Extras · 1 of 4

A typical day

On the patent side you spend the morning with an inventor, getting them to explain what they built and, harder, what is genuinely new about it. Then hours of drafting: claims that are broad enough to be worth having and narrow enough to survive. Afternoons bring office actions, the examiner's written rejections, which you answer by arguing and amending. Trademark days look different: searches to see whether a name is free, filings, and letters to companies using something too close to a client's brand. Litigation weeks are a different job entirely, and they eat evenings.