very diverse role and it allows me to really contribute to making new examiners feel welcome at the IPO and help get their career here off to the best possible start. So, check out the role of Patent Examiner and perhaps I’ll see you in our next initial training course!

Patent Examiner / UK Intellectual Property Office

Last Updated: October 30, 2024